WITH just six months until the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Tasmania, pressure is mounting on the State Government to sign a deal for a fully implemented scheme.
In Tasmania the NDIS will provide funding to 15 to 24-year-olds with a disability during the launch phase from July next year. By 2016 it is due to be rolled out to all eligible people aged up to 65.
Premier Lara Giddings signed a bilateral agreement with the Commonwealth confirming the operational and funding details for the roll out of the NDIS launch at last Friday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Canberra.
"The NDIS will be a real game-changer for people living with a disability, " Human Services Minister Cassy O'Connor said.
She said the 15 to 24 age cohort was chosen for the trial as that group was vulnerable during the transition from school to the adult world.
"We're convinced that picking the 15 to 24-year-olds to test the system is a good way to do it," Ms O'Connor said.
NDIS funding packages will be individualised and the amount given will depend on the needs of the recipient - whether it be equipment, respite, recreation activities or personal care.
While the launch is set to provide funding for about 1000 people the estimated size of the age cohort Ms O'Connor said the number of funding packages available certainly was not capped.
"If there is 1050 or 1200 people who come forward to be part of the launch they will be included, and the Commonwealth will meet any extra costs as a result of that," she said.
"These young people deserve to be given every chance to live [happy] and successful lives feeling valued and connected in their communities.
"If we don't enable that and we don't harness the capacity of these young people, they miss out, their families miss out."
Ms O'Connor said while full implementation of the NDIS in Tasmania was necessary, it would also need a "very significant" allocation of funding from the state. "We can't go through this process of raising expectations to say after three years 'actually we don't have the money'," Ms O'Connor said.
Catherine Viney, chief executive of Cosmos, which offers learning and leisure opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities, said she had faith the NDIS would work, but it meant turning the current disability service model completely on its head.
Now the State Government funds organisations to provide services to people with disabilities. Under the NDIS, people with disabilities will receive funding that they can then spend how they choose.
"We're completely reforming the sector, we're [changing] from someone with a disability having to suck it up and take what they can get ... people will be able to say what's important to them," Ms Viney.
Tasmania Disability Lobby convenor Jane Wardlaw said while the launch for people aged 15 to 24 was welcome, older people already on waiting lists for services would now have to wait until at least 2016 until a full NDIS was put in place to benefit them.
Ms Wardlaw said the State Government should now take separate action to address the other urgent shortfalls in disability support.
"We need to have a strategy for those people that fall outside the cohort," she said.
While she commended the Government for signing up, she said New South Wales was the only state so far to sign an agreement for full implementation of an NDIS by 2018.
"Last week when New South Wales came out and signed their deal with the Federal Government to fully implement the NDIS, I could have kissed [NSW Premier] Barry O'Farrell," she said.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Disability aid push
Dengan url
http://kembangtrotoar.blogspot.com/2012/12/disability-aid-push.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Disability aid push
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar