Meeting Report WWDACT meeting - Future Directions 2010 - 2014 consultation

The meeting got off to a shaky start when Sue arrived late with the key. After hunting through the 4 floors of the building for the sound of voices, we eventually found Room 6 on the first floor. However, mysterious openings had occurred, the Room was already open, the guest speaker had arrived and was ready to go, along with about 14 others.

A small glitch occurred as we struggled to open the box which houses the Audio Loop, and it was a minor miracle to find that the “ON” button was an anonymous switch low down on the wall. Whew! Finding this was essential as we knew that we would need the hearing loop during the meeting. All problems were not solved as the hand held microphone only worked spasmodically and only in one half of the room. Our thanks to those needing the Audio Loop for their patience with the meeting proceedings, and the matter will be taken up with the Griffin Centre management.

However a major glitch occurred when we discovered that the keys to the room did not enable us to access the stairwell, so that two more women who had needed to use the stairs were not able to attend the meeting. Not everyone is able to use a lift. WWDACT apologises for this oversight. We then also realised that in case of fire, there would be no exit route for any of us. Naturally, we will take the matter up with the Griffin Centre management.

The consultation for the day was lead by Leanne Power (Director Policy, Planning and Business Support in Disability ACT), Bob Nield took copious notes and Julie Field, Acting Diasbility and Health Commissioner with the ACT Human Rights Commission also took notes and great interest in what we had to say. The cross-disability composition of WWDACT membership was such that the 15 women with disabilities who attended represented a wide range of disability experiences, and this enabled us to outline a good cross section of our life situations and outline aspirations for Future Directions for Disability ACT for the 2010-2014 period.

Equality of allocation of funding was a major concern. Many women with disabilities do not have high cost funding requirements, but these are continually ignored in order to meet the high support needs of smaller numbers of men. Having small injections of funding, with discretion to access that funding in a flexible way was suggested. Meaningful employment was regarded as essential and the many barriers outlined. A recurring them was the need for Disability Awareness Training, starting with the ACT Public Service, and a need for leadership from the highest levels of government to show respect, acceptance and positive attitude to all people with disabilities.

Thanks to all the WWDACT women for the thoughtful feedback for the day and we look forward to the next stage in development of Future Directions 2010 to 2014.

Photos will go up in due course.

WWDACT Reps at Homelessness Forum

Hi from WWDACT's new representative - Sue Carbone

Sue has joined the ACT Homelessness Forum for WWDACT. It's called HNet, and meets at Yarramundi Reach about every two months. This is her report for the June 11 meeting.

Just for starters:SAAP Services (Supported Accommodation Assistance Program) has changed its name to NAHA (National Affordable Housing Agreement)!

There were 3 speakers:
1. Tim Moore - Australian Catholic University
Tim introduced the "Supporting Kids Kit", with its 6 principles for supporting kids who are experiencing homelessness.
1. helping kids feel Safe and secure
2. treating kids as individuals
3. having 'family' - a sense of 'being at home' rather than 'having a house'
4. having their own environment
5. participating in all planning
6. forming partnerships
for more information: tim.moore@acu.edu.au/6209 1229/www.acu.edu.au
Also look at St Lukes Innovative Resources (Bendigo) for counselling materials.

2. Ann Ponsonbury - Office for Children, Youth & Family Support
Ann is in the Placement and Permanency Planning in Care and Protection Services section.

She outlined the 40% decline in foster placements, at same time as a 100% increase in need over a decade. The safety, welfare and well-being of child/young person is paramount over the rights of the child.

The options for permanent placement in the ACT are: Enduring parental Responsibility Orders and Conditional (Open) Adoptions.

3. Shannon Pickles - St Vincent de Paul
Shannon outlined the new housing options
1. "Place to Call Home" initiative -20 new houses by 2014, 50% for indigenous families
2. "Street to HOme" scheme - all 'rough sleepers' will have the offer of a bed by 2020.
3. "Suppport in Public Houses" scheme $1.3 million per annum for community linkages.
4. "Foyer" model housing - a Live 'n Learn model, where tenancy is conditional on staying in education, starts in 2010
5. "Housing & Support" initiative (HASI) contracted to the Richmond Fellowship, $1.4 million over 4 years, targeting Mental Health Consumers
6. Establishment of a Central Intake system (co-located with Gateway Services Belconnen ($125,000 per annum)
7. Domestic Violence Crisis Service, $100,000 one-off upgrade payment
8. Expanded "Stairway" scheme, run by Anglicare - 10 more transitional houses
9. Canberra Men's Centre, linked with the prison, for the "No Exits to Homelessness" program for men. NOTE: the same program is not yet in place for women.

ACT Health has a scheme with St V de P to support Samaritan House accommodation for single men.

A big lesson from this is that Housing services are no longer just the prerogative of Disability Housing and Community Services. More networking is now needed with ACT Health, mental health services and drug & alcohol services.

ACT WOMEN & MENTAL HEALTH WORKING GROUP UPDATE

NOTE: The WMHWG group is open to any women with mental health issues who wish to participate. Contact Robyn James at WCHM on 62902166, r.james@wchm.org.au.

A meeting of the ACT Women & Mental Health Working Group was held on 8 April 2009. Meetings are held Bi-Monthly. The Meeting was attended by 11 women, with representatives from Women’s Health Services, ACT Mental Health Consumers Network, WWDACT, WCHM and other organisations. Both consumers and professionals working in the area are welcome.

Meeting notes have been distributed to the WWDACT email list, and are available from wwdact@gmail.com.

Introducing Mary Durkin - ACT Disability Commissioner

Mary Durkin, the ACT Health Services Commissioner and Disability & Community Services Commissioner visited WWDACT on 24 February for discussion about issues affecting women with disabilities in the ACT.

Since the formation of the ACT Human Rights Commission (HRC), each person who has filled the role of Disability Commissioner has been concerned at the low number of complaints received from people with disabilities. Reasons for this are, without doubt, complex, but include lack of information about the powers of the HRC. The HRC can:
* investigate both sides of a complaint,
* call all parties together to resolve it through conciliation and
* make recommendations for actions which an organisation MUST take to fix the situation (where the complaint is found to be valid).

The Commissioner is streamlining the complaints process so that the ‘conciliation’ phase is reach more quickly, and a solution put in place. Good news for us.

Unlike many other national and state ombudsmen-type bodies, the ACT HRC can call for systemic changes when it gets a number of complaints in a particular area. It has the power to make those changes happen. There is more about the HRC at: http://www.hrc.act.gov.au/. One limitation is that the Disability Commissioner is can only investigate complaints about ‘Disability Services’. But this can include things like the Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Service, as well as service from Carer organisations. Commissioners do try to interpret ‘Disability Services’ as widely as possible.

The complaint issue you have may turn out to be the concern of the Health Commissioner or the Human Rights Commissioner. It is always worth giving the HRC a phone call for advice as to whether your issue could be formally lodged with them. Phone: 02 6205 2222; Fax: (02) 6207 1034; TTY: (02) 6207 0525

WELCOME TO THE WWDACT 09 BLOGSPOT

Access to Premises Standards - get submissions in now

URGENT – your submission needed on the Access to Premises Standards –by end February The re-opening of discussion on the Access to Premises Standards (APS) in December 2008, was an important action for all people with disabilities. The current Access to Premises Standards were incorporated into the 1999 Building Code of Australia (BCA) – so they are a decade old. They contained some accessibility requirements for people with disabilities, but these have been inadequate in number and scope. A new draft APS was drawn up by a committee in 2000. It is not the place here to go into the chequered history of this draft or discuss why it has taken so long for it to be on the consultation table again. Suffice to say that there were about 50 contentious items in the draft which could not be resolved between committee members with disabilities and other representatives. With intense discussions since December, most of these issues have now been resolved to a reasonable degree, but there are 5 or 6 outstanding matters of great importance to people with disabilities, and there is now an opportunity to give feedback. The Government has referred the Draft APS to its Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and opened a public submission phase. There is very tight time frame. SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY END OF FEBRUARY. Following this there will be a Public Hearings Phase in March and April. Parliamentary proceedings mean it will be end of 2009 before it passes Parliament. It may then take another 4-5 months before it is incorporated in the Building Code. Thenceforward it will be mandatory for builders and architects to comply with the Code. The bad (or worse) news is that there is such a time lag between submission of plans for approval and the start of building, that it could well be 2011 before we see any new buildings erected under the new Code, or compliant alterations done to old buildings. The APS is not easy for the layman to interpret, so a number of peak disability organizations have formed a Task Force to assist with its interpretation. An overview of the Draft APS is available on the websites of various Taskforce organisations, e.g. from Physical Disability Australia, People With Disabilities Australia, Blind Citizens Australia, Deafness Forum, Physical Disability Council NSW, and AFDO. The PDA overview of the APS is at: (http://www.pda.org.au/uploads/Premises%20Standards%20overview%20changes%20from%202004.doc) Amongst the outstanding items are:1. inadequate specifications for requirements for lifts in small, 2-3 storey buildings2. lax requirements for access to common areas in apartment complexes3. lenient requirements for providing universal access to smaller swimming pools, 4. lax requirement for access to the Principle Public Entrance of a building, and5. lax regulations for the provision of a proportion of accessible accommodation in holiday homes and complexes There are many improvements to the existing standards, but the submission and consultation phase give people with disabilities the opportunity to voice our opinions on getting these access to all buildings right.