While only a small number of submissions were received from groups or individuals regarding the particular concerns of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from multicultural backgrounds, many more people actively participated in face-to-face consultations across the nation (see Appendix C). These consultations made it abundantly clear that there are issues specific to these groups that must be addressed in the National Disability Strategy.
2.8.1 People with disabilities from a multicultural background
I care for a mother with a psychiatric disability. My mother is from a Greek background. I remember my mother experiencing barriers in participating in social events with her extended family due to the medication she was taking making her drowsy and unable to concentrate and communicate with her peers. I was too young at the time to do anything about it. I would just watch as it happened that she was excluded from the main table of events and left sitting alone for long periods during parties. What would have helped at the time is if we as a family found some other medication she could be taking to make her more communicative.
As I got older I was able to speak up and change doctors to put her on a newer type medication, which made her more social. My father was unable to do this due to language barriers and he only accessed a GP at the time he knew nothing of community mental health centres. He did not have any information in his own language about where to go for help. It would have been good if these were accessible in the library or public places where he could pick it up unobtrusively. It always hurt to see mum excluded because of her disability.
There needs to be more support groups in different languages for consumers and carers state by state. Also recreational groups make a big difference to feeling socially connected.
People with disabilities and their families, friends and carers from a range of cultural backgrounds often have to deal with multiple issues on multiple fronts—their cultural background can act to complicate and compound issues associated with disability.
For families from different ethnic backgrounds, the issues are compounded. Many people from different ethnic backgrounds are not aware of their rights—to benefits, services, supports or respite. Due to the isolation felt by many carers and people with a disability from different ethnic backgrounds, language barriers or low levels of English proficiency still mean that these families do not access information and are unaware of what is available.
Most noted that few disability services possess the skills or resources to meet the specific needs of people with disabilities from differing backgrounds, and their relative inexperience with different cultural groups can make them insensitive to the issues involved. On the other hand, programs and services targeted at different cultural groups do not always understand the issues facing people with disabilities and their families, friends and carers. Respondents therefore strongly argued for increased funding for support programs and services for multicultural groups. They also argued for greater availability of translator services and information in a range of languages to ensure people with disabilities and their families, friends and carers are able to understand their rights and eligibility for services. Programs and organisations providing disability services require improved education and training about the needs of people from different cultural backgrounds.
[ top ]
2.8.2 People with disabilities and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander identity
The NDS [National Disability Strategy] as one of its first principles should acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the original inhabitants of Australia and the custodians of the land. The Strategy should acknowledge the destruction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that occupation of Australia has produced. This destruction and the resulting dislocation and alienation is the primary contributor towards disability in Aboriginal communities. The NDS should commit to additional measures to support Indigenous people with a disability.
Like people with disabilities from a range of cultural backgrounds, people with disabilities from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background feel they face a ‘double disadvantage’. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffer significantly worse health outcomes in all reported areas and fare worse than non-Indigenous people on all measures of social and economic disadvantage. While there is now considerable attention focused on finding ways to ‘close the gap’, participants at consultations argued that additional attention must be given to the particular experiences and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities.
Participants at consultations reported that few disability service providers seem to grasp the complexity of the issues confronting Indigenous people. As a result, services and programs are rarely culturally sensitive or appropriate. Alternatively, mainstream services targeting Indigenous people do not always understand the issues facing individuals with disabilities and their families.
Non Aboriginal services do not understand the Aboriginal way of ‘shared care’ and the role that extended families play in supporting Aboriginal people with disabilities.
The chronic lack of services in regional and remote areas not only restricts choice but sometimes means people are forced to leave their communities in order to access services and support.
The lack of renal facilities in rural communities has meant people have had to move to larger cities in order to stay alive. For some people this means onerous and expensive travel over several days of the week. For others, particularly in Indigenous communities, it has meant the dislocation of families to enable the person to receive treatment. An Aboriginal man who was a leader in his community was overnight told he had to move to Alice Springs. The impact not only on the man and his family but on his community at large has been huge. To have a significant leader leave on what probably will be a permanent basis causes severe disruption.
Like other people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities face particular problems in education, employment, health care, transport and housing. These difficulties are compounded by entrenched racism and the often remote location of communities. The importance of greater availability of transport to improve access to health care and other services and support was a recurring theme at consultations. Participants also suggested that the specific needs of carers from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds are often neglected, and there is a pressing need for greater availability of respite. Participants noted that it is often difficult for people with disabilities to participate fully in important cultural activities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities who want to be full and active participants in the life of their community often find themselves isolated and excluded.
Participants noted that despite obvious expertise and experience, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people rarely have the opportunity to have meaningful strategic input into the design and management of services and support.
The lack of access of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with a disability to effective advocacy and representation entrenches and perpetuates the structural discrimination we face. Moreover, the absence of such advocacy and representation, and the presence of advocacy and representation for other population groups has a compounding negative distributive impact on Aboriginal persons with a disability. Effective advocacy and representation for other groups results in a progressive distortion of resources away from Aboriginal persons with a disability
One submission therefore suggested using Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disability networks in regional centres to provide support, education and training for mainstream services to better address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
[ top]
2.8.3 Disability and gender
More than 15 per cent of submissions highlighted particular issues facing women with disabilities. In addition, a number of regional consultations specifically targeted women with disabilities. The issue of violence against women with disabilities was, sadly, a recurring theme. Submissions noted that women with disabilities escaping family or domestic violence are not well catered for within mainstream support organisations and services—most notably in the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) emergency accommodation. Submissions and participants therefore urged greater liaison with other Commonwealth initiatives such as the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children and the National Homelessness Strategy to ensure proposed strategies, programs and services are responsive to the particular needs of women with disabilities. A number of submissions also argued that there is a pressing need for greater research into the experience of women with disabilities to inform the development of more appropriate strategies and resources.