WHERE HAS THE COMMUNITY GONE? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY SERVICES SYSTEM IN A POST-NDIS WORLD.
Abstract
In recent years, Australia, like a number of industrialised nations, has embraced an individualised, and person-centred, funding system for the provision of disability care and support services, namely the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), moving from a welfare model, to an open and competitive quasi-market.
Despite its many benefits, however, this new environment presents us with, yet, another question – ‘Where has the Community gone?’
This paper looks at the slowly disappearing ‘Disability Community Services System’, exploring whether motivations for collaborative work between Service Providers has changed, and looking at the unintended consequences that come from such changes, such as possible negative impacts on both clients and practitioners.
An analysis regarding working collaboratively in a rapidly changing climate is presented, as well as an argument for safeguarding congenial relationships and ‘knotworking’, with some practical considerations, moving forward.
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