Search

Background: Through the filtering of information, the creation, and reinforcement of stereotypes, media moulds attitudes and set agendas on critical social issues including public policy and disability. Methods: This study explored Australian media representations of the care of people with intellectual disability during a crucial period in disability policy change: the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rollout (2013-2018). Search criteria identified 168 news stories, examined via content analysis and news framing. Results: Four major issues were identified: Roles and responsibilities of government; housing; mistreatment of persons with intellectual disability, and responsibility of care for families. Stories tended to be presented negatively, however, regional and local/community metropolitan stories were more balanced or positive compared with major metropolitan stories. Conclusion: Despite significant disability policy change, media presentations continue to reinforce stereotypes of people with intellectual disability and position the government as one continuing to fall short in critical areas of funding, safety, and support.

Purpose: The present article provides a narrative review of Australia's approach toward acquired brain injury (ABI) and proposes how Australia and the United States can collaborate to improve service delivery for persons with ABI and their families with epidemiology, healthcare, prevention, research, and training. Method: A narrative review of journal articles, government documents, and websites was completed to present a broad overview of Australia's approach toward meeting the needs of persons with ABI. Results: The narrative review and synthesis of publications were summarized into the following categories: a) overview of ABI in Australia, b) long-term care government programs, c) services and advocacy, d) research and training, and e) recommendations for Australian-U.S. collaborations. Conclusion: The current time presents an opportunity for Australia and the United States to collaboratively address areas of common ABI need by dialogue, collaboration, and academic engagement, which may lead to better outcomes for persons with ABI by the sharing of research findings, service approaches, advocacy efforts, and rehabilitation counselor training. Rehabilitation counselors in Australia and the United States should lead the process of collaboration and engagement around common areas of ABI need.

Introduction: This paper reports the findings of a study of risk management in public libraries. The focus of the research was to determine whether the libraries had a risk management and disaster plan for major disasters. Method: A qualitative study was done to investigate risk management and disaster recovery in public libraries in South Australia. Seven personal interviews were conducted with library managers and librarians at four public libraries. Analysis: The qualitative results emerging from the interviews were analysed through hand coding using grounded theory. Results: Participants confused risk management and disaster recovery with the practice of work (occupational) health and safety. None of the participating libraries have a risk management or disaster plan. Conclusions: The library managers do not rate the risk of disaster as high, believing that their library is located in a low-risk disaster area. They also do not regard any part of their collections to be of great value. Loss of a collection is perceived as an opportunity to refresh that collection. The participants do not consider risk management and disaster recovery as an important part of their business. [Paper presented at the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC): The Information Behaviour Conference, Part 1 (11th, Zadar, Croatia, September 20-23, 2016).]

Background: This study synthesises current literature concerning the barriers to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) faced by people with intellectual disability and/or complex support needs who are involved with the criminal justice system, or at risk of (re)involvement. Method: Through targeted searches of key databases, 41 publications were identified from the scholarly and grey literature. Results: Collected literature raises three main barriers to the NDIS. First, there are (mis)identification and diagnostic tensions hindering eligibility. Second, there are problems with the planning process, including the impracticality of "planning for" chaotic situations. Third, there are market and workforce deficits. Conclusions: Research into the NDIS experiences of justice-involved people with intellectual disability and/or complex support needs is nascent and developing alongside an evolving NDIS landscape. Future research should focus on the effects of forthcoming developments designed to reduce the barriers facing these populations, including the Complex Support Needs Pathway, and workforce capabilities and market strategies.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced in Australia in 2013 to address the inadequacies of a fragmented and underfunded service system for people with disabilities. For young children with developmental disabilities, NDIS services fall under the early childhood early intervention (ECEI) approach, the impact of which is yet to be documented. Considering the critical role of families in supporting their children with a disability, the aim of the present study was therefore to examine their experiences of the ECEI approach in the State of Victoria. Seventeen parents participated in interviews and focus groups, which generated information clustered around five themes: (1) accessing the NDIS and the ECEI; (2) plan development and implementation; (3) choice and control; (4) family and community life; and (5) parental distress. While highlighting the potential of the NDIS funding and its long-term benefits, participating parents reported numerous challenges in their pursuit of supports under the ECEI. It is concluded that for the NDIS to fulfil its promise and potential, substantive revisions of its systems, policies and practices will be required to be relevant and sensitive to the needs of young children with developmental disabilities and their families.

In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was rolled out in pilot sites in 2013. This article reports a formative study conducted with qualified preschool teachers in one site in a context of change. The NDIS has been hailed in the media as a bold move to deliver more choice of services to people with disabilities and incorporates the delivery of early intervention (EI) services into its portfolio. As established EI agencies became providers for the scheme, local referral networks changed substantially. Children needed to establish eligibility for the scheme prior to families' entry. Fourteen preschool teachers responded to an online survey, and four opted in for this study, which used positioning theory and a constructivist approach. Online surveys and interviews were conducted in 2 months at the end of the 3-year pilot phase. Findings suggest that teachers detecting developmental delays (DDs) in 4-year-old children needed to reposition themselves away from the rights and duties of the developmental expert to develop timely collaborative relationships with parents if the dominant storylines of early detection, medical confirmation, and the benefits of EI for families were to remain in the foreground.

Background: Planning is a key mechanism by which the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) ensures individuals with disability have choice and control over supports. People with intellectual disability will comprise the largest NDIS participant group and many will need assistance to engage in planning. In order to respond effectively, NDIS planners must understand the decision-making support required by individuals. Method: Focus groups were conducted with 9 adults with intellectual disability living in an NDIS trial site to explore their experiences of NDIS planning. Results: Thematic analysis identified 6 themes related to good planning experiences for people with intellectual disability: preparation, learning from mistakes, personal growth, and having a credible, consistent, and disability-aware planner. Conclusions: Participants who developed a trusting relationship with a planner used planning to increase independence and social participation. Planner skills, particularly communication and sector knowledge, and attributes such as warmth and openness created trust.

In Australia and Europe, government agencies and not-for-proft organisations (NFPOs) have had long involvement in the funding and provision of community disability services. Signifcant change has occurred in Australia over the past two decades in the way government funds are expended, with marketplace mechanisms increasingly being used. As a consequence of economic and governance imperatives, funding of services via NFPOs has changed signifcantly with a move away from the provision of grants to the contracting of these organisations for the provision of services. In 2013, a new national policy, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), was introduced that has impacts for the provision of disability services for children and their families. In particular, Indigenous families are likely to experience barriers in accessing services. This paper reviews the impact of international changes in policy and associated funding models and considers the impacts and research implications of Australia's initial experience of implementation of the NDIS.

Background: Planners will engage with people with cognitive disability and complex support needs in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme, but the specific skills needed to build sustainable plans with this group are not yet known. Method: A qualitative study was conducted to explore the barriers and facilitators to planning with people with cognitive disability and complex support needs. Focus groups were held with 99 planning practitioners across metropolitan and regional locations in New South Wales, Australia. Results: Thematic analysis showed planners need to build a partnership based on mutual trust and respect with a person with complex support needs and harness a range of skills to respond to individual support needs, learning capacity, systemic hurdles and life challenges. Conclusions: Planner skills can be used to address barriers to planning for people with cognitive disability and complex support needs. Gaining skills took professional support and personal commitment.

This paper explores the changing terrain of disability support policy in Australia. Drawing on a critical disability framework of policy sociology, the paper considers the policy problem of access to education for people with disabilities under recent reform by means of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which commenced full roll-out across the country from July 2016. The paper reviews NDIS reports, legislation and associated literature to consider how eligibility to scheme participation and education services are shaped, and how education is positioned in the development and implementation of the NDIS. The analysis highlights tensions that exist for people with disabilities and their families who both access the scheme and who might draw on its provision to support their education, because of the way the policy is oriented towards pathological categorisation, standardised outcomes and service delineation rather than integrated support and informed involvement. The paper concludes by arguing that despite the policy priority across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries of increasing lifelong learning opportunities, fragmented NDIS policy in Australia prevents people with disabilities from achieving this ideal.

This study sought to analyze and evaluate the accessibility, availability and quality of online information regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and hearing loss. The most common search engine keyword terms a caregiver may enter when conducting a web search was determined using a keyword search tool. The top websites linked with each keyword term were then evaluated using a subjective quality rating tool. It was found that only 8% of the websites evaluated referred users directly to the NDIS. The majority of websites (70%) scored in the fair range for overall quality with 15% of websites scoring poorly and 15% of websites scoring highly. However, the hierarchy in which websites were presented on Google when a search string was typed into the search bar was not necessarily associated with the highest quality website appearing first. Overall, whilst the quality of information regarding the NDIS was of a fair quality, the accessibility to this information by caregivers was found to be poor.

The author of this conceptual article was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the United States, Ireland, and United Kingdom to meet with researchers, practitioners, and community agencies and review how support for people with intellectual disability is provided. A specific focus was upon provision of care for individuals who were either ageing or requiring palliative care. The project took place from June to August 2013 and involved face-to-face interviews and site visits with key academics, government representatives, and community providers in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, and Stoke-on-Trent. A priority was placed upon examining how the key features of leading practice models could be implemented within the Australian environment featuring a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). On the basis of the observations of practice, key points are discussed regarding the potential for improvements to the support of people with intellectual disability within the Australian context of the NDIS.

Using 1980/81 and 1990/91 census data from Australia, Canada, and the United States, we estimate the effects of time in the destination country on male immigrants' wages, employment, and earnings. We find that total earnings assimilation is greatest in the United States and least in Australia. Employment assimilation explains all of the earnings progress experienced by Australian immigrants, whereas wage assimilation plays the dominant role in the United States, and Canada falls in between. We argue that relatively inflexible wages and generous unemployment insurance in countries like Australia may cause assimilation to occur along the quantity rather than the price dimension. (Contains 4 tables and 11 footnotes.)

In the five years leading up to 2002 there were many significant changes in the insurance industry in Australia that brought about a range of training needs. These training needs arose from matters as diverse as mergers, increased competition, corporate failures, and legislative changes. This study includes findings from a survey of the insurance industry in Australia in the period 2000-2002 as a means of exploring the importance of the environment (marketplace) in predicting aspects of training needs. The findings demonstrate that an environmental analysis approach to training needs analysis can predict the type of training that organisations will subsequently need to provide, and thus has the potential to produce a more accurate assessment of training needs in the future. It also has the potential to contribute to the economic success of businesses operating in the financial services industry.