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National disability scheme is excluding people affected by autism

By bobb |

Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme's (NDIS) Operational Guidelines – Access are dysfunctional in relation to autism spectrum disorder. The NDIS fails many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), denying them the services and supports they need.

People with ASD are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Australia. The Government is not giving people with ASD a fair go. The message is simple. Government needs to act to support people with ASD and to improve their outcomes. The NDIS eligibility criteria are designed to exclude some people with autism spectrum disorder from the NDIS, people who are assessed as needing disability services by allied health professionals with specific expertise in ASD. And for those people with ASD who are deemed eligible for the NDIS service and support, NDIS individual planners (gatekeepers), who mostly lack expertise in and understanding of autism, reject some requests for essential disability services and supports.

Following is the evidence and justification for this simple claim that the NDIS, the scheme created to address the enormous disadvantage that Australians with a disability experience, in its initial implementation is failing people with ASD.

employ people with a disability - can you afford not to?

By bobb |

This video is worth watching. It discusses the substantial benefits of employing people with a disability.

Benefits include more productivity and profitability. Proponents appearing in the video are serious businesses.

Can businesses afford to not employ people with a disability? Really!

Why can't Australian employers see this? How much damage is employer short-sightedness doing to this nation's economy?

right to education for a child with disability being decided in NZ

By bobb |

The NZ High Court "found that Green Bay High School in Auckland was not justified in excluding a student with Asperger's syndrome, following a row he had with a teacher." [see article]. This may not be over yet.

I am not a lawyer and I do not know NZ law. I know that under international law, paragraph 3 in Article 23 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRoC) says every child has a right to "education, training, health care services, rehabilitation services [and] preparation for employment" ... and that "the state" is ultimately responsible for ensuring this happens. Specifically, in relation to children with a disability, the CRoC says ...

... assistance ... shall be provided free of charge ... and shall be designed to ensure that the disabled child has effective access to and receives education, training, health care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the child's achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual development ...

Tasmanian Liberal's autism policy for 2014 state election

By bobb |


The Tasmanian Liberal Party has a policy that aims to improve services and outcomes for Tasmanian children with autism. The Liberal Party website says:

A majority Liberal Government will also invest $1 million to kick-start a longer-term strategy to implement best practice autism care to Tasmania, including introducing the American-based Rethink Autism program to the State.

Australian Governments don't educate children with autism

By bobb |

For some Australian children with autism, access to education is impossible … and Australian Governments just don't care.

A recent news item (see http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/2044236/parents-call-for-auti…) shows yet another group of parents calling for “an autism-specific school, to ensure their children's [education] needs are met”.

Government repeating disability "welfare to work" expecting a different outcome

By bobb |

The following newspaper reports relate to the Abbott Government ignoring information and advice from stakeholders (see http://a4.org.au/a4/node/742 and http://a4.org.au/a4/node/779). The Government is intent on rerunning policy that has already failed repeatedly.

Please note Samantha Maiden and the Sunday Telegraph disgustingly branded people with disability explicitly on their front page as bludgers without any evidence to this effect.

BLUDGERS BUSTED

22 Dec 2013, The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), SAMANTHA MAIDEN

New study gives hope on autism

By bobb |

Cathy O'Leary, Medical Editor, The West Australian

A leading WA autism researcher says a new US study has added weight to a theory linking autism to gut problems that could be treated.

Scientists have found a link between mice with gastrointestinal problems caused by changes in bacteria in the gut and autism-type behaviour.

Their results, published in the medical journal Cell, also found that giving affected mice so-called good gut bacteria helped problems such as anxiety-like behaviour disappear.

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