Report of the Research/Consultancy project funded by the
Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Service, undertaken by Ramdas
Sankaran for
on behalf of the Ethnic Disability Advocacy Centre.
June 2001
Contents
Page
Acknowledgements 3
Acronyms 4
Foreword 5
Executive Summary 6
Recommendation 7
Project Background
and Rationale 8
Project Objectives 9
Project Outcomes 9
Project
Implementation 10
Ethnic profile of
people with disabilities 10
Regional
consultations 13
Summary of barriers
identified 15
Integrated Rural
Disability Advocacy Service Strategy 16
Service Delivery
Options 19
Choice of Service
Delivery Options 22
Achievement of
Project objectives and Outcomes 22
Conclusion 24
Appendix 1 Media
Release 27
Appendix 2 Article
and Paid advertisement in the North West Telegraph 28
Appendix 3 Service
Delivery Options Feedback Schedule 29
Appendix 4 MALSSA’s
Riverland advocacy Project 30
The project consultant wishes to acknowledge and thank members of the project Steering Committee for their substantial input and support throughout all stages of the report. The Committee comprised:
· Dr. Anne Atkinson (chair)
· Ms. Jenny Au Yeong
· Ms. Sophie Jasinski
·
Mr. Nara
Srinivasan
The input and participation of the following agencies were also valuable in planning and implementing this project. They are in alphabetical order:
Aged Care Program, Health Services (Geraldton)
Bunbury Italian Club
Bunbury Migrant Resource Group
Career Network Employment Service, Karratha
City of
Disability Services Commission (
Forrest Personnel
Geraldton Community Day Centre
Geraldton Home Help
Geraldton Personnel
Geraldton Regional Education Centre
Hedland Personnel
Islamic Association of Katanning
Islamic Association of the
Nort Pilbara Health Service
Pilbara Development Commission
Pilbara Home Care Inc.
Pilbara Individual and Family Support Association
Roeburn Shire
Rural Children’s Support Network (Hedland and Karratha)
South West Citizen Advocacy
South West Mental Health Service
Town of
Uniting Church Frontier Service – Hedland and Karratha
Special thanks are due to all individuals who participated in the regional consultation forums (who’s names are not included for privacy reasons) to Moss Polites, Executive Officer of MALSSA for his input and for making available a copy of the Riverland Project proposal and to DSC, the Bunbury Migrant Resource Group, Geraldton Regional Education Centre, Islamic Association of Katanning and the Uniting Church Frontier Service – Hedland and Karratha for their assistance in organising the regional consultations.
This project could not have been undertaken but for the
funding provided by the Department of Family and Community Services and the
top-up funding provided by
Acronyms
ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics
BMRG Bunbury Migrant Resource Group
CDAA (proposed) Country Disability Advocacy Alliance
CSS Community Settlement Service
Worker funded by DIMA
DIMA Department of Immigration and
Multicultural Affairs
DSC Disability Services Commission.
EDAC Ethnic Disability Advocacy Centre
ECU Edith Cowan University
DFACS Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services
GREC Geraldton Regional Education Centre
HREOC Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
MALSSA Multicultural
Advocacy and Liaison Service of
NDAC National Disability Advisory Council
NDAP National Disability Advocacy Program
NESB Non-English Speaking Backgrounds
PWD People
With Disabilities
Foreword
The Reaching Out Through Partnerships project, which seeks to address the disability advocacy needs of ethnic regional and rural Western Australians, is an important milestone for the Ethnic Disability Advocacy Centre (EDAC).
Whilst the Centre has always had a statewide brief, funding constraints have limited its non-metropolitan involvement to its 1800 free call facility. Even this facility has not been publicized or promoted in regional and rural areas. Not surprisingly, EDAC has attracted only 2-3 requests for assistance from non-metropolitan areas via this free call facility, since its inception some 5 years ago.
The funding of this
research/consultancy project by the Commonwealth Department of Family and
Community Service and the
The project report confirms
our Centre’s views that people with disabilities from non-English speaking
background communities living in regional and rural areas face significant
barriers which affect their access to services.
As the title of this project suggests its planning and implementation involved building effective partnerships between government agencies commonwealth, state and local, academia, ethnic people with disabilities, ethnic groups and organizations and mainstream service providers in regional and rural areas and EDAC.
Its recommendations also offer exciting opportunities for partnerships between these stakeholders in addressing the unmet disability advocacy needs of ethnic regional and rural Western Australians. One such opportunity is to establish a Country Disability Advocacy Alliance comprising EDAC, People With Disabilities and other advocacy organizations with a statewide brief.
The implementation of the recommendations, if funded by the Commonwealth and state governments, also poses interesting challenges for EDAC. It will require it to step outside its service boundaries i.e. non-English speaking backround people with disabilities.
It is hoped that the Commonwealth and state government will respond positively and swiftly to the report’s recommendations to harness the goodwill that exists between the various stakeholders in their efforts to obtain a fair deal for ethnic regional and rural Western Australians.
On behalf of the Centre I wish
to thank the Department of Family and Community Services and
Sophie Jasinski Dr. Anne Atkinson
President Vice President and Chair
Project Steering Committee
1 Executive
Summary
1.1
Regional and rural areas of
1.2 Government funded disability advocacy services are virtually non-existent in most regional and rural areas and it is therefore opportune to establish a Country Disability Advocacy Alliance (CDAA) comprising EDAC, PWD and other “independent” advocacy organizations with a statewide brief.
1.3
The outcomes of the consultation forums held in the targeted regional areas
were broadly the same. With one exception all participants indicated that
disability advocacy services should be provided locally and not through a
visiting service from
1.4 The barriers to accessing disability services identified by participants, as well as their choice of service delivery models, were not dissimilar from region to region (paragraph 6.9). They are grouped under the following headings.
Ø Lack of awareness and understanding of Disability services
and their roles
Ø Attitudinal barriers
Ø General lack of disability services locally,
Ø Cultural in-appropriateness in Service delivery
Ø Language
Ø Complexity of Service access
Other
barriers identified include
Ø
Lack of
ethnicity data, especially English language proficiency and cultural background
makes service planning difficult
Ø
Difficult to
access
Ø
Inadequate
local public transport
Ø
Disability
services in
Ø
Disability
Employment and training opportunities are limited or non-existent
1.5 An integrated rural/regional disability advocacy strategy should comprise at least the following.
2 Recommendations
It is recommended that:
2.1
the Commonwealth and state government consider providing funding to:
2.1.1 the Bunbury Migrant Resource Group and the Geraldton Regional Education Centre to operate an ethnic disability advocacy service in their regions through the employment of p/t advocacy workers or advocacy workers on a sessional basis;
2.1.2 the Bunbury Italian Club to provide disability advocacy
services for Italo-Australians living in the Bunbury region, through the
employment of advocacy workers on a sessional basis;
2.1.3 The Ethnic Disability Advocacy Centre to:
·
Establish a
pool of bilingual disability advocacy workers who can be employed on a
sessional basis, at all regional and rural centers. (this be implemented on a
staggered basis over 3 years)
·
Develop and
implement a cross-cultural training package and offer training to regional and
rural disability service providers;
·
Establish an
outposted service in Bunbury/or Geraldton if recommendation 2.1.1 is considered
inappropriate/impracticable. Such an outposted service whilst providing
priority access to ethnic and indigenous people with disabilities, will be open
to all regardless of their ethnicity’
2.2 EDAC explore funding options that will enable it to implement an internet based multilingual disability information service. Additionally, it should approach the commonwealth to publicise the eligibility criteria for mobility allowance; through direct mail out to those not receiving it but are already receiving a disability payment and to others through the ethnic media, relevant ethnic associations and organisations which service migrants and ethnic communities.
2.3 EDAC explore the feasibility of establishing a Country Disability Advocacy Alliance with other bodies such as PWD and DDU, which have a statewide disability advocacy brief.
3 Project
Background and Rationale:
3.1 The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (2000, P11) found that,
“People with
disabilities from non-English speaking background communities sometimes
experience multiple layers of discrimination-discrimination on the basis of
disability, race or ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Invariably discrimination
results in isolation, fear, exclusion and alienation.”
3.2 It also highlighted
significant barriers, which affect these people, many of which have been
confirmed by the findings of this project. In seeking to address the disability
advocacy needs of ethnic regional and rural Western Australians, EDAC
highlighted the following in its project proposal:
·
WA has the
highest proportion of overseas born compared to other states in