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As part of our ongoing commitment to improving the lives of people with disability and their families, we are launching the Feedback in Supported Accommodation Resource (FISAR) project.
The Summer Foundation, in partnership with the Housing Hub, will collaborate with people with disability and their supporters to create new resources to help them share feedback, make complaints and shape the services they access.
We first met Lisa 2 years ago when she was living in aged care. Louise, from the Summer Foundation, chatted with Lisa about how she is going with living in her own home.
As the year draws to a close, we wanted to reflect and say thank you to all our contributors who generously shared their stories for our Staying Connected page.
Our social enterprise, the Housing Hub, host a range of face-to-face and online workshops for a wide range of audiences Australia-wide.
My name is Bridget Doyle. I’m 28 years old. I love going out for coffee, listening to music, walking my dog Lily, playing board games with friends and pottering around in my garden growing my own fruits and veggies.
I live in SDA in Redcliffe, Queensland. I used to live with my mum and dad, then I moved out to a shared SDA. Unfortunately that didn’t work out and now I live by myself in a SDA apartment. My parents and I had to fight hard to get single occupancy SDA – it was very stressful and took a toll on all of us fighting the NDIS but it was worth it.
It has been a tough journey to get to my current home but it has definitely been worth all of the tough times.
I got involved with the Summer Foundation through my mum who had connected with the organisation previously. Then last year while I was visiting Melbourne I got to meet some of the team, which was such a lovely experience.
I have been fortunate enough to work on some projects with the Summer Foundation and been able to give my insight through my lived experience as a participant of the NDIS. I’ll hopefully also be able to create resources to help other participants navigate the NDIS more easily.
The Summer Foundation has always been a welcoming, supportive and safe space to be a part of. I love being able to give my input into projects that they’re doing.
It’s been a big year for Reasonable & Necessary, with some extremely important conversations unfolding on Dr George’s podcast. Dr George has interviewed NDIS Review Co-chairs Bruce Bonyhady and Lisa Paul twice this year. He’s also interviewed Minister Bill Shorten, international disability expert Simon Duffy and former Disability Royal Commissioner Alaistair McEwan, to name a few.
The 2022/23 Annual Report was launched on 2 November at the Annual Public Forum. The report shares highlights of the work we are doing to resolve the issue of younger people in aged care. Using the Summer Foundation strategic priorities to structure the report, it details the achievements and work in progress from the Research team, the Housing Hub, UpSkill and the Co-design team.
The Summer Foundation welcomes the emphasis on inclusive housing in the Disability Royal Commission’s final report.
As part of our continuous efforts to enhance and streamline our services, UpSkill training will now be delivered by the Housing Hub.
About 860 people participated in the Summer Foundation’s 10th Annual Public Forum on 2 November.
This included 160 people who attended the forum in person and about 700 who were online to focus on how home and living supports can be transformed to truly meet the needs of people with disability.
The NDIS Review final report was made public on 7 December. Overall the scope and scale of recommendations from the NDIS Review are welcome. The Review clearly articulated the design flaws. Change will not happen overnight.
Welcome to our last newsletter for 2023.
The year ends on a high with the state and federal governments agreeing at National Cabinet to work together to improve the lives of people with disability, and the release of the NDIS Review final report and recommendations.
It is heartening to see the government has laid the foundations for the radical changes to the NDIS that are needed. See our perspective on the recommendations and what will happen next here.
Taken together, the NDIS Review and the Disability Royal Commission recommendations have the potential to transform disability housing. You can read more about this in my recent article in The Conversation here.
It’s International Day of People with Disability, long time contributor to the work of Summer Foundation, Lynne Foreman shares her ideas and thoughts on the day.
Hi, I am Lynne. I am a disability advocate in Geelong. My disability is called arthrogryposis multiplexcongenita, and I love saying it because no-one’s ever heard of it. There are only a few of us with it in Australia!
I am in a lot of disability organisations where I help out with things. For example, the Valid conference is coming up in February, I am on the reference group, and I help guide people on the day. Part of my role in this is empowering other people with disabilities.
We all come together, we are all one.
I have always been proud that I have a disability.
We recognise everyone these days, why not recognise us!
From this recognition, I hope people understand us a bit better. I was brought up with 6 siblings, I wasn’t treated differently. I think I got out of doing the dishes once!
We might have a disability, but we can do most things. People have got to open their minds. And say just because you’ve got a disability, we can do a lot of things we just do some differently, at the end of the day, we will do it. Sometimes we get looked at and not spoken to. People can be too scared to speak with us because they may think we don’t speak, they don’t want to get embarrassed, so they speak to our support worker instead. I speak up and say you can speak to me.
My first thought was, technology is fantastic, there is no reason why we shouldn’t do anything. There is more scope for more assistance.
There are still barriers within the able community because they don’t understand. Assumptions are made.
It has improved a hell of a lot, I am 67 years old, it has improved. But some people don’t want to know – it is too hard for them. It is education really. We need to think outside the box.
Hear from Samar Bain, NDIS participant and support worker trainer, who featured on the panel at the Summer Foundation Annual Public Forum.
Can you tell us why you were asked to be a panelist and your connection to the topic ‘Transforming Home and Living Supports’?
The Summer Foundation approached me as I have done other work for them. Given my background as a disability support work trainer and NDIS consultant they thought I was a perfect person to be on the panel as an NDIS participant and working in the field.
I live in SDA housing. The topic transforming home and living support really grabbed me as I’m always having to fight to maintain my support worker hours and the way I would like to be supported in my home.
What do you think the most important part of the discussion was?
These 3 questions were a highlight for me. They all relate to something that I am really passionate about.
I think when it comes to being a great support worker you just have to keep in mind that we are humans supporting humans. I think people forget that.
How did you feel speaking on the panel?
I felt really nervous. All the prep work leading up to it was very exciting and when we got closer to the time I was starting to get nervous and I was worried I would get stage fright but when I got up the first question it just felt natural. I was happy when everyone added to the discussion.
I think when I got the question from the audience it kind of threw me off guard but I surprised myself.
Why do you take the time to share your experience and insights?
I am very passionate about what I do. As someone living with a disability I feel like I’ve got a valid point of view and I also work in the field. I love to share my insight. I am very passionate about the disability sector and training support workers. I like to share my insight and my experiences and I want people to learn from that, to take away from that and be the best version they could possibly be, just like I have done.
What would you say to someone else thinking about connecting with our work at the Summer Foundation and sharing their experience?
It’s a great organisation to work with and be connected with. The knowledge and the insight they have is just incredible. I highly recommend connecting as they are very supportive and value everything you share with them. I feel very honoured to be part of their team as they are just amazing to work alongside.
You can watch a recording of the 2023 Annual Public Forum here.
Welcome to the October edition of Summer Foundation Focus.
It’s a particularly busy time of year for us as we ramp up for our Annual Public Forum, which is being held on Thursday 2 November.
The Housing Hub has launched an SDA Eligibility Checker.
It is an easy-to-use online tool where you can answer 10 questions or less to check if you are likely to be eligible for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA). Results are instant and you can ask for a Housing Expert to discuss your housing options in greater detail based on your results.
The final countdown is on to the Summer Foundation’s 2023 Annual Public Forum.
Transforming supports at home: Making it work for NDIS participants is the topic for the event on Thursday 2 November.
A thought provoking report, “Redesigning the NDIS” has called for urgent and radical reform of the Scheme.
The Building Better Homes campaign we have been leading to make homes more accessible for all Australians took a major step forward at the beginning of October.
We met Andrew last year and since then have been working with him on a number of projects. Sharing his voice, experience and insight he is helping to educate and improve outcomes for people with disability.
Andrew spoke with Louise recently to share a bit more about himself.
Andrew, tell us about yourself?
My name is Andrew, I’m a Nurungga man from Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, now living on Dja Dja Warung country in central Victoria. I’m an Aboriginal man living with a number of disabilities namely Parkinson’s disease and a number of major health issues as well.
Where are you living now and where are you planning to move?
I am living in a home unsuitable for my needs. It is a classic example of where things not only can go wrong, they can go wrong with major consequences. Aboriginal people have poorer health and disability outcomes and over the past 4 years my physical deterioration has been significant.
I have now been approved for SDA 3 levels higher than what I had initially been approved (improved liveability) and will be moving to a home that is high physical support. I am planning a move to the coast to a new SDA.
How do you feel about that move?
It’s great, but unfortunately it has taken severe physical deterioration and a change in federal government for bureaucrats to join the dots to make things work the way the system is supposed to work. I am quite capable of advocating for myself but it concerns me that there are a lot of people with disabilities and others that don’t have capacity to do that.
You recently spoke with (NDIS Review co-chair) Professor Bruce Bonyhady, what did you talk about?
It was a chance for him to hear directly from me the concerns that I have been raising with the NDIS and the NDIA for a number of years. And the aged care system too, as that was the system I was originally placed in many years ago. It was a fight not to get into it in the first place, it was a much easier fight to get out.
Why were you placed into aged care when you were a 50-year-old man?
Well my understanding is that there was contact made from state-based DHS to state-based aged care services that they felt because my Parkinson’s disease was a deteriorating condition and because I am an Aboriginal man, I would be better suited to a system that I was ultimately going to be remaining in. Which of course defeats the entire purpose of the NDIS in principle.
Without listening to anyone, without listening to Aboriginal people who they know have poorer health outcomes, they used exactly that to put me into a system that I didn’t want to be in and that was the aged care system.
You are an Aboriginal man, why is the Voice to Parliament important to you?
It is important to bring about change so that people will have to listen. The reality is that once this gets into the Constitution, and I am confident it will, any parliament on any day will have to listen. More people who have the authority to bring about change will listen and get on with it. Talk is cheap, talk has been there for years, talk is cheap until the referendum hopefully changes that.
We have always been told we have a voice and we are listened to, but in my 58, 59 years, it is clear to me that Aboriginal people don’t have a voice.
I am confident a Yes vote will help the Commonwealth make sound decisions to ensure Aboriginal people get the support and services they need to live better lives and hopefully in time longer lives.
Andrew explains why he thinks a Voice to parliament is important in this video below:
Andrew also shared his story in our Young people don’t belong in aged care – Our stories page here.
For many years, the Summer Foundation has focused on improving housing for people with disability in Australia. We have done this because housing for people with disability has long been grossly inadequate.
The Department of Health and Aged Care is consulting on the foundations for a new Aged Care Act. One of the proposals is to close the door to aged care for people under 65.
The Summer Foundation recently commissioned Indigenous artist, Nakia Cadd, to design a piece of art that we will include on all our documents.
The Summer Foundation and our social enterprise, the Housing Hub, host a range of face-to-face and online workshops for a wide range of audiences Australia-wide.
Source: The Conversation – Di Winkler | Photo: Lukas Coch
After more than four years and many traumatic stories, the disability royal commission’s final report was released this morning. Included in its 6,845 pages are 222 recommendations.
