CONTENTS
Welcome to 2006
Office reorganisation
New staff
Modus operandi
Media release
Forum re access to voting
Personal Care
Parliament resumes
Women's Network
Employment opportunities
1. Welcome to 2006
Happy new year and best
wishes for all of 2006 and beyond.
This year promises to be one of the
most exciting and productive years in PDCN's history.
How's that? I hear you ask. Well, read on and learn about
our new office layout, our new staff and the way we will
be operating on all the issues of importance to people
with physical disability - PADP, personal care,
transport, voting, education, etc. The advocacy network
is to be reinvigorated, and we are planning to introduce
some new ways of assisting people with physical
disability to improve their lot.
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2. Office reorganisation
Our Executive Officer, Robyn
Chapman, seized the opportunity presented by the festive
season to reorganise our office. She was assisted by
Sharon Maher and Craig Andrews. Anastassia Chechoukova
and Holly Stewart (from RAPS, located up the hall) also
lent a big hand. Robyn now uses the old store room as her
office which provides more room in the main office for
our staff and volunteers, including the women's network.
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3. New staff
We have two new staff -
Lachlan Hazelton, who has commenced duty as our media
officer and Jordana Goodman, who will commence on 31st
January as our project officer.
Lachlan has cerebral palsy, a
background in radio and a BA in
communications.
Jordana uses a wheelchair and comes
to us from Warringah Council where she was the Disability
Development Officer. Jordana has a degree in Adult
Education and an Associate Diploma in Rehab
Counselling.
Welcome to both of you - we trust
that your time with PDCN will be enjoyable and
rewarding.
4. Modus operandi
Robyn has given considerable
thought to how the Office should function to support the
committee of management and the membership in
general.
Robyn plans to divide
responsibility for interest areas between herself and
Jordana (while retaining ultimate responsibility for all
activities).
As well as assuming overall
responsibility for managing PDCN, Robyn plans to manage
our activities on PADP, building access, and personal
care, while Jordana will have responsibility for
transport, employment, education and
accommodation.
However, these responsibilities are
not set in stone but may vary as needs
determine.
Disability
Sector Website Management and Outreach?
Organisations
who would be interested in having their website
regularly maintained and updated on a weekly or daily
basis - please contact Robyn Chapman, Executive
Officer of PDCN ph (02) 9552 1606 or email
pdcnsw@pdcnsw.org.au
5. Media release
PDCN has released a statement
deploring the actions of Westfield Fountain Gate (Vic)
staff. Read it here http://www.pdcnsw.org.au/media/mr/06/0119.html
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6. Forum re access to
voting
The State Electoral Office
has released a discussion paper on access to voting and
will be holding several forums to seek feedback on its
paper.
http://www.pdcnsw.org.au/publish/06/nswseo.html
PDCN plans to submit a written
response (in addition to attending a forum) and is
hosting its own forum to prepare our response.
Details of the PDCN forum
are:
Venue: St Helen's
Community Centre, 184 Glebe Point Road Glebe
Date: Tuesday 14 February 2006
Time: 2.00 to 4.00pm.
Please make the time to attend this
forum as we are very concerned that the State Electoral
Office is not seriously or enthusiastically pursuing full
access to voting, but instead looking for excuses as to
why full access cannot be provided.
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7. Personal Care
One of our members had the
following experience late in 2005 with the Home Care
Service of NSW. This member relies on Home Care for
assistance both each morning and evening - without the
assistance, our member cannot get out of, or into bed,
nor can she use the toilet or have a shower.
Approximately one week prior to
Christmas Day, our member was informed by Home Care that
they had no suitable attendant for the evening of
Christmas Day. Home Care did offer a male attendant who
was unknown to our member (who is a woman) and who was
therefore considered unsuitable (the attendant would need
to be given keys to the house). There is extreme doubt
that Home Care made every effort to secure an alternative
attendant - particularly in light of the fact that our
member had trained no less than 11 attendants over the
past year, any of whom would have been
suitable.
In desperation, our member
contacted her local doctor. As a favour, the doctor came
to our member's home and provided assistance.
Our member was then advised that no
attendant was available for New Year's Eve.
At this point our member contacted
radio station 2GB and was interviewed by Luke Bona. Her
story generated significant discussion, much of which
missed the point and instead focussed on Home Care
services (like house cleaning) for older
people.
Nevertheless the Home Care did find
an attendant for New Year's Eve.
No person who relies on a service
for personal care should ever be put in this
position.
PDCN would like to hear your story
if you have had poor personal care experiences - from any
provider, not just from Home Care.
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8. Parliament resumes
The NSW Parliament resumes on
28th February 2006.
On this day we are holding rally at
parliament house to draw attention to the lack of
services for people with physical disability.
So, please put the date in your
diary. We will be in touch in the next week or so with
details of times and locations and of course the theme
for the day.
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9. Women's Network
The NSW Network of
Women with a Disability, which is supported by
PDCN, were successful in obtaining a grant from the City
of Sydney Council for the development of a Pregnancy and
Parenting resource. The network is asking parents with a
disability, who know of valuable resources that will
assist others, to fill out the resource form, to be found
on our website at http://www.pdcnsw.org.au/women/05/pregnancy.html
The ANZ project is also underway,
with the appointment of Kerri Thorne and Cathie Phoeda as
the Project Officers. The funding for this project is
held with our partners, MDAA.
Welcome to Kerri and Cathie to the
PDCN office.
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10. Employment
opportunities
Disability Services
Australia may be able to find you a job - either
at a supported employment site (see below) or in open
employment.
The sites offering supported
employment are:
- Redfern
- Braemar
- Castle Hill
- Bankstown
For further information please call
Disability Employment Services directly on (02)
9396-7912
PDCN Forum
Are you in NSW with a physical disability?
The PDCN Forum is our online
email group where people with a physical disability in
NSW, Australia and ideas come together.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdcndiscussion/
St. Helen's Community Centre
Telephone (voice) 02 9552 1606
Telephone (TTY) 02 9552 1370
Fax 02 9552 4644
3/184 Glebe Point Road
Glebe NSW 2037
Web Site http://www.pdcnsw.org.au/
Email admin@pdcnsw.org.au
To subscribe or unsubscribe please let
us know by emailing PDCN at admin@pdcnsw.org.au
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