Imagining Better – Reflections on access, choice and control in ACT health services for people with disability

This report is from a project conducted by ACTCOSS with support from the ACT Office For Disability as part of the ACT’s commitment to implementing the National Disability Strategy. 

The report shows that people with disability self-report poor health outcomes arising from personal and structural issues:

• 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
• Inadequate digital and physical infrastructure leading to access barriers and poor communications
• Service gaps including a lack of tailored services to help manage diagnostic conditions (i.e, to understand, treat and manage the primary and secondary health impacts of different kinds of disabilities)

It notes some areas of good practice and positive investments including at the new University of Canberra Hospital. The report concludes that tangible, specific initiatives with adequate investments are needed to improve access to health services, while a package of work and measures is needed to ensure more supports and cohesion at the NDIS and health interface, including ensuring disability supports continue whilst people access health services. 

Report: Imagining Better – Reflections on access, choice and control in ACT health services for people with disability (PDF) | (docx)

• Attachment A: A Cure for Wellness – the health focussed edition of The Canberra Disability Review (PDF) | (docx)
• Attachment B: Medicopoly – access, choice and control in health (PDF) | (docx)
• Attachment C: Notes from the interactive panel ‘Let’s Talk Health’ – International Day of People with Disability 2017 (PDF) | (docx) | (see also the Facebook live video of the event).