Why do we care about disability
There are about a billion people in the world living with disability. This constitutes about 15% of world population. Of those, 20% or almost 200 million, have significant disabilities. A significant disability (physical or mental) limits person’s functional ability to be employed for an extended period of time.
In this situation it is important to understand the role of disabled people in the society – how well they can integrate, and how well the society is able to support disability or, in fact, benefit from the contribution the disabled people are able to make.
Disability care in Sydney
If you live in Sydney, chances are you can access a few disability-friendly premises and events, organised by Sydney City Council, which provides useful information on inclusiveness, strategic direction and disability support services on it’s website. It also has developed strategic action plan for disability care, consisting of 4 directions:
- Positive community attitudes and behaviours towards people with disability and their carers;
- Liveable communities for people with disability and carers;
- Meaningful employment of people with disability and carers;
- Equitable access to mainstream services for people with disability.
City of Sydney council compiles a selection of disability-inclusive events as part of it’s community support services program.
Community support services
Family and Community Services is another useful resource for disability support services and disability care in NSW. However many of it’s disability services will be replaced with NDIS.
Other significant disability support programs and services in the community are:
Australian Disability Parking Scheme
Employment for People with Disability
The Australian Government initiative ensuring people with disability receive opportunities to reach their potential through participating in the community and the workforce.
National Disability Advocacy Program
Australian Disability Enterprises
National Disability Conference Initiative
Enable eligible conference organisers to support the attendance of people with disability at disability-focused conferences.
Innovative funding ideas from the private sector that will help people with disability and their families’ access greater support and plan for the future.
Assistance to people with mental illness and their families and carers.
Better Start for Children with Disability initiative
Assists eligible children with developmental disabilities to access funding for early treatment, diagnostic and management services.
Disability Care
Disability support services are provided through a numerous disability service providers.
One of the essential community support services programs is the Home and Community Care (HACC) Program.
HACC is a program that provides disability support services in home or in the local community. The following community support services are available through HACC:
- Centre-based day activities;
- Transport;
- Social support.
The following disability care is provided by HACC at home:
- Household work;
- Personal care;
- Home maintenance;
- Home modification;
The following disability support services can be provided by HACC both at home and in the community:
- Food services;
- Allied health services;
- Respite services;
- Support services for carers.
Disability support services
Lastly we discuss Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE). These are commercial and NFP (not for profit) entities that employ people with disabilities in a supported environment. There are approximately 20 thousand ADE in Australia. Work offered by ADEs includes a variety of tasks from simple gardening, packaging, cleaning and laundry services to assembly, printing and production. ADEs play important role in community support services and Australian Government is investing extensively in the scheme.
