Opposition response to calls for Royal Commission

In response to continued lobbying from the disability community:

Federal Labor calls for royal commission into institutional abuse of people with a disability

Alexandra Beech, ABC News, 26 May 2017
Federal Labor is calling for a royal commission into the abuse of people with a disability. 

It comes after a Senate inquiry recommended establishing a royal commission into the disability sector in November 2015. 

The co-chief executive of People With Disability Australia, Matthew Bowden, has welcomed Labor's announcement, saying violence against people with a disability was at "epidemic levels" ...

Labor pledges royal commission on abuse of people with disabilities

Amy Remeikis, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 2017

... Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor would lobby the Turnbull government to establish a commission on violence and neglect in the disability services sector, and make it a priority if elected.

A joint Senate committee, set up in 2015 in response to growing concerns and media coverage of failures and abuse within the system, recommended a royal commission be established to help bring about change ...

Call for Royal Commission into abuse of people with disability

Inclusion Australia, 26 May 2017 (Endorsed by NSW Council for Intellectual Disability)

“As a woman with an intellectual disability, I can say that abuse from people who were supposed to be caring for me has had a very bad long term impact on my life”, says Heather Forsyth.

Ms Forsyth is Inclusion Australia’s Our Voice Chairperson and knows first-hand the devastating impact abuse and violence against people with disability has on lives.

Inclusion Australia and its member organisations are supporting the call for a Royal Commission into the abuse of people with disability. And pressure is mounting for the Government to step up and do the same, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services Jenny Macklin, today also calling for a Royal Commission into the abuse of people with disability.

What your local MP can do now about Deadly Disability Discrimination

The Advocacy Team at NSW Council for Intellectual Disability is calling for community follow up action to last month's Parliamentary Forum on the Deadly Cost of Disability Discrimination in the NSW health service for people with intellectual disability:

Michael Sullivan (Chair NSW CID), Fiona McKenzie
(Vice Chair NSW CID) and NSW Minister for Disability
Services, Hon Ray Williams

We thank both the Minister for Disability Services, Hon Ray Williams, and the Shadow Minister for Disability Services, Hon Sophie Cotsis, for both speaking at the Forum.

We have told all NSW MPs:

• Almost 40% of people with intellectual disability are dying from preventable deaths in NSW
• People with intellectual disability are dying on average 27 years younger than the general population
• Ignorance, inadequate training and discrimination within our health services are key reasons this is happening

Now we have an urgent request for our MPs: 

The NSW Government’s Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) agency runs specialist health care services. These services help people with intellectual disability get the specialist health services they need. However instead of maintaining and expanding these services, the NSW Government is slowly closing them down.

Next year ADHC itself will close down and the money ADHC uses to fund these services will go to the NDIS.

We believe NSW Health should take responsibility for funding these services from next year, but so far Health Minister Brad Hazzard has been silent on this issue. The health outcomes are already bad for many people with intellectual disability. Closing down these services will make them worse. We need a commitment from all MPs that they will strongly advocate for NSW Health to maintain and expand these ADHC specialist health services.

Please help us keep up the pressure and take the following actions: 

• Phone, email and arrange to meet your local MP, tell them about the unacceptable high number of preventable deaths for people with intellectual disability, and ask them to support the maintenance and expansion of these important ADHC specialist health services.

• Phone and email the Minister for Health Hon Brad Hazzard and the Shadow Minister for Health Hon Walt Secord and ask for their commitment to the ongoing funding of the maintenance and expansion of these ADHC specialist health services.

You can find a guide to emailing and phoning MPs and all their contact details in this blog about the parliamentary forum. 

If you need help in preparing for your meeting with your local MP we can run a workshop for you and your family, friends and colleagues either face to face or remotely. Contact us at advocacy@nswcid.org.au

We will have the videos from the Parliamentary Forum available to view shortly. In the meantime we ask you to contact your local MPs and help us end Deadly Disability Discrimination.

NSW CID End of Financial Year packages

NSW Council for Intellectual Disability offers a range of expert services to organisations:

With the end of the financial year rapidly approaching, now is the time to put the remainder of your hard-won budget to good use. NSW CID is offering some great value EOFY packages that will help your organisation be more inclusive and accessible. What better use is there than that?

Need Easy Read materials? Keen to offer more learning opportunities for people with intellectual disability? Wondering how to make your organisation more inclusive? Want to invest in training for your staff? We can help you achieve all of this and more with the expertise of people with intellectual disability, our skilled trainers, facilitators, designers and easy read gurus.

View flyer for more information here or contact our Business Development Manager Tymon Kennedy to book today.

New blog post from NSW Council for Intellectual Disability

Even less choice: the latest on the ADHC transfer of services 
NSW CID e-News, April 2017

People living in Ageing, Disability and Home Care group homes across the state and their families are dismayed at losing the small amount of influence they were promised in determining their new service provider.

They were originally told they would be presented with a shortlist and consulted about which provider they would prefer take over their group home.

Instead, they have been asked to choose from a shortlist of only one provider. As far as short lists go, that’s a very short list.

Read the full blog post here.

NSW parliamentary forum on health discrimination

Call to action from NSW Council for Intellectual Disability:

 Help us strike while the iron is hot to keep disability health in the political spotlight. 

Thanks to your support we have been able to organise a Parliamentary Forum, which will focus on the very high rates of preventable deaths for people with intellectual disability. The forum will be held on Friday 31 March at 12 noon in Parliament House.

The Minister for Disability Services, Hon Raymond Williams will address the forum, as will the Shadow Ministers for Health and Disability.

Your local MP has received an invitation, but we need your voice to ensure they attend the event. The more politicians we have there, the more pressure there will be on the government to act. 

The event is little more than a week away, so we need you to phone or email them right now, to lock it into their calendar. 

• Guide to how you can contact your MP 

NSW disability sector news

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability, 6 March 2017

Did you know the NSW Government has no plans to fund state based advocacy services beyond the middle of 2018?

This includes services like IDRS, Disability Advocacy NSW and NSW CID.

An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, has highlighted the risks people with intellectual disability will be faced with once advocacy services are no longer available ...

• NSW support services facing funding cut in NDIS transition, Kelsey Munro, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 2017

Benevolent Society to Take Over NSW Govt Disability Support Services
Lina Caneva, Probono Australia News, 2 March 2017
Australia’s oldest charity, The Benevolent Society, has been chosen to operate the NSW government’s specialist disability support services – described as Australia’s largest provider of clinical services for people with disability.

The major win for the charity will see the organisation double its workforce and operations.

The NSW Minister for Disability Services Ray Williams made the announcement of the new provider for disability clinical services (which are currently part of the NSW Department of Family and Community Services) on Thursday ...

... Clinical services comprises staff who are case managers, psychologists, behaviour support practitioners, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists working in multidisciplinary teams ...

Clickability

Clickability is an Australian disability service directory that features ratings and reviews from the people who actually use the services.It's expansion into NSW was announced on 1 March 2017.

The website includes a blog that aims to 'to encourage discussion and debate about important disability-related issues within the community.'

Open letter to Minister Williams, from people with intellectual disability

On his first day as Minister of Disability Services, NSW Council for Intellectual Disability Members have written Minister Williams a letter. You can read or listen to their letter on the NSW CID blog:

Dear Minister Williams, 

Today is the first day of Parliament for 2017 and you will commence in your new role as Minister of Disability Services. This is a very important position as you are now responsible for defending and upholding the human rights of all people with intellectual disability in NSW. 

The NSW Council for Intellectual Disabilities (NSW CID) asks that you make a commitment to listen to people with an intellectual disability. Really listen and take the time to do this. 

Today you will also be met with protestors outside Parliament, angry about the way the NSW Government is undertaking the transfer of disability services to the non government sector and concerned about the quality of care that people with disability will receive in the future ...

Will you speak up on mental health?

People with intellectual disability have been left out of the draft National Mental Health Plan
NSW Council for Intellectual Disability (blog), 30 November 2016
With more than 150,000 Australians with intellectual disability experiencing mental health disorders yet having poor access to health care, it is not good enough!

Right now you can have your say about this. Will you help make sure people with intellectual disability can get the mental health care they need?

Send an email to health Minister Sussan Ley today and let her know that mental health matters to people with intellectual disability ... read more here for a sample letter, and further information from NSW CID on how you can promote this effort.

Speak up series: Michael Sullivan tackles abuse and neglect
NSW Council for Intellectual Disability (blog), 29 November 2016
"I know saying good and ordinary sounds like they don’t go together, but they do. People with intellectual disability just want a good ordinary life, like anybody else."Last week our Chairperson, Michael Sullivan, was the key note speaker at the Ombudsman Forum - Addressing the abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. Michael delivered an important and powerful speech and raised his voice to speak up on behalf of so many who haven’t been able to. As part of our Speak Up series we are featuring Michael's speech.

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability is 60!

The NSW peak body representing the interests of  people with all types of intellectual disability, the NSW Council on Intellectual Disability, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week - a major milestone.

'... we should acknowledge those people who 60 years ago saw the need
for the council' - Jeanette Moss, quoted in the anniversary announcement
on the NSW CID website.

We would like to join the congratulations and acknowledgement of this very substantial body of work, during a long period when attitudes and supports have evolved markedly.

Today, NSW CID is leader in inclusion and advocacy, including self-advocacy, working prominently in fields such as health, particularly advocating for mental health services for people with intellectual disability, and in both monitoring and promoting the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the interest of people with intellectual disability, and all aspects of inclusion.

• More about the birthday party and photos are on the NSW CID blog, here

Going to hospital: share your experience for research

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability is doing research for the NSW Government that you might like to take part in:

The NSW Government has asked us to interview people with intellectual disability who live in group homes about their experience being in hospital. 

Participants will be given a $75 gift card for their time. Lunch will be provided. We can interview the person where they live or at a place suitable to them. 

We can pay for the cost of a support worker identified by the participant if they request one to be present during the interviews. 

Click here to download the easy read information sheet.

World Mental Health Day: 10 October

Today, 10 October, is World Mental Health Day. NSW Council on Intellectual Disability on Facebook published a timely reminder of it's print resources on 5 October 2016:

Worried. Sad. Angry. Scared. Upset. 

We all have these feelings sometimes. If these feelings last 2 weeks or more or keep coming back it maybe a mental health issue. 

NSW CID has Mental Health Fact Sheets - good info and and great conversation starters around what can be a sensitive topic. 

Ask CID can also help with information and referral to Mental Health services 

Ph 1800 424 065 

Mental Health Day is near, so maybe it's time to check in on your Mental Health or the health of someone you know.

• NSW CID Health Fact Sheets can be downloaded here 

Down Syndrome NSW resources on mental health in people with Down syndrome

• Dennis McGuire’s Mental Wellness seminar now available online
• Mental Wellness in Adults with Down Syndrome, Dennis McGuire and Brian Chicoine, Woodbine House (DS NSW library collection)
• Down Syndrome: When to Worry about Mental Health and What to Do About It! A Guide for Parents and Care-Givers, Robin Friendlander and Peter Johnson (DS NSW library collection)

NSW Mental Health Commission: October is Mental Health Month

Mental Health Month NSW is part of a national mental health promotion campaign held throughout October each year. The timing of the campaign centres on World Mental Health Day, which is marked each year on October 10. 

For further information visit the Mental Health Association NSW website.

Conference program released

The program has been released for the two day conference Challenge, Change, Create to be hosted by NSW Council for Intellectual Disability, 14 - 15 September in Sydney.

Topics to be addressed include:

• supported decision making

• children

• the NDIS

• planning

• justice

• creating change

• health

• the ADHC transfer

• death and dying

• inclusion

• jobs

Registration is open

Local elections: easy read voting guide from NSW CID

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability provides an impressive range of information and resources about the broad functioning of our communities for the benefit of people with intellectual disability, much of it through social media channels, making it readily available. Inclusion at work.

In case you are not following NSW CID on Facebook (and we would recommend that you do if you use Facebook), here is their helpful message  about the September NSW local council elections:

Did you know that many local Councils are going to an election on 10 September 2016? 

NSW CID has produced the following Easy Read guide for the NSW Electoral Commission. 

• You can download the guide on this link  

Councils that were not amalgamated will go to an election on 10 September 2016. 

Councils that were amalgamated go to an election in 2017.

Get More Skills Workshops - for people with intellectual disability

From NSW CID e-news, July 2016:
NSW Council on Intellectual Disability has been running groups for people with disability to help them prepare for the NDIS, make change in their community and meet new people. They are excited to be running two new groups starting in the next month and would love you to come along and be part of them. The details of the groups are below, and if you would like to come, please contact Brandon on 1800 424 065 or email brandon@nswcid.org.au

South West Sydney NetworkMeets at Revesby Workers Club on the last Wednesday of every month. Open to anyone with disability and co-facilitated by a CID member. Download flyer here.

Ballina and Wagga Wagga Networks
Contact Brandon for further details.

Food is provided at each meeting and they are a great way to make some new connections and get ready for the changes that are happening with NDIS roll out.

Challenge, Change, Create: registration now open

Latest information on the NSW Council on Intellectual Disability 2016 annual conference:

• Preview of speakers
• Click here to download the registration form. 
• Find out more about the conference on the NSW CID blog here.

14-15 September 2016  -  Pyrmont

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability - updated commentary on NSW services transfer

Transfer of NSW government disability services to the non-government sector

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability, 30 May 2016
NSW CID and other major organisations released a position statement in May spelling out what we see as needed if the NSW Government’s process for tendering out its services is going to work satisfactorily for people with disability and their families ...

Also in May, ADHC released its call for expressions of interest from service providers wishing to tender for ADHC services.

NSW CID welcomes that this information is now available and that the tender aims to continue at least to 2018 a range of very important services for people with complex needs, for example the Statewide Behaviour Intervention Service. We are pressing the NDIA the urgency of it having a clear plan for meeting complex needs including maintaining the role of services like SBIS.

We are very concerned about some of the NSW government's plans including the large size of the groupings of services that will be tendered out ... read on here.

Joint statement on ADHC transfer

From NSW Council for Intellectual Disability (CID), Facebook post:

Together with our colleagues from Family Advocacy, NCOSS and Carers NSW, CID has today released a Joint Position Statement outlining concerns with the transfer process ... Next week we meet with ADHC representatives to discuss these recommendations and we will keep you updated on our progress.

Joint Position Statement - ADHC Transfer

NSW Council for Intellectual Disability Council, 6 May 2016

We are very concerned that the NSW Government’s process for transition out of service provision is based on ADHC choosing a person’s new service provider rather than that choice being made by people with disability with support as appropriate from their families and other advocates.

However, we are now focusing on recommendations that we can make aimed at the Government’s process including maximum input by people with disability and their families and achieving important goals such as a diverse market of service providers, meeting complex needs and maintenance of vital ADHC services that will not be continued by the National Disability Insurance Agency ... read the full statement and recommendations here, on the NSW CID website.

Governments and disability in the news this week ...

New disability commissioner on the way

Nine News via AAP 28 April 2016
The federal government has gazumped a Labor policy by moving to appoint a new disability discrimination commissioner.

Federal cabinet has agreed to appoint a full-time commissioner to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, reversing a 2014 decision to abolish the role, which was absorbed into the age discrimination commissioner's job ...

Disability Program Review Calls for Public Input

ProBono Australia News, 27 April 2016
The federal government is asking Not for Profits to provide input into the review of the National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) to ensure the organisation meets the needs of people with disabilities.

The NDAP funds agencies that provide advocacy services to people with disabilities.

The government said the review is part of an ongoing process of improvement ahead of the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Assistant Minister for Disability Services Jane Prentice said that the NDAP has been largely unchanged since it was introduced in the 1980s ...

ADHC Transfer Update
NSW Council for Intellectual Disability via Facebook, 28 April 2016

Minister for Disability Services, John Ajaka has announced today details of the expression of interest process for the transfer of ADHC services to the NGO sector in the 14 page document, Specialist Disability Services PreEOI Release

Director of Advocacy at CID Aine Healy has said that ... 

"CID is pleased to see some more details on the transfer process, this has been a very stressful time for people with disability and their families." 

However, with our initial review of the process some questions remain –

• We appreciate that people will have some choice, albeit limited, in choosing their future providers – but what happens if people with disability and where required their families or carers do not like any of the providers short listed in their area?

• What happens if the market does not provide? This is a particular concern for people with complex needs and there needs to be assurance that their needs will be met.

• Properties will be leased to service providers, but who will retain ownership of these? How will the conflict of interest be managed of a service provider being both an accommodation provider and a support provider?

• Will people with disability or their representatives be involved in the first phase of the EOI selection process?

• Who will provide independent oversight of the transfer process? Where will people with disability and their families receive independent information from during this process?

CID will continue to review the EOI documents and process and provide a more detailed report shortly.

CID would ike to hear from you - what are your thoughts? Are you happy with this process? Do you have any concerns?

• Contact details for NSW Council for Intellectual Disability

Health advocacy: NSW CID

NSW CID advocates off to
Canberra this week

Dennis McGuire's speaking tour  (Sydney, Newcastle) next month is an indication of the importance of knowledge about and attention to mental health for people with Down syndrome, and the interaction of mental and physical health.

The NSW Council for Intellectual Disability (our State peak body on the interests of people with intellectual disability) has long been a strong and active advocate for all aspects of health care for people with intellectual disability. Representatives are currently in Canberra for two days of meetings where they are seeking a commitment that:

All major Commonwealth physical and mental health initiatives will include specific consideration of what needs to happen to make them work for people with intellectual disability.

NSW CID is asking that supporters of these efforts share their Facebook status dated 19 April 2016 to spread awareness of the need for their health advocacy at Federal level.

Visit the NSW CID website to see what else they do to secure and promote good healthcare for people with intellectual disability, under the 'What We Do' tab.

Speak Out Reach Out vacancy

NSW Council on Intellectual Disability is recruiting:

Speak Out Reach Out (SORO) group is looking for new members to advise NSW CID on issues affecting people with intellectual disability. 

SORO works on the big issues through consultations, forums and writing submissions. The group is well supported by a NSW CID Participation Worker and is a great chance for people to learn self advocacy skills and get advisory group experience in a friendly environment. 

Contact info@nswcid.org.au for more information.