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13
March 2007
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Disability Services and
Ageing
Disability
Policy Summary | Ageing
Policy Summary
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FROM THE OFFICE
OF Andrew Constance
NSW Shadow Minister for Disability Services
NSW Shadow Minister for Ageing
DISABILITY
POLICY SUMMARY
Disability touches
the lives of nearly a million people in NSW,
either directly or as family members or
carers.
One in every 10 of us
provides support or direct care to some one with
a disability.
We all want to make
choices. We all want opportunities to create
valued relationships and we all want the ability
to build security for the future.
To have a disability in
NSW is to relinquish all of your important life
decisions to bureaucrats who will tell you what
services you may have, where you will get them,
who will provide them, and when you will get
them.
These services very often
determine where you will live, whom you will
live with and what recreations you will
enjoy.
A future Liberals
Nationals Government will aim to deliver
equality for all.
Almost every service in
the sector now operates under great pressure.
Respite services are sinking into crisis. One
third of respite beds are taken up by permanent
clients who have been relinquished by desperate
families who feel that they have no choice.
Families have no choice but make do with a
reduced level of respite.
Waiting lists for vital
services such as attended care and the high
needs pool are growing.
In 2005/06 there were
1,339 people were eligible for only 96 supported
accommodation places. That is 1,243 applicants
missed out. But the Government doesn’t keep
a waiting list. They don’t even publish
realistic statistics to enable the community to
benchmark the availability of services against
the prevailing demand.
Government statistics
suggest that at least one person with a
disability is assaulted every day in Government
funded group homes.
The devolution program and
the growth of supported accommodation have been
gridlocked by indecision about accommodation
models.
Over a thousand people are
receiving incredibly poor accommodation in some
licensed boarding houses because the Labor
Government won’t take the advice it paid
for to update the relevant legislation. There
are also an unknown number of people with
disabilities living without adequate support in
unlicensed boarding houses, which the government
ignores completely.
Disability services need
more resources. Clients and carers need greater
transparency, more flexibility and greater
choice.
Key Liberal/National
Initiatives:
Stronger Together
Funding
- A NSW Liberals
Nationals Government will deliver the
Stronger Together Funding on budget and on
time.
- This package will
provide $1.3 billion of new funding to
address the shortfall in respite, supported
accommodation and attendant care places
throughout NSW.
Assisting
Carers
- Ageing Carers
Network
The NSW Liberals/ Nationals will provide
$250,000 a year to support the development of
an Ageing Carers Network in New South
Wales.
The Ageing Carers Network will work to
formalise relationships between people with
disabilities, their carers and other members
of the community. Such a network will not
replace formal government services but work
to supplement this support by providing a
group of people who share a common concern
for the individual's welfare.
A network meets regularly and practically
members of these networks can advocate on the
individuals behalf, monitor other paid
services, act as an executor or trustee or
simply provide social support.
- Companion Card
The NSW Liberals/Nationals will introduce
a Companion Card to enable free entry for
carers onto transport, gymnasiums and
entertainment venues when they accompany
eligible people with disabilities to services
with participating providers. The Card will
be the same as the one that has been
developed in Victoria so that these rights
will be fully transferable across State
boundaries and the card will be issued free
of charge to people who are certified as
eligible by a medical practitioner.
Equipment
Needs
- Program of
Appliances for Disabled People (PADP) $52
Million
The NSW Liberals/ Nationals will increase
the funding for the PADP by $13 million a
year for four years. This will deliver vital
aids and equipment to those who need
assistance.
Accessing
Services
- Application
Procedures
The Liberals/Nationals will introduce a
simpler and more transparent application
procedure for eligible people with disability
who require a significant funded service from
the NSW Government.
In place of the confusing jumble of entry
points for funding and assistance, there will
be one obvious and accessible entry point
into the disability services system. Access
should be by a simpler and transparent
process that enables providers and clients to
know where they stand.
The current system has no transparent access
point or process to manage applications. The
NSW Ombudsman has criticised DADHC for the ad
hoc nature of this administration and
applicants are often turned away without
details being taken or stored.
In contrast to the Government, which refuses
to keep waiting lists this new application
procedure would create one. It will create a
system that is manageable and fair. Instead
of applying separately for each possible
vacancy, applicants should only have to apply
once.
Details of the number of applications and the
number of applicants will be published
annually. The Minister will be obliged to
make a presentation to Cabinet every year
outlining the circumstances of those who just
missed out on funding due to limited
resources. This happens in Western Australia
and it is no surprise that new resources for
additional supported accommodation places and
attended care packages are allocated every
year.
- Local Area
Co-ordinators
The NSW Liberals/Nationals will expand
and enhance the Local Area Coordination
scheme to address the lack of disability
services in NSW. Local Area Coordinators are
not case managers. They will not be in DADHC
offices. They will be located in the
community in shopping centres, arcades and
community halls, where they are visible and
accessible.
Local Area Coordinators assist people with
disability to access formal and informal
support in their own local communities. They
enable them to live independent, positive
lives.
Communities are the best source of support to
any person regardless of whether or not they
have a disability. Local Area Coordinators
will assist people with disabilities and
their carers to access these informal and
free community supports.
They will also offer ongoing advice about
government and private services and be
available for as long as they are needed.
While not an extensive list, the sorts of
services they can provide to people with
disability and their families include:
- Help a person with
disability leave home and find links to
services in their local
community.
- Help a family
moving to a new suburb get in touch with
local support networks.
- Helping parents
develop an action plan for a child’s
smooth transition into school.
- Link a young person
into sport and recreational
activities.
- Help a family
caring for a person with disability
respond to a crisis.
- Develop parent or
carers support group.
- Provide a small
cash grant to help a family overcome a
temporary setback or develop a skill to
enhance their capacity to cope
independently.
Local Area Coordinators will be there to
assist struggling families so that they
are not alone and unsupported.
- Country Services
Directorate
People with disabilities living in rural
areas of NSW do not have the same access to
specialist services that people can access in
metropolitan areas. Increasing numbers of
people from rural areas who have disabilities
are choosing to access mainstream services in
the community rather than specialist
disability service providers because they
have no other choice.
The Liberals/Nationals will establish a
Country Services Directorate within the
Department of Disability Ageing and Home Care
to coordinate health services for people with
disabilities in rural and regional areas.
A specialised country disability directorate
can work to educate doctors, and other
mainstream health professionals such as
dentists, occupational and speech therapists
in rural and remote areas to design and adapt
health services so that they can
appropriately meet the particular needs of
people with disability.
The kinds of professionals who would be
involved in this directorate include health
information coordinators, therapists, general
practitioners, hospital liaison officers, and
training officers.
A team like this would be a particular help
to families caring for children and young
people with autism. These specialists would
be available to work with and train school
teachers, speech pathologists, occupational
therapists and physiotherapists in the
particular development needs of children with
autism and other disabilities.
A country services directorate will work to
increase the number of health professionals
in rural or remote areas who are able to
assist and treat people with disabilities and
compliment the services provided by Local
Area Coordinators.
AGEING
POLICY SUMMARY
NSW NEEDS AN
AGEING PLAN
A NSW
Liberal/Nationals Government will
immediately sign up to developing a whole
of Government approach, consulting with
all stakeholders and finalising an ageing
service delivery plan within the first
three months of attaining office.
Unlike Labor the NSW
Liberal/Nationals are committed to
developing a whole of government strategy
on ageing.
Retirees are
increasingly government service dependent
with health care facilities in particular
put under increasing pressure to meet
demand. We need a pro-active plan in NSW
to manage the changing population
demographics, particularly in the
Hunter/Central Coast and the North and
South Coasts.
The number of
Australians aged 70 or over will double
over the next 20 years and it is therefore
important we develop a comprehensive
approach to State Government service
delivery to cater for these demographic
changes.
A Fairer Go for
Self-Funded Retirees
The NSW
Liberal/Nationals Coalition will provide
an annual NSW Seniors Concession Allowance
of $300 a year to single self-funded
retirees or $600 for couples who are
holders of the Commonwealth Seniors Health
Card.
The NSW Seniors
Concession Allowance will assist eligible
self-funded retirees to meet a number of
government fees, costs and charges for
which pensioners receive concessions,
including private motor vehicle
registration, electricity bills and
council rates.
Improving the
Standards of Dental Health in NSW
A NSW
Liberal/Nationals Coalition Government
will implement a comprehensive plan to
dramatically cut dental waiting lists,
attract and build expertise within the
public system and provide better education
on dental health.
It has been
estimated that there are now 215,000
people on unpublished waiting lists for
public dental care. The NSW Coalition will
provide the resources needed to bring NSW
in line with other states and address the
serious deficiencies that have developed
as a result of neglect by NSW Labor over
nearly twelve years.
We will invest an
additional $208.25 million for dental
health over four years to reduce waiting
lists by providing more dentists in the
public dental health system.
Bringing Country
Doctors Back
The NSW
Liberal/Nationals Coalition has developed
an Action Plan to breathe life back into
country NSW health care and increase the
number of country doctors and other health
professionals.
We will reverse more
than twelve years of under investment and
neglect from the Labor Government and
invest $53 million on a range of
initiatives to get more doctors into
regional and rural NSW.
Removing the
CountryLink Pensioner Booking
Fees
Many elderly
people live far away from children,
grandchildren, friends and medical
services and CountryLink is often the only
available public transport option.
A NSW
Liberal/Nationals Coalition Government
will abolish Labor’s unfair
CountryLink booking fee for pensioners to
make country public transport more
affordable.
Rescuing the Health
System
In addition to
the health policies outlined above, the
NSW Coalition is committed to getting
resources to the frontline of our
hospitals and health system, especially
nurses to improve health care services.
Major commitments already
announced include:
Implementing
our ‘Getting Nurses Back’
Package
Nurses are the
backbone of public hospitals. We will
invest an additional $207.8 million to
improve training, support and working
conditions for nurses so we can retain
existing nurses, fill the existing 1200
vacancies and recruit an additional 500
nurses.
Boost mental health
services
Implement our
$396 million mental health package to
provide an additional 400 mental health
places and 150 more caseworkers, the
rebuilding of Callan Park Hospital at
Rozelle, and boosting support for
community mental health services.
Reduce health
bureaucracy through District Health Boards
We will
replace Labor’s bureaucratic and
centralised Area Health Services with
District Health Boards to return power to
local level, and introduce clinical
institutes and specialist administrative
units to support local hospitals.
Greater choice and
assistance for isolated
communities
We will boost
the Isolated Patients’ Travel and
Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS)
so country people suffering cancer and
other serious illnesses are able to choose
their place of specialist treatment.
RECOGNISING THE
CONTRIBUTION OF OLDER AUSTRALIANS
The NSW Liberals/
Nationals have announced a policy to
encourage older Australians to mentor young
people in our public schools as part of a
broader policy package providing recognition
for the contribution of older Australians in
NSW.
The ‘Mentors in
Schools’ program will develop a network
of volunteer community mentors across NSW
prepared to make a regular commitment to high
school students who wish to learn about a
particular subject or hobby:
- Mentors will be
encouraged to offer guidance and support
in hobby activities, cultural interests,
and special academic subjects;
- A small
co-ordinating team will be established
within existing resources in the
Department of Education to establish the
necessary database and manage information
and promotion; and,
- The database will
bring together interested
‘mentors’ and the subjects and
hobbies they wish to share – with a
register of schools and students who want
to be involved.
$280,000 will be
allocated to promotional materials such as
brochures, a website, and information to
volunteer community groups, hobby
associations and university
alumni.
The program will build
on formal and informal arrangements already
operating in some communities and schools,
including current successful programs offered
by the YWCA, welfare and church groups.
The program will be
purely of discretionary interest to students,
and not designed to satisfy any course
requirements, and will not add to curriculum
or teacher loads. Tele-mentoring could be
used to connect mentors and students in
remote locations.
The co-ordinating team
will establish necessary child-protection
measures with relevant agencies.
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this
page updated 13 March 2007
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The
Physical Disability Council of NSW Inc. is an
independent community-based organisation
providing
education, information, support and advocacy to
people with a physical disability in New South
Wales, Australia.
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