Pillar 2: Health, housing and wellbeing – 48 actions

Health – 12 actions

Hospital and health services are changing their policies and procedures to provide improved health care for people with disability.

One such initiative is the Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) program, which started in 2020, and has now been evaluated.

From July 2021 to the end of April 2024, the DLO program responded to around 37,500 referrals from people with disability seeking support to access vital healthcare. Most people sought support to address barriers to booking appointments, arranging reasonable adjustments including mobility or physical supports, communication assistance and psychosocial support.

The program is also leading co-designed health service improvements. This includes trialling a disability identification question set in the electronic medical record system of some health services. This initiative supports people with disability to communicate their needs.

Many hospitals are also establishing disability champions as part of their disability action plans. These initiatives ensure hospitals and health services can provide support for people with disability while they receive health care. They can include forming specific disability inclusive committees, with the disability champion as the chair. They may also employ disability project officers to provide resources and training to staff across the organisation.

To address intersectional health care, health agencies have funded and engaged disability organisations to develop inclusive practice programs. Examples are health promotion and training materials about sexual and reproductive health for women with disability, and training toolkits which address stigma and unconscious bias for LGBTIQA+ and migrant communities.

These measures will ensure people with disability and other identified priority populations receive a more inclusive and safer health care experience.

We have completed 2 actions. A further 6 actions are on track.

We are still working on 4 actions:

• The Department of Health will explore opportunities to develop e-learning and other training packages that can provide disability awareness training to health services. This action has been implemented by several health services, who are already delivering disability awareness training.
• Some health services and their DLOs have started delivering training that includes a focus on inclusion of people with disability in health settings.
• The Department of Health will engage with peak bodies to work on professional development and disability awareness strategies.
• Some universities are already delivering disability awareness training as a pre-service qualification. The department will engage further with universities and professional bodies.

Mental health – 3 actions

Following the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the Victorian Government established the Diverse Community Working Group. This group included people with lived experience of disability. The final meeting of the working group was held on 28 February 2024, attended by the Minister for Mental Health.

The working group provided expert advice to guide the development of the Diverse Communities and Mental Health Framework. The framework is in the final stages of approvals. It aims to:

• deliver safe and inclusive mental health treatment, care and support
• better integrate community organisations including mental health and wellbeing services
• promote good mental health and wellbeing.

The framework is co-designed with people from diverse communities, organisations and services that represent and work to support and promote mental health and wellbeing. It is also informed by mental health service providers and organisations.

The Victorian Government allocated 3 years of funding from 2024–2027 towards a Mental Health Interface Program that will strengthen the interface between consumers, mental health inpatient services and the NDIS.

The program aims to:

• improve consumers’ discharge outcomes (in both inpatient and community settings)
• build the capability of the clinical mental health workforce to support consumers and their carers and families to access the NDIS
• provide a contact point at state funded clinical mental health services for consumers and the NDIS
• proactively work with the NDIS to address both systemic issues and individual matters such as delayed discharge of NDIS applicants and/or participants from mental health inpatient services.

We have completed 1 action. A further 2 actions are on track.

Housing – 14 actions

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing has integrated 4 of the systemic reforms into the Big Housing Build program. They are universal design, intersectional approaches, co-design and Aboriginal self-determination.

The department is using best practice universal design principles in social housing. This means houses and apartments will meet the Liveable Housing Design, Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) Standard in accordance with the National Construction Code 2022. These homes will be built with higher accessibility standards. They can be adapted to meet the residents’ changing needs.

The department also completed improvements and upgrades to 450 government-owned Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) homes in December 2022. This improved the quality and amenity of homes, supporting the independence of around 1,800 residents.

The Victorian Government as a SDA provider is no longer building group homes (SDA homes with 4 or more bedrooms). The department will continue to work with residents who want to move from larger homes to alternative and more contemporary accommodation.

Mana-na woorn-tyeen maar-tarkoot is a self-determined housing and homelessness framework. It was developed by First Peoples for First Peoples. The Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Forum (AHHF) is part of the framework’s governance. AHHF drives the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s priorities for First People's housing. This includes a 10% target that all new housing funding should be for First Peoples. The Big Housing Build commits to leasing 400 homes to registered community housing organisations for First Peoples housing and for the eventual transfer of ownership to Aboriginal community-controlled housing organisations.

We have completed 3 actions. A further 9 actions are on track. We are still working on 2 actions involving the coordination of housing and supports.

Supporting a high-quality NDIS – 11 actions

The Victorian Government works with the Commonwealth and other states and territories as co-governors of the NDIS. The aim of this work is to secure the future of the NDIS and make sure the scheme stays true to its original intent.

We continue to advocate to the Commonwealth to ensure the NDIS’s intersecting systems and structures are developed in ways that avoid discrimination and disadvantage.

We also continue to fund programs for people with disability who are not eligible for the NDIS. This includes work to ensure that people with disability can access the supports they need outside the NDIS.

The Disability Royal Commission and NDIS Review recommended significant changes to the way disability services are regulated. This includes changes to registration requirements for providers, adult safeguarding functions, and complaint handling.

The Victorian Government is committed to continuing to strengthen the regulatory framework for the benefit of people with disability.

We have completed 3 actions. A further 8 actions are on track.

Children and families – 8 actions

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing delivers programs for children and young people with disability and it also supports families to access the NDIS and necessary supports, with the goal of sustaining care in the home.

The Parenting Children with Complex Disability program supports families with children with complex needs to access the NDIS and to secure necessary supports. This includes advocacy and advice, practical support and/or material aid, counselling, parent–child interaction and community connection and social inclusion. The program helps to sustain care and is essential in preventing family breakdown.

The department funds 34 specialist disability practitioners. Practitioners support families with disability to access the NDIS and necessary supports. The program also boosts the capability of the child and family workforce to build skill and expertise.

The Steps to Confident Parenting program supports parents with cognitive disability. It is successful in sustaining care and keeping families together. Deakin University is evaluating how well the program performs against its stated objectives.

All these programs build skills and knowledge for children and families and create a disability confident, skilled and inclusive workforce. They also provide opportunities for us to gather effective data for outcomes reporting.

For children in out-of-home care services, the Victorian Government has:

• improved access to therapeutic supports for young people in residential care. Therapeutic specialists work with NDIS practitioners (where there is a NDIS plan) or support the young person’s care team to complete a NDIS access request (where the young person has a disability and there is no NDIS plan). As part of the assessment process, therapeutic specialists must also identify any additional assessments required and link children with other services as needed. This includes referring children for disability assessments if needed.
• improved health assessments and management plans through the statewide rollout of Pathway to Good Health. This helps us to identify the disability and health needs of children in the child protection care system. The health services that deliver this program can help children access services including the NDIS.

We have completed 1 action. A further 7 actions are on track.