Cultural divide that locks Indigenous people out of key NDIS supports

21/06/2022 0 Comments read Disability, Indigenous, NDIS

Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation NDIS youth group clients. Photo Credit: © Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.06.2022 (Hireup): For most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability, the NDIS remains riddled with hurdles that make getting on to the scheme and navigating it difficult.

That’s according to Indigenous disability service providers, including Shanelle Beazley, sector development coordinator at Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation, which services the Sutherland and St. George areas in New South Wales. She says the NDIS requires sufficient evidence to be satisfied the person needs disability support. For most Indigenous people, getting that evidence is the most challenging part of navigating this scheme.

“Most Aboriginal families have sufficient paperwork acknowledging their disability, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or psycho-social disabilities — bi-polar or schizophrenia, but they lack documentation detailing its impact on their everyday lives to satisfy the NDIS,” Beazley adds.

Continue reading →

The omnipresence of Omicron as we usher in 2022

02/01/2022 7 Comments read Features

Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

The incisive eyes of a Powerful Owl were staring at me from the last page of the wall calendar. The days had melted into weeks and then months. 2021 had begun on a note of optimism, ignited by a promise of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, but that ray of hope has been eclipsed by the lengthening shadow of new mutations.

A more transmissible mutation — the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant is surging unhindered as we usher in another year of living with SARS-CoV-2. The omnipresence of Omicron has dimmed New Year festivities and disrupted family reunions, just as we were hoping life would return to some form of normalcy.

Globally, on an average one million new coronavirus cases are being recorded daily. Public health systems have been stretched to a breaking point. Doctors, nurses, medical laboratory professionals, pharmacists, scientists and the innumerable health professionals have spent most part of their waking hours over the past two years helping the world cope with the pandemic.

Continue reading →

Teach Indigenous disability units to change attitudes, says Scott Avery

14/12/2021 0 Comments read Disability, Indigenous, NDIS

Dr Scott Avery. Photo Credit: Supplied.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 14.12.2021 (Hireup): It was not until his mid-teens that Scott Avery was diagnosed with profound hearing impairment. He now uses a Cochlear implant and tried accessing the NDIS a few years ago, but was bogged down by the complexities and peculiarities of the scheme.

“I had to complete a Hearing Handicap Audit and basically disable myself to prove how “handicapped” I was by my hearing. This was too demeaning so I gave up after a few months,” says Avery, who is from the Worimi country in New South Wales.

He says, “I just wanted to talk with an Aboriginal person for my eligibility assessment because the `medical model of disability’ thinks we are all broken. It’s a modus operandi of `we’ll just fix you’ for a lot of government systems. This has a negative impact on people’s social and emotional well-being.”

Continue reading →