Health Services
Improving the health outcomes and experiences of people living with disability
People living with disability are twice as likely to die from avoidable and preventable illnesses compared to people without disability. They are 7 times more likely to experience poor health outcomes and physical illness compared to the general population and are four times more likely to report significant psychological distress compared to the general population.
JFA Purple Orange therefore calls on all parties and candidates to signal a commitment to formulate health policy that upholds patient safety and improves the experiences and health outcomes of people living with disability in South Australia’s healthcare system by:
- Co-designing and implementing a professional development training program to be rolled out across all hospitals, local health networks, and community and mental health services. The training must focus on addressing ableism (violence, discrimination and marginalization based on disability), teaching disability culture and pride and improving knowledge and practice around the best strategies for supporting the access needs of people living with disability, not only at an individual level, but also at an administration and service systems level.
- Funding teams of Disability Liaison Officers in each Local Health Network. Disability Liaison Officers would work alongside nurses, doctors and/or social workers in Disability Liaison Teams who identify individual accessibility and communication needs and support patients to work with their health teams while they are receiving healthcare – this can alleviate and avoid potential trauma and harm. While we welcome the introduction of the NDIS Health Liaison Officers and their partnership with local health networks, their remit only addresses transitioning and discharge from hospital and does not adequately address the current demand and need for liaison to assist people living with disability to negotiate inaccessibility or exclusion in healthcare systems.
- Further funding to build on the work of My Home Hospital (an initiative enabling hospital care for patients at home, initiated in January 2021) to ensure that people living with disability are able to access health services such as dentists, OB/GYN, ophthalmology and a wide range of services most no- disabled adults are able to access in the community. These services are currently very difficult to access where people living with disability are unable to leave their home and therefore unable to attend community healthcare services or hospital. Healthcare services that are safe, accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the diverse needs of patients living with disability is imperative in addressing these unacceptable health outcomes.
For further information, please contact Robbi Williams, CEO of JFA Purple Orange, on
(08) 8373 8388 or robbiw@purpleorange.org.au.