The draft ACT Disability Health Strategy was released for public consultation today, and the ACT Government urges Canberrans to provide feedback during the six-week consultation, which closes on 25 July.
The draft strategy is a 10‑year plan to ensure disabled people have equitable and appropriate access to healthcare in the ACT. Its goals and focus areas include improving health literacy; upgrading service access, design, and delivery; and increasing disability training for our healthcare workforce.
“Canberrans with disability deserve access to equitable and tailored healthcare, and the ACT Government is committed to addressing barriers to ensure we are delivering healthcare that is inclusive and free from discrimination,” ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.
In 2018, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported one in five people in the ACT live with disability. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s People with Disability in Australia 2020 report states health outcomes for people with disability are poorer than for those without disability.
In its 2019 report, Imagining Better: Reflections on access, choice and control in ACT health services for people with disability, the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) found that people with disability in the ACT self-reported poor health outcomes as a result of economic disadvantage; diagnostic overshadowing (where a person’s disability is treated as the problem rather than a person’s presenting medical condition); poor attitudes, including a lack of a social model for responding to disability or health within clinical settings; inappropriate digital and physical infrastructure leading to access barriers and poor communications; and services gaps, including a lack of tailored services to help manage diagnostic conditions (the primary and secondary health impacts of different kinds of disabilities).
In 2020, the ACT Government committed to develop and implement an ACT Disability Health Strategy to help address these issues, and to improve health outcomes for people with disability
The draft strategy was developed and guided by the ACT Disability Health Strategy Steering Committee, which comprises people with disability, carers, service providers, advocacy groups, and ACT Government representatives.
It is based on feedback from previous consultations, and national and local legislation, policy, and research.
“The draft strategy reflects feedback received from the community and stakeholders through an extensive consultation process, but we want as much community input as possible before it is finalised,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“The draft strategy is available now, including in an easy English format. We look forward to engaging with Canberrans, especially those with lived experience of disability, to ensure that the strategy will best meet their needs.
“Over the next six weeks, the ACT Health Directorate will engage with stakeholders to get their feedback on the draft strategy, but we are also very keen to hear from anyone who identifies as having a disability, carers, and other members of the community.”
To see the draft strategy or to provide feedback, visit https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/act-disability-health-strategy
