The NDIS and where did the need come from.

 

 The national disability insurance scheme (NDIS or NDIA), this is an explanation for people who are internationally based.  As I requested some answers, I received some interesting responses about fighting through their disability and fighting for disability rights, in Australia.

There has been a diverse range of answers, and some responses that seem to not have an understanding of what this program is as it isn’t really offensive, it is a program that helps people with a disability to live and receive the support they need to live a meaningful life. I was born out of the struggle of people with disabilities and their families realizing the reality of the lives the people with disabilities live that are often, plagued by compounding issues, that come with having disabilities.

This program realized that people with disabilities need their wishes respected, and their care is appropriate for their age group, relationships, and decisions respected within their abilities to understand and interact with the world.

NDIS has acknowledged that as a wider community we all have a responsibility to care for people with disability as well as a realization  that people with disabilities have been treated by charities  at times was less than perfect, and the need to improve this program has come out of a need to have a federal government program to coordinate what was a very piecemeal state-run program or run by charities that had the best of intentions but weren’t often well equipped to care for people with disabilities, as these programs didn’t have much oversight or any guilds that we're able to force these organizations to improve conditions that people with disabilities were treated by

·       Day programs

·       Group homes

·       Supported workplaces

So, this recognized that this is an issue and where possible has helped people and their families to live a more normal and ordinary life, to the best of their abilities.  Yet due to essentially the politics around disability this program has faced cutback’s from the start as there has been a massive expansion of disability organizations, that are at times very top-heavy and the funding that is supposed to go to caring for the person with a disability doesn’t really go to the people who need it, as one of the major issues that were seen was that people with disabilities often lived in poverty if they didn’t have the support of there families. This leads to poor mental health outcomes leading to a further burden on state-run health systems.

So in many cases, it has lifted the burden of care off families and helped people interact with the community, get a job in the open market, study, or even start their own business. This is an acknowledgment that people with a disability see the need to acknowledge the social contract that society has placed on them and be responsible for their life decisions to the best of their ability.

Yet this program recently has seen cutbacks and it become a political issue due to the cost burden it, yet this cost burden isn’t seen by people with disabilities it has been clearly seen by the way the program has been rolled out and the continuing lack of education of the people who run the program.  I will do a further post on this later.