[PDFlist] Aboriginal people with disabilities and their families need our support

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 Aboriginal people with disabilities and their families need our support

There’s a real danger that without services respecting their culture our
mob won’t get access to all the opportunities the NDIS provides

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Joseph Archibald <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/joseph-archibald>for
IndigenousX

Thu 10 May 2018 02.12 BSTLast modified on Thu 17 May 2018 07.29 BST

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<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/aboriginal-people-with-disabilities-and-their-families-need-our-support#comments>
[image: ‘Every day Indigenous families enter the NDIS system and service
marketplace, many with little support and knowledge of what to do and where
to go’]
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/aboriginal-people-with-disabilities-and-their-families-need-our-support#img-1>
 ‘Every day Indigenous families enter the NDIS system and service
marketplace, many with little support and knowledge of what to do and where
to go’ Photograph: Joseph Archibald

Before I worked in the sector, I didn’t know much about disabilities and
felt it had little to no relevance to my personal life. How wrong I was. I
have been a carer for immediate and extended family and have grown up
around family members with disability, but as in many of our Indigenous
communities across the country, care and acceptance were our cultural norm
and labels were not required.

The question of how much of a difference access to quality formal
disability supports could have made to the lives of my family members with
disability, as well as our lives as carers, is more relevant now then ever.
We need solutions to ensure that all Aboriginal people and their families
have access to quality disability services that respect their culture and
meet their needs.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) boasts some pretty
impressive statistics
<https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/pc-news/pc-news-august-2017/ndis-costs>,
including the largest social reform since Medicare, increased funding in
the sector from about $8bn per year to $22bn in 2019-20, and providing
supports to about 475,000 people.

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In 2014 the Australian government commenced rolling out the NDIS. But
Aboriginal participation in the new scheme remains unacceptably low. This
means that despite increases in the funding available, there is a real
danger that without culturally appropriate services, supports and pathways
the Aboriginal community will not get access to all of the opportunities
that the NDIS represents.
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Daily our mob lives with the impacts of disability more than any other
section of the Australian population: almost half of our Indigenous
population <http://fpdn.org.au/> aged 15 years and over live with
disability or a restrictive long-term health condition and experience
disability at more than twice the rate of the general Australian population
which increases further with the inclusion of psychosocial disability
(mental health).

Research and statistics demonstrate the overwhelmingly adverse
intersectional impact of being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and
having disability across a range of wellbeing and social indicators
including health, educational attainment, employment participation,
personal safety and exposure to the out of home care and criminal justice
systems. Indigenous youth in juvenile detention are recorded
<https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/research-brief-24-final-31-8-17.pdf>
 as having very high rates of significant intellectual disabilities or
mental health conditions.

Aboriginal people living with disability, their carers and families need
our support. Every day Indigenous families enter the NDIS system and
service marketplace, many with little support and knowledge of what to do
and where to go. This will continue as the NDIS evolves and adapts its
generic approach, after having already acknowledged more culturally
appropriate strategies and pathways are needed to create equity.

There are cohorts of participants for which supply shortages are high-risk
due to the increased cost of service provision and limited availability of
workforce, including those who: are in outer regional, remote or very
remote areas; have complex needs; are from culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds; are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians;
or have acute care needs such as in crisis situations.”

For those who have knowledge of the NDIS space you don’t have to look hard
to identify the significant risks in becoming a participant or service
provider within an evolving scheme. Acknowledging NDIS is a tough market
and costs are yet to reflect the “high risk” and specialist service
delivery required to achieve effective outcomes, so it is essential to
identify what you do well.

We need culturally appropriate services with sustainable models that can
compete in the NDIS open market and be around for our communities for the
long term.

Seek to collaborate with existing culturally appropriate services. Our mob
still requires a lot of advocacy in the disability space, and services
cannot meaningfully address the needs of Aboriginal communities alone.
Adopting models that work closely with Aboriginal families and local
partner organisations is important, such as our partnership with Galambila
Aboriginal Health <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/health> Services.
It complements existing strengths and services pathways to provide
comprehensive care coordination across disability, primary health and
allied health services. We know that isolating disabilities from our other
services does not work in achieving the positive engagement and outcomes
for overall health and wellbeing of our communities.

Historically culture and community supports have been excluded from formal
disability service provision, but the right supports and services can
empower our families to maintain community and culture in services as much
as possible.

At Windaan we have made a commitment to weather the storm of NDIS service
delivery and seek out partners where our values and vision align. This
allows our Indigenous communities to receive services they’re entitled to
and deserve.

• Guardian Australia is proud to partner with IndigenousX
<http://indigenousx.com.au/> to showcase the diversity of Indigenous
peoples and opinions from around the country.

• Comments on this article have been pre-moderated to ensure the discussion
is on the topics that have been written about in the article.
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