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Aboriginal Disability
Network
Active Employment
Australian Foundation for the
Disabled
Aged-Care Rights Service
Combined Pensioners and
Superannuants Association
Care-n-Co. Co-operative Ltd
Council for Intellectual
Disability
DAISI
Deaf Blind Association
IDEAS
Liverpool Fairfield Disabled Persons
Resource Service
Macarthur Disability Services
Mental Health Co-ordinating
Council
Muscular Dystrophy Association of
NSW
Paraquad
people with disability australia
St George Association for People
With Physical Disabilities
Stroke NSW
The Spina Bifida Group of
NSW
Wesley Mission Disability Support
Services
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Monday, 5th April
2004
Hon Morris Iemma
MLA
Minister for Health
Level 30 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Dear
Minister,
Programme of
Appliances for Disabled People
(PADP)
I am writing to you
on behalf of the 33 agencies listed below
about the Programme of Appliances for
Disabled People (PADP). As you may know,
recent discussions have renewed progress
on the agenda for reform of the programme.
We welcome that renewed
commitment.
We appreciate the
recent opportunities to discuss the
programme with officials from your own
Office and that of the Minister for
Disability Services. I am sure that those
discussions played an important role in
moving forward the agenda for
reform.
It was gratifying to
note at the most recent meeting of the
PADP Advisory Committee that agreement was
reached on almost all of the key areas of
current debate.
- We were pleased
to note that the proposal to
re-structure the Advisory Committee had
been re-considered following
representations from
stakeholders.
- We welcomed
confirmation by NSW Health that the new
PAPD Information System will be trialed
from May 2004.
- We congratulated
the Department on its announcement that
the new PADP Equipment List has been
approved and will become operational as
soon as the required Circular is
issued.
- We were
encouraged to note the commitment to
advance work before the next Advisory
Committee meeting (June 2004) on two
critical areas: a prescriber's guide
and development of an assessment
prioritisation tool.
Progress in the
above is essential to the reform of
policy, management and administration of
PADP. At the recent Advisory Committee
meeting our representatives re-affirmed
our commitment to contributing positively
to its work.
We have decided to
write to you now, however, because we fear
that budget constraints and
under-investment in PADP have the
potential to undermine and work against
the reforms we are all committed to
achieving. We believe that by investing in
appropriate and necessary equipment for
people with disability the NSW Government
can meet the needs of individuals and
avoid greater expense elsewhere in the
State's service systems, not least in its
health services.
We understand that
every stakeholder, including the NSW
Government, accepts that there are
substantial and growing levels of unmet
need for equipment. We have been given
indications from around the State that
those levels probably mean the budget for
equipment provided through PADP needs to
increase to about $30 Million.
The benefits to
people with disability of an adequately
funded PADP are clear: better health
management, improved mobility and
sustained and/or greater independence
often resulting in less need for direct
assistance from immediate family, friends
and/or paid personal care workers. The
result is greater social inclusion of
individuals.
But it is not just
people with disability directly affected
by unmet need for PADP services that will
benefit. People who are healthier and
participating more equitably in their
communities are less likely to use other
health and/or social services. They are
more likely to be net contributors to the
community at large rather than passive
recipients of services. In those
circumstances, everyone benefits.
Independence gained through equipment also
frees up other people who might otherwise
need to provide assistance to the person
with disability.
We believe that the
State Government, across the whole of
government, would be a net beneficiary of
increased investment in PADP. People with
disability would be less likely to make
avoidable demands now, and in the future,
on health, allied health, disability
specialist or other generic service
systems.
Our agencies work
with people with disability and their
associates every day. We understand the
constraints within which their lives
operate. There is strong evidence that the
investment made over the past five years
by your Government in PADP has had
positive outcomes for people with
disability. We are deeply concerned that
progress may cease with the 2004/2005
Budget. We have no doubt that there would
be a false economy if a commitment to
staged enhancement of the PADP budget were
to be abandoned, even
temporarily.
On behalf of the
signatory organisations, therefore, I urge
you in the strongest possible terms to
continue to increase investment in PADP.
We believe the Government should make
significant budget enhancements this year
and in future years to move towards
allocations that will eradicate unmet
need. We do not expect that to occur
overnight. Nevertheless, we believe it to
be critically important that progress be
made in all the Budgets to come during
this third term of the Carr Government's
stewardship of the State.
Yours sincerely,
David Brice
PDCN President
ON BEHALF OF THE
FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS
- Ability
Options
- Aboriginal
Disability Network
- Action for
People with Disabilities
- Active
Employment
- Allowance
Inc
- ACROD
- Australian
Foundation for the Disabled
(AFFORD)
- Aged-Care Rights
Service
- Arthritis
NSW
- Combined
Pensioners and Superannuants
Association
- Care-n-Co.
Co-operative Ltd
- Council for
Intellectual Disability
- DAISI
- Deaf Blind
Association
- Family
Advocacy
- IDEAS
- Independence
(Rural Disability Network)
- Independent
Rehabilitation Supplies Association of
NSW
- Liverpool
Fairfield Disabled Persons Resource
Service
- Macarthur
Disability Services
- Mental Health
Co-ordinating Council
- Multicultural
Disability Advocacy
Association
- MS Society
NSW
- Muscular
Dystrophy Association of
NSW
- Northcott
- Paraquad
- People With
Disability Australia
- Physical
Disability Council of NSW
- Post Polio
Network
- St George
Association for People With Physical
Disabilities
- Spinal Cord
Injuries Australia
- Stroke
NSW
- The Spastic
Centre
- The Spina Bifida
Group of NSW
- Wesley Mission
Disability Support Services
- Western Sydney
Intellectual Disability Support
Group
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