Address details


Down Syndrome NSW
Level 6/410 Church St, North Parramatta
9am-5pm Monday - Thursday
T: 9841 444


Sunday 10 August 2008

NSW Dept Ageing Disability and Home Care seeks feedback on two draft policies

Draft Allocation of Places in Supported Accommodation: policy and procedures
This draft policy is to replace the existing Placement of Clients in Group Homes policy, in line with the commitment made under Stronger Together, a new direction for disability services in NSW 2006-2016.

It details the processes for being placed on the state wide accommodation register, declaring a vacancy, allocation committees, appeals, refusal of offers and transition to a placement.


Draft Maintaining Respite Capacity Policy
This draft policy outlines DADHC's approach to relocating clients who remain in respite beyond their planned stay to permanent accommodation services. The policy has separate sections for children, young people and adults.

For both draft policies, DADHC is seeking feedback from people and organisations with an interest in accommodation services for people with a disability.

Down Syndrome NSW will submit comments, but individuals can also comment.


Click here to download both documents from the DADHC website.

The closing date for feedback is 12 September 2008.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

draft document on supported care placments 9 5 ...Position Statement July 2008.....is designed to prevent the huge numbers of people approaching the time they will require residential services from being calculated, and therefore excuse government from devising suitable plans devised to accommodate these people in need of support as they are dependent and are presently living in their parent's home and being cared for free of charge to the state except for their pension, and other supports such as access to some meaningful, supported work sometimes.
`3.1 The majority of people with a disability (those who are dependent for life I refer to such as those with down syndrome)are supported in their own home (NO, NO...not THEIR OWN HOME...they have ID, they cannot amass the funds required to purchase a home, they live in the family home gratis of their parent/carers!!!...hey, let's be correct here DADHC, no plays with words please)with the assistance of family and friends (now this is novel!!! with the assistance of friends!!! Who beg I, and most mother/father/parent carers I know beg the question...Who are these friends? No No - No friends assist or support in the maintenence of the intectually disabled. Friends run a mile if the carer is foolish enough to request practical support. Friends, if indeed they have not dropped away from the family due to many factors, not always due to meanness, but because FAMILY (particularly the mother, and often the father post working life is lumped with status previously had by mother) with ID person cannot keep up with mainstream activities due to their captive state being a care provider in all aspects of life, to keeping house, maintaing wardrobes...washing, ironing, mending, shoping, cooking, taking to doctors and implementing medically required health regimes, driving to and fro any activities...how are these for starters??????). The placement of a person with a disability in supported accommodation only occurs when all other options are exhausted'......

HEY HEY AND WAIT FOR IT...read above in conjunction with 5.6...does this scare you????? like it scares the wits out of me?
`An application for supported accommodation will only be accepted by DADHC if the person with the disability/family member.....is prepared to take up the offer of a suitable placement IMMEDIATELY..Apllication......will NOT be accepted by DADHC due to a perceivedor expected future need (eg due to the aging of their carer)' Hey Editor what say you, or are you muzzled by your government funds provider? Once people in our position with a person who is dependent always on another could vet local and not so local residential care places and place their loved one's name on the registers of those facilities the parents felt offered the best available for their son/daughter. That ability to register one's ID person on a facility's register was summarily removed a few years ago. A couple of years ago a central register was made available where carers could register their son/daughter (along with massive paperwork) requiring future supported accommodation. Hey, the paperwork is awesome, but the hope remained that their loved one was registered for supported accommodation to suit the person's needs when the caring role with the parents in their home no longer worked or was viable. Now THANK YOU to the `powers that be', the wonderful number crunchers etc...have realised there is massive need coming up in the not too distant future with a large body of aging devoted carers at some future stage, not too distant not being able to provide the state with free care for their son/daughter.

HO!!! No DADHC, Federal Gov do not want this...they do not want to accept or plan for the numbers of devoted carers (aged) leaving so they ARE NOT GOING TO PLAN FOR THE EXIT OF AGED CARERS. Aged carers are going to be forced to keep their son/daughter in the home until they `drop off the perch'!!!! What then hey...government will step in and procure the family home for the disabled person...taking not only the lives of the loving carers but their assets from the family asset pool.
WAKE UP you aging Mums and DAds and see DADHC, and governments for what they are, greedy, uncaring, rapacious, etc....they are funding organisations only who `toe their line of thinking'...

Do you really see yourself caring for your son/daughter alone without support?...because that is pretty thin and far between (ever had a proper holiday in decades? oh maybe you are one of the lucky ones who had parental support, `cos you'd never get friends to care for your down syndrome family member while you went on a long holiday...they run a mile at the suggestion, if you are stupid enough to ask the question, to mind the person for a day!!!)
Come on Aging Parents with family members with significant ID, down syndrome and the like...stand up and fight DADHC....Hey, and you Care Provider Orgs, and Support Orgs...How about you get off the cushion and be counted also?
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