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 panel of sector professionals, people with lived experience and policy makers was hosted by Elizabeth Wright, disability affairs reporter at the ABC and Paralympian.
Samar Bain brought the voice of lived experience to the discussion with her unique position as an NDIS participant and user of home and living supports, and a trainer of support providers.
“I would like to see more support workers getting to know the people they are working with as humans,” Samar said. “We are humans supporting humans.“
The NDIA’s Deputy CEO, Market Stewardship and Home and Living, Penelope McKay, shared the work the NDIA is doing to improve home and living supports. Summer Foundation Senior Research Fellow Dr Kate De Cruz brought valuable insight about what good supports look like, and David Clark, CEO at InLife, shared how his organisation is trying to make changes that improve the support provided to participants.
You can see a video of the event here.
And a summary of the themes raised during the forum with related resources that are available here.