We are Worth the Investment. NSW Council for Intellectual Disability Conference 16-17 July 2015. Advocacy and the NDIS Jim Simpson, Senior Advocate NSW CID

1. Making Australia better for
people with intellectual
disability
Systemic advocacy

2. NSW CID
Who are we?
What role do people with
intellectual disability
have?

3. What we do
 Information
You can call us
Information on our website
Like Healthier Lives Fact Sheets
Projects
Like

4. Systemic advocacy –
Making Australia better for people with
intellectual disability
 Better disability support
 Changing mainstream
services
 Changing the
community
 Changing laws

5. Who sets the agenda?
• Governments set the agenda
• And we set the agenda
– Health
– People in trouble with the police
– NDIS and people on the fringe

6. How do we advocate?
 We get the evidence
 We work with allies
 We set a goal and some first steps
 We try to be
– Assertive
– Constructive
– Practical
– Persistent

7. Healthier lives campaign in NSW
“Stark health inequalities” say our members and researchers
People die young
Health problems not diagnosed
or treated
Doctors don’t understand and are too rushed
BUT changing the health system is hard!

8.  2002 - Conference with Ombudsman
 Advocacy with ID health specialists
 2 things needed:
 All health services to do better
 Specialists in ID health
 Lots of talk and training packages
 Not much progress
 Ombudsman annual reports
 We seek more allies – a mainstream issue!

9.  2006 – Roundtable –experts and
key decision makers
 NSW Health commitment to an
ID health framework
 2007 – Framework
 2009 – KPMG economic analysis
 2010-11 – NSW Government
funds pilot teams and Clinical
Network
But still lots to do!

10. Do people with ID need their own
systemic advocate?
We say YES - People with ID
• need accessible processes
in advocacy groups
• are a vulnerable group
• face specific problems
• 60%+ of NDIS participants
nswcid.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/people-with-intellectual-disability.html

11. Systemic advocacy can...
• Help the NDIS to work well
• Help make the community work for people
with disability
It’s often slow, hard work but remember.......

12. As our chairperson says: