Australians have a poor track record of talking about death and dying. A recent survey of Australians who’d just lost a loved one to a terminal illness found just 15% were told how their relative wanted…
The majority of diagnoses for depression, anxiety and PTSD are made by GPs who don’t use the DSM criteria.
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) has copped the predicted criticisms since its release on the weekend. Most centre on the idea that more of us will…
The integrity of the scheme relies on listening to the people whose lives are affected by disability.
Image from shutterstock.com
Legend has it that before the introduction of Medibank (now Medicare) in 1974, then-prime minister Gough Whitlam convinced the premiers at a Commonwealth-states meeting to introduce a national disability…
The rollout of the NDIS will place considerable pressure on the disability workforce. But are 457 visas the answer?
AAP
With the legislation now through both houses of parliament, The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or DisabilityCare, is law, and will quickly become a defining feature of Australia’s social policy…
Certainty of funding is important and that’s why an income tax levy or premium is the way to go.
Image from shutterstock.com
While an income tax increase may be hard to sell to some people in the community in the lead-up to a federal election, it’s the right choice for a sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS…
When humans are challenged, even as very young babies, we really can rise above and excel.
Drew Bennett
What do newborn babies, children who have been severely deprived of human contact, people with autism, and blind mothers have in common? On the surface, not much. But they provide a common theme for understanding…
The broad economics of the scheme and the fine details of its implementation remain unclear.
Image from shutterstock.com
While the Labor party’s misguided leadership coup hogged the limelight last Thursday, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Bill passed through parliament.
The government also announced the…
How will the NDIS support life-long planning for Australians with disability as they grow older?
Image from shutterstock.com
Last week’s protest by several quadriplegic Queenslanders against age discrimination prompts us to examine how the National Disability Insurance Scheme should balance needs-based eligibility and entitlement…
The states have agreed to an initial agreement for the NDIS, but details of the first phase remain patchy.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has established an inter-governmental agreement that will form the framework for the initial phase of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). But as…
Greater numbers of troubled teens are being abandoned by their parents and into the hands of the government.
Shutterstock
The theme of abandonment runs like a current through our most pressing national dilemmas. Asylum seekers abandon their home countries in the hope of a better life in Australia.
Newly elected governments…
We have surprisingly little information about the extent of forced sterilisation in Australia.
Porsche Brosseau
The Senate Community Affairs Committee has announced its intention to consider the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia. Unless it focuses on the right of people…
John Hattie: Welcome to The Conversation. My name is John Hattie from the University of Melbourne and I have here today, Pasi Sahlberg from the Department of Education in Finland.
It’s certainly exciting…
The Australian Steelers celebrate a gold medal after beating Canada in the men’s wheelchair rugby final.
Kerim Okten/EPA
As the bright lights of the London 2012 Paralympic Games begin to dim, and as the media focus diverts back to everyday life, we’re left with a pertinent question: where to now for disability sport in Australia…
The links between the military and disability sport are being cast anew.
Corporal Jamie Osborne, Department of Defence
In the past five or six years there has been a marked increase in the overt use of disability sport in the rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which, in a sense, is…
The myths of disability are giving way to a new sense of normal.
Daniel Karmann/EPA
The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympics was nothing short of a tour de force. But as a new “enlightenment” (the theme for the ceremony), it also raised as many questions about disability as…
Are individuals disabled by a society that doesn’t accommodate difference?
philippe leroyer
By Erin O'Brien, Queensland University of Technology
Australians love a good sports story about a hero overcoming adversity. Track cyclist Anna Meares’ gold medal in London was all the more impressive given her recovery from a life-threatening neck injury…
Liberal states yesterday refused to contribute funds to host NDIS launch sites.
AAP
A lot of smoke and very little illumination came out of yesterday’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) discussions about how the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will be funded.
All sides…
Young people in nursing homes aren’t free to eat, socialise and go out when they like.
morberg
Research published this week confirms what disability advocates have long known: that young people shouldn’t be forced to live in nursing homes. Our joint Summer Foundation and Monash University study…
Many people with disabilities feel isolated in community residential settings.
Flickr/T.R.G.
Early on in my career I was part of the process of closing down large-scale institutions for people with disabilities.
My first experience of institutions was as a student. I visited Swanbourne Hospital…
A woman drinks using a robotic arm, something she hasn’t been able to do with her own arms for 15 years.
Nature
The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…
More than 600 young Australians with disabilities currently live in nursing homes.
Michelle Newland was 19 years old when she had a severe asthma attack that left her with hypoxic brain injury. After eight weeks, the hospital staff told Michelle’s parents that she was not suitable for…
At the end of the four years, only 5% of Australians with a disability will be covered.
Flickr/afri
Last night’s budget contained an important step towards realising a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with $1bn allocated over the next four years. Of these funds, $342.5 million will pay for…
Caring for a disabled child currenlty requires battle after battle for basic equipment and services.
bellisg
The government has announced its commitment to the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with money to be set aside in next week’s federal budget for a 2013 start-up in four locations…
NDIS Rally in Adelaide, Monday 30th April. Despite the praise of the NDIS, the scheme falls short in some areas.
AAP
On paper, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) proposed by the Productivity Commission looks like a great idea. Through Commonwealth funding, it would provide specialist accommodation, transport…
Intellectually disabled children who undergo the “Ashley procedure” are stunted to prevent the onset of puberty.
flickr/visions by vicky
A growing number of parents are seeking the “Ashley Treatment,” a highly experimental medical intervention designed to arrest the physical and sexual development of severely disabled children. This invasive…
Many extremely premature babies will have lifelong physical and intellectual deficiencies.
kqedquest
Imagine how frightening it must be for a woman to go into labour when she is just over halfway through her pregnancy and her baby has only had 23 or 24 weeks to grow. She and her family are overcome with…
Government data shows Aboriginal people are twice as likely to have a core activity limitation as non-Aboriginal people.
AAP Image/Karen Michelmore
Alongside high rates of incarceration, unemployment, homelessness and some of the poorest health outcomes in Australia, Indigenous people’s access and use of disability services is under-representative…
The upcoming SBS documentary Scarlet Road follows sex worker Rachel Wotton and her relationships with her disabled clients.
Health care, fair trials and education are things we readily accept as human rights.
Unlike fresh air and food, we can actually live without school or a due process trial for a whole lot longer than without…
Family members shouldn’t be pressured to take on the caring responsibilities of relatives.
Increasingly, governments rely on family carers to provide aged and disability care services. For many, family care is a demonstration of love and duty, but often there is little choice.
The word carer…
NRL player Craig Wing has a sister with Down Syndrome.
AAP
“Fuck you, Wing, your sister has Down syndrome!”
These words were once hurled at NSW rugby league star Craig Wing while he was playing for the Sydney Roosters against the Canterbury Bulldogs at the Sydney…
If health and water reform are anything to go by, COAG is in for a challenge.
The stakes are high for today’s Council of Australian Government (COAG) meeting in Canberra, as it decides how to respond to the Productivity Commission’s report into disability care and support in Australia…
The proposed scheme will address unmet demand and standardise assessment and entitlements.
laembajada/Flickr
The Productivity Commission has released its report on Disability Care and Support, which recommends the creation of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to provide insurance cover for about 410…
