Person Centered Approach Consultation

My son (14) and I went to Lismore Friday 26th August to participate in the NSW Minister for Ageing and Disability’s (Andrew Constance) consultation for Person Centred Approach services.

The venue was OK and we were in groups around tables with other carers, parents and some other young people with disabilities.

We were asked a series of questions about how we would like a personal service approach to be carried out, how should they do a personal service plan, how to deliver funding directly to people with disabilities/ families/representatives of people with disabilities, what sort of accountability should be in place, what the money could be spent on, who would be involved in the process, how service providers can make their services person centred and some other questions.

We all discussed these and wrote down our responses on paper, shared them with the group and handed them in so that they can be used to structure a new service model.

I left my email address so they can send info down the track on progress and results.

I caught up a lady that advises on and writes policy for Andrew Constance, she was instrumental in the Carer Recognition Act 2010 and she asked us that if there were advocacy issues in our community that we should write to the Minister and tell him about them. So if you feel we need assistance to access advocacy services that produce results for us then please write to the minister – or alternately I can write a letter that we can all sign and send to the Minister.

The concept is to create a pool of funds that is available to anyone who needs an advocate, so you can get funds to pay an advocate to represent you, the advocate can be someone you choose who you have confidence in to represent your issue.

We also caught up with a Physiotherapist in Maclean who has an adult son with Autism, she is going to gather some info on Family Advocacy which is an organisation based in Sydney who are about inclusion, integration and appropriate support for people with disability especially intellectual disability. I will pick it up and present it to our group at a later date.

All in all I was happy with the outcome of the consultation.