Page 3975 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 2011
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intended to provide individualised funding for the lifetime care and support needs of people with significant disability across the ages. The scheme could potentially cover goods and services used by students with a disability in education if these were also necessary for everyday living.
Examples would include a hearing aid or a wheelchair. The NDIS does not replace the ACT Education and Training Directorate’s responsibility for disability support in schools and, as such, the NDIS does not relate to disability in education. I think part of the work is an ongoing protocol between the two elements. I note that Minister Barr secured $5 million in the recent budget to support children with a disability in ACT schools.
Whilst Mr Doszpot comes in here and seems genuinely concerned for families with children with disability and individuals with disability, it is worth noting that his interest does not extend too far because February was the last time that Mr Doszpot asked a question on disability. I am not quite sure if he gets the short straw in their caucus or is not able to ask, but, again, it is a shame that someone who appears to have such an interest does not take advantage of this place and ask questions. Even today when I tabled a scoping study report on after-school and vacation care, there was no commentary; there was no participation from Mr Doszpot. I will continue to improve services as and when I can for people with a disability. The offer is always there for Mr Doszpot to be informed of those activities.
West Belconnen community health centre
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (6.11): Two weeks ago I went to the west Belconnen community health centre for a tour, and I thought I might share my thoughts about west Belconnen community health centre with the Assembly. West Belconnen community centre has 5½ thousand members and it provides services on two sites, at Charnwood in the old high school and at Totterdell Street in Belconnen. There is a family membership fee of $50, so each family has to pay $50 to be part of this cooperative.
I first became aware of the west Belconnen community health centre in 2007, when I was a member of the Capital Region Area Consultative Committee and they were applying for a regional partnerships grant. The west Belconnen community health centre is important for three reasons: firstly, it illustrates to us some very good public health principles; secondly, it reinforces our knowledge about cooperatives; and, thirdly, its funding is something that we really should think about.
Firstly, the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it by the population served. That is not my statement; it was made by Hart in 1971, quite a while ago, in the Lancet and it is called the inverse care law. What it is basically saying is that medical services are less likely to be provided where they are needed. So if the population needs care, they are less likely to get it, and if they do not need it, they are more likely to have more care available. This particularly interrelates with the social determinants of health, which we discussed extensively here last week. We know that socioeconomic disadvantage is an indicator of poorer health. The active community residents in west Belconnen did a survey in 2005 and found that they had
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