We held two events yesterday - good ones, about the NDIS in the launch site in WA. It was run by WA advocates and supported by the Alliance to provide information and education in WA. But the events were markedly different - the day time session was heavily attended by service providers, who attacked the NDIA representative when she told them service providers could not attend their clients planning sessions in case they unduly influenced them to use their services (unless they were invited in, and they were encouraged to provide information to the agency at the persons request). I was heavily critical of this behaviour and reinforced the idea that the NDIS was about choice and control for the person with a disability. I didnt think I was being too harsh. At the end of the forum, we looked at the wall of great ideas. As well as some (real) great ideas, there were defensive and hurt comments from service providers protesting that they worked in the sector because they were good people, not just for the pay packet. As well as quite a few comments from caregivers saying that they needed a clothing allowance, superannuation and their own disability parking scheme. I should add that there were also insightful, thoughtful, and collaborative family members and agency representatives in the room - but their voices were drowned out by a few. That night, the audience was different. People werent paid to be there - they came of their own accord. Thats why we held a mini night time session - some people work, and people who wanted to be there came. There were still service providers, but a better representation of all three parts of our sector - service providers, carers and people with disability. At the conclusion of the first event, I was seriously upset. The biggest issue in WA was that agencies were upset that they couldnt go in and control peoples choices over who they chose for their supports? I read the wall...and then an agency staff member casually told me that he knew of a worker from another agency who had raped a client, who was moved on and is now working for another agency. Commonplace, it seems. The agency staff member was a good person who was seriously upset by this. But he also knows that workers rights mean that a serious incident report, if found to be unsupported by the lack of testimony from a vulnerable client, might mean an IR claim against their employer and a whole heap of heartache. The old story of rape and abuse being painted as an administrative error. By the night time forum, I was rejoicing in how awesome people in our sector are. The family members and disabled people attending the second forum were interested, respectful and incredibly generous with their time and information. They asked thoughtful and pertinent questions, and as a result the quality of information that came from the agency staff was massive - the event is transcripted and will be publicly available. The information will be crazily valuable to all of us in the sector. Including the providers, because we need a robust service sector in order to properly support people with disability. Abuse in institutional settings is often about power and control. Its about time we took that back into the hands of the people who disability support systems were designed for.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 02:40:40 +0000
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