The Youth Disability Advocacy Service is the only advocacy service in Victoria dedicated to helping young people with disability achieve their human rights.
We offer a free individual advocacy service to young people aged 12-25 who have a disability. This means that you can come to us if you feel like your rights are being ignored and you need help.
YDAS is continually undertaking systemic advocacy and working on policy issues that are important to young people with disability such as housing, access to NDIS, employment and education. We work to ensure that the interests of young people with disability are heard by government and other decision-makers.
Find out more by visiting our website: www.ydas.org.au
This is bullshit. Pride is something you take in accomplishments, not traits we had no choice in. This misuse of language must stop. FWIW: I am disabled. I'm not proud of it, nor ashamed. It just is what it is.
I find it difficult to speak up and be more assertive for myself. But over the years I’ve gotten better, but it all depends on the circumstances, environment, situation, what is demanded of me, and other things. When I was in high school it was very difficult to speak up because I would forget how to word my “problems”. Because my brain struggles to turn thoughts and feelings into words sometimes when I need help. But then I’m also very articulate and I have a very big vocabulary. I really like explaining things (when I have the energy that is) and for some reason recently I’ve been having autistic burnout. Autistic burnout is when a autistic person will find it very difficult to enjoy the things they love, without using up energy. They will also have difficulty understanding, have trouble verbalising, have troubles with motor skills etc more so than usual. I also find that even the autistic people that are very verbal can also become non verbal when having a autistic burnout. I struggled to verbalise, speak coherently, understand verbal instructions and I was also experiencing brain fog more severely. It was absolutely horrible! I also had a meltdown. I didn’t know that the symptoms I was feeling was called a “autistic burnout” but now that I have a word for my symptoms, my feelings I can actually treat myself better. And hopefully move forward.
Well, I have 3 children/adults on NDIS. This must be our 5th review planning meeting and it was discusting.. it was more like a interrogation and the planners were rude and horrible.. in Melbourne they were lovely.. in cairns (very dumb and arrogant) so sorry wish I could agree it is a nice process.. 😳
When I lived in QLD the head of QLD mental health told me to my face if I didn't take the meds that gave me bad reaction every time, he'd get my wellfair cut because "I was obviously not depressed or suicidal, I was just milking the system". Police took me to hospital after a self harm incident because they had a "duty of care", but the hospital refused any treatment. After a black out I woke up with scissors in one hand and blood all up one arm, experience told me no one would care. I treated myself. Fuck QLD.
None of their supports applied to me, so their plan was to do nothing. Many years later I'm still trying to figure out what they spend my funding on every year. The one issue I wanted help with was dealing with the process of getting a job, something as simple as mowing lawns or stacking shelves. "Oh honey, stacking shelves is REALLY complicated". I'm not cognitively impared, that was really insulting. Mowing lawns? A 6 hour shift was run so badly it was ussually only 2 hours of actual work, where some people are paid to break equipment because they DON'T WANT TO BE THERE! One employer they suggested paid $2 an hour. Not even enough to get the bus there and back and get lunch at their canteen. Clearly it was more about the carers getting a day or 2 off per week than it was about helping people actualise their potential with meaningful work. Meanwhile I hear about people working FOR the NDIS who get paid a DECENT wage to play video games and smoke pot being a pandering pretend friend to people who don't realise how condersending that is.
my assessor blatantly lied (several times) in front of myself, my sister and my advocate during our 3 hour planning meeting. During the meeting (which she knew was being recorded), she stated, " you'll get this, that, X, Y, this amount, etc.). When my plan and funding came through, I initially (and stupidly) thought they had mixed up cases, but no, despite 3 hours of note taking and several detailed medical reports, they managed to condense my activities, disability, needs, goals, etc. down to 1/2 a page of blatant inaccuracies and bullshit. The funding amount was no where near what she had promised. When I finally spoke to the LAC, she said (on speaker phone to me and my advocate), " well you're lucky to get that, and if you don't think it's correct, put in a 'request for review' ".
Hi Angela, Map Your Future is a free program for young people. We are an advocacy service based in Victoria but most of the content in Map Your Future is relevant for young people anywhere in Australia. The program is free for anyone to access online. Please check out the Map Your Future program and its content here: www.yacvic.org.au/ydas/resources-and-training/map-your-future/
I'm disabled and the way NDIS employees have treated me is absolutely despicable. Hanging up mid-call, shouting and verbally abusing me, five of them have told me to commit suicide, one of them was a manager. They've told me I'm a "Burden to taxpayers" and a "waste of life". Not only me dealing with this; every other disabled person I know is being treated like less than nothing by these NDIS pricks. Nobody should be treated the way the NDIS employees have been treating us. Absolutely disgusting. None of them have any experience; a company like this should be run by disabled people and carers, not the people who run it now. It's supposed to make life easier but it's made it more troublesome than it was before. Not to mention they kept the robotic Centrelink answering machine voice, massive red flag there. That's like they want to keep us traumatized. NDIS is a bloody disgrace. I've struggled with suicide since I was 8 years old, people have been telling me I'm worthless and a strain on everyone, especially people at Centrelink, liberal party, school bullies, people at job interviews, dad. I've made several attempts to kill myself and have only stopped myself after thinking how it would affect my loved ones. But every time I deal with the NDIS; They're practically telling me to do it. I hate living in a country that hates disability, I was born this way, I can't do anything about it but I swear; these interractions with centrelink had me thinking about suicide very early on, NDIS is basically Centrelink with 4% less empathy, Massive scam. If I had less willpower; I probably would've taken their "advice" on-board. I work hard, I pay taxes myself, I struggled so hard to even find a job because all of the employers had a problem with me being disabled, I'm only lucky the last interviewer I had was a blind woman. I hate how f--kwits like Bronwyn Bishop and Mathias Corrmann and all the people in parliament can splurge the taxpayer's dosh on anything they want and say "Oopsie, got a free holiday." while I barely have enough money to buy bread at the end of the week and I'm being called a detriment to the economy, along with anyone else that has a disability. Hate this shit. Would be so wonderful to just be a billionaire and tell these NDIS employees to jam it. So many people that still need funding and haven't received it, so many people treated like crap on the phone AND in person. It's a festering mess. I bet none of the people in this ad even managed to receive support.
I'm disability and my first planner was disgusting messed not match to what I am...I'm currently on fixing change to match on me. I'm aware of cheating in the system.
