Posts tagged Disability

Challenges providers face in delivering disability supports to remote Indigenous communities

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 27.05.22 (HireUp): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are twice as likely to experience disability, and more likely to experience increased barriers to accessing disability supports compared to non-indigenous Australians. In this first of the three articles, Indigenous service providers share the many challenges they face in delivering disability services and supports to their communities in remote, regional and rural areas.

“Many people in rural and remote Indigenous communities still do not know about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and its role and functions in disability care,” says William Tatipata, Managing Director of Xtremecare Australia, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disability service. “We begin with making them aware of the scheme [how to apply and obtain a disability assessment] and then educating them on the supports and services the scheme offers.”

Tatipata says, “Our people are confused around what services and supports are covered by ‘health’ and what falls under the NDIS. If a diabetic person requires a new diabetes monitor, for example, it is covered by ‘health’. But if the participant’s motor skills are impaired, the NDIS will fund the monitor following a functionality assessment by an occupational therapist.”

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Include assistive aids in universal health care: UN report

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 17.05.2022 (SciDev.Net): Almost one billion children and adults with disabilities, and older people, are unable to access the assistive technology they need, according to a UN report, which calls for more investment in these life-changing products.

Access to assistive technologies such as glasses, hearing aids, mobility or communication devices is as low as three per cent in some low-and middle-income countries, according to the report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), launched on 16 May.

It says more than 3.5 billion people will need one or more assistive products by 2050 due to population ageing and the increase in incidence of non-communicable diseases. At present, the figure is 2.5 billion.

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Aboriginal-driven research is a must for Indigenous say in disability policy, says John Gilroy

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 04.01.2021 (Hireup): Aboriginal-owned and driven research is essential to enable Indigenous people to have a voice in disability policy, says John Gilroy, a Koori man from the Yuin nation. His lived experience of growing up with a significant speech impediment, linked to a chronic respiratory condition, has made him a passionate advocate of Aboriginal and disability rights.

He recommends the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) should invest more resources into building and up-skilling the current National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) planning workforce and the Aboriginal community-controlled services sector.

“The NDIS is built on a white fella capitalist viewpoint of purchasing services and working on for-profit market-based philosophies. This goes against the grain of how many Aboriginal people want to engage with services and supports relating to their disabilities or being carers of people with a disability,” says Gilroy, associate professor and deputy director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research at the University of Sydney.

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