The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations today condemned comments by Senator Pauline Hanson who suggested that children with disability should be removed from mainstream schools.
Senator Hanson told the Senate this morning that children with disability did not belong in mainstream classrooms because they were disruptive and, as a result, teachers spent too much time with them at the expense of other students.
Senator Hanson suggested that students with disability should instead be segregated in “special classrooms”.
The Hon Jane Prentice MP, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services has announced a new way to help those with autism access the services they need.
Mrs Prentice said collaboration between the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC) and National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) will help the autism community access more support.
The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) welcomes the Turnbull Government's commitment in tonight's budget to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
"The Government's announcement tonight gives peace of mind to people with disability that funding for the scheme is secure and it will continue to be rolled out as planned," said AFDO CEO, Mr Ross Joyce.
In the previous letter, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (known as A4) expressed concern that "the wording that Government uses appears to exclude autistic people from the Disability Support Pension" and asked whether that was the Government's intent.
A month ago, a NDIS planner in the ACT told a mother that the NDIA had "two publically available reports that the NDIS is using to avoid funding ABA therapies in kids aged 5 and above i.e. school-aged kids". The NDIS planner told the mother:
Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder (SOfASD), a local ASD advocacy group in the ACT, wrote to the ACT Minister for Education raising concerns about the lack if discernible progress with getting registered/certified behavioural service and support for autistic students in ACT schools. SOfASD asked for a meeting but the Minister's response ignored their request.
Previously, we said that the NDIS has substantial potential to improve the lives of autistic people. They may have access to more services and supports. They have more choice and control of the services and supports they access.
We thank you and Mr Russell de Burgh for your response (MC17-003466 on 28/3/2017) to A4's email, and especially for specifically answering the questions we asked.
The webpage your response refers to, https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/disability-support-pension, says (repeatedly) that people who are either "permanently blind" or " have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition" may be eligible for Disability Support Pension. We understand that people who to not satisfy this description are not eligible. This description of eligible people excludes most autistic people. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not regarded as a "psychiatric condition" even though the diagnostic criteria are described in the DSM-5, a manual of mental disorders. Current estimates suggest under 50% of autistic people have "intellectual impairment". ASD is not physical impairment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that in 2012, 73% of autistic Australians have severe or profound disability (limitations on core activities), so it would seem that a high proportion of autistic adults should be eligible for DSP.
Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4) supports AFDO and others in the disability sector ...
Media Release
The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) today joined calls from across the disability sector for a Royal Commission into the violence, abuse and neglect experienced by Australians with disability.
Please find attached correspondence from William Garton. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions in regards to this correspondence.
Kind Regards
Executive Assistant to William Garton,
General Manager – Access and Operations Management,
Participants and Planning National Disability Insurance Agency
Mr Bob Buckley
Convenor
Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4)
Dear Mr Buckley,
Thank you for your correspondence dated 2 February 2017.
A Telethon Kids Institute study has found children with disabilities are three times more likely to be maltreated compared to other children but that risk varies by type of disability.
Researchers analysed 524,534 children born in Western Australia between 1990-2010 for the study “Maltreatment Risk among Children with Disabilities”, published in the journal Pediatrics.
Overall, they found 4.6 per cent of all children had a maltreatment allegation.
A4 made a submission to the inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS into the provision of services under the NDIS for people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition.
A4 members have expressed concern about Centrelink’s Disability Support Pension (DSP) eligibility and processes. They commented that “the letter you get from Centrelink tells you nothing about where to find the criteria for how [Centrelink] judges in/out”.
A4 could not find clear descriptions on government websites (or elsewhere either) of:
The deaths of more than 700 Australian adults with an intellectual disability could have been avoided with more appropriate health care and monitoring, a UNSW study has revealed.
Research by UNSW has found that while Down syndrome itself doesn’t cause death, it is still coded that way in a flawed classification system. Photo: Shutterstock.
A total of 732 Australian adults with an intellectual disability died in NSW over six years, many from causes or conditions that could have been avoided with more appropriate health care and monitoring.
Families of young children with disability can continue accessing support and advice through the Australian Government’s early intervention programs until the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) reaches full scheme in 2019-20.
Having made no progress on this issue, here is a letter that I sent to the Prime Minister:
Dear Prime Minister
Since June 2016 I have been unable to access my son’s myPlace webpage via the myGov website.
I have raised this several times. Yesterday, I spent about 2 hours mostly on hold with the NDIA and the myGov helpline.
The NDIA said their system is working perfectly and that the problem is with the myGov website. The myGov help people check out their system and said the problem is the NDIA’s myPlace system.
