A National Disability Insurance Scheme - a barrier to service?

That people can have more “case management”, a discredited managerial tool.

That we can have “training, development and access to work to build self esteem ...” Do you go to work for that reason?

It says this perpetuation of the system, of which it also says does not work, will be “transformational” for people with disabilities. Sadly, making such calls about what people with disabilities need may actually get NDIS over the political line as people with disabilities and families grasp this straw in their desperation. But the security and safety actually being offered appears as no stronger than that. Those are not the fundamental needs we need met. NDIS seems deeply incoherent and its real agenda apparently is simply more money and reducing cost.

Money alone is not the answer, but it is a seductive one. Truths about the devalued social position of people with disabilities are expressed in numerous reports, including the recent Shut Out report from the National Disability Strategy Review, and in the feedback pages on the NDIS Plan website itself. These reports show two noteworthy things:

1. The deepest felt needs, expressed by people with disabilities, involve their social acceptance and inclusion as a valued human being;
2. Such acceptance cannot be bought, yet there is a pervasive feeling that if only enough money were available to enable any services to be available to anyone who needed it, that all would be well. A sense of relief, security and safety would result.

But we also know, re-stated by 56 per cent of submissions to the current Strategy Review report, "that services and programs act as a barrier to, rather than a facilitator of, their participation". We don’t need an NDIS that would entrench this.

Money cannot buy you love

We all know what happens when you try to buy love - it becomes a commodity and is thereby perverted. Paid service therefore always needs strong safeguards against its abuse: the pornography of care. The disability industry has few strong ones. One safeguard is to entrench service values, structures and practices in fundamental, individual needs, with care.

At heart, what people with disabilities need is full acceptance into the social fabric of Australia, and true service that enables them to be supported and celebrates the aspiration of their full human potential. Doing this will reduce many of the disabling effects of our impairments.

Yes, of course some of this needs money. But let’s not start with that. At the core of it is priceless attitudinal change. A society that attempts to buy it, with money or with managerial tools, will find that is impossible. It actually takes some hard yakka to create a welcoming community. And there are also some examples of good service to build on. A society that cannot do this with its most vulnerable members is unsustainable because of the underlying NDIS premise: we’re all in this together.

Let’s first look anew at the whole concept of insurance against disability, where being of service is more important than the disability services industry. Perhaps then, together we can craft an NDIS that supports good lives for people with disabilities.