BackWednesday, 2 August 2017
Process of obtaining services urgently for a man with an intellectual disability
5AA with Leon Byner
Leon Byner: Kelly Vincent has called in, good morning.
Kelly Vincent: As John is saying it’s a very difficult and very tragic circumstance that this man Doug has found himself in, I am pleased to say that along with Michelle Lensink’s office, contact was also made with my office, and we did manage to escalate this to the National Disability Insurance agency and Disability Services SA immediately, and that played a part in getting the services in place for Doug; we’re very pleased with that. But I think it also speaks to a broader issue that many, many people are currently living in, which is older people with disabilities still living with ageing parents or other families needs to make sure they’re getting the right support, to put plans in place for when that family can no longer support them. So I definitely encourage people to either contact my office or the Public Advocate or another advocacy body who can help them throughout those processes, because they are complex and you need to have them in place well in advance.
Leon Byner: Kelly, Disability SA or DCIS oughta have a clue about this should they not?
Kelly Vincent: Absolutely, we’re pushing for that additional training and knowledge all the time. We have good communication lines with the NDIA and Disability SA, so I welcome any feedback to my office to help streamline those processes.
Leon Byner: Thanks Kelly.
Leon Byner: So Michelle Lensink I just can’t believe the things that were not said here. I mean surely if you can do something with NDIS why didn’t the Disability SA or indeed the Department under Ms Bettison do something?
Michelle Lensink: Well I’m absolutely appalled at the way this family’s been treated, when I got that message from John it immediately sent up a red flag, so I said phone my office, first thing in the morning and we’ll see what we can do. The NDIS does have allocations for Emergency cases like this.
Leon Byner: But wouldn’t DCIS know this?
Michelle Lensink: Well you would think so. I mean we did actually try and put this to Minister Vlahos last week in Parliament –
Leon Byner: What happened.
Michelle Lensink :– under a hypothetical, ‘what is your advice to people in this situation’, she said something along the lines of, well Disability SA will walk alongside people with disabilities until they’re transitioned into the NDIS, and I just thought –
Leon Byner: Well that didn’t happen did it.
Michelle Lensink: Well it’s really hollow words Leon; I mean this is a family who were clearly in crisis and they needed help and they needed it immediately and I can’t understand that advisors who work for the Government couldn’t have sorted this out when they were contacted, prior to my office. I mean it took some phone calls, and as John’s outlined we had to go backwards and forwards with the NDIS a few times but it’s been sorted, and my fear is that there are other families out there. We do speak to a lot of families of people with disabilities, and they’re often quite fearful of contacting various Government agencies because they’re scared that they’re going to lose whatever entitlement they have. And that is a terrible situation for South Australians to be in. They’ll often talk to us but if we say, look, do you want us to write to the minister, they’re a bit hesitant because they’re just so fearful. I’m more than happy to help anybody in this situation or a similar situation, because they need help, they deserve help and it’s only fair.
Leon Byner: Alright, this has gotta be raised in the Parliament and especially the advice, ‘make him a ward of the state.’ I mean that’s moronic advice.
Michelle Lensink : It’s, it’s appalling, ah, it’s -a family in grief, a son who is grieving, I, I just am almost lost for words and advice to be honest.
Leon Byner: Alright all I can say, is John Simmons thank you for coming on today and let’s hope that through helping Doug a lot of other people will get the same assistance, which I know is one of the things that you would have liked, and we’ll do what we can to make sure that happens.
Back to Caller John
Caller John: That is absolutely wonderful and yes, and a thank you to Kelly Vincent. I didn’t actually get a chance to mention that before, but I did ring her and they actually did follow me back up with a courtesy call to find out what was going on, so within the kind help of Ms Vincent’s office and Michelle Lensink’s, this was sorted out, like I said, within a week, and without myself speaking up for my in-laws’ sake I would hate to think of the situation they would have been left in. They couldn’t get the correct advice, and going to the Opposition here, we were helped out. And so why can’t that happen from a Labor representative?
Leon Byner: Well maybe the government can give us an answer on that. We will find out whose office it was where this advice was given . Go and make them a ward of the state.
