Opportunity to advice Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disability, about AT Reform

Published 10th May 2010

** Opportunity to advise Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disability, about AT Reform**

Natasha Layton (an OT) and Ricky Buchanan (a blogger and equipment user) accompanied OT Australia to a meeting with Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Childrens Services on Friday 30th April.

The meeting addressed topics including:
-  strengths and weaknesses of the current equipment funding and provision across Australia
- issues with the built environment, the relationship between AT and environmental interventions, and UD.
-  what is best practice in equipment provision and what happens currently
- the equipment provision process from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders
- the supply chain
- how current equipment provision looks when benchmarked against world standards such as WHO ICF and UN CRPD

To build on this meeting, we would like everybody affected by the Assistive Technology (aids and equipment) System - including users, carers, and professionals - to contribute examples or stories about their experiences. We would like to know what its like trying to obtain the assistive technology solutions (including equipment, environment change and personal care) required.
For example:
- Can consumers obtain appropriate equipment and can it be obtained in a timely fashion?
- What's it like dealing with the administration of funding programmes, especially when you need to obtain funding from multiple sources?
- What its like to use specific purpose funders such as education funders, workplace funders, individual payments, etc?

Writing about the trials and tribulations you went through with a specific funder or with efforts to get a specific piece of equipment would be a really great format for what we need, but other formats are fine too.

This information will be collated and provided to Bill Shorten's office, as part of making the case for AT reform and system change. Please forward your contributions, including your own contact details, to Natasha Layton by Sunday 9 May.