IWC hosts NDIS conference

IWC is proud to host the 2nd National NDIS Conference: Doing It The First People Way in Cairns from October 23-25.

The conference is designed to provide organisations, service managers and front line workers in the disability sector the opportunity to network, discuss and share information in regards to the successes and challenges they have experienced in the rollout and the implementation of one of Australia’s largest social policy reforms, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

IWC is the only Indigenous organisation in Australia to have won an NDIS Local Area Coordinator contract, and will be delivering four keynotes at the conference. It is delivering the LAC role across the Bundaberg region.

The ABS 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) stated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience disability at more than twice the rate as compared to non-Indigenous Australians.

In 2015, one in seven (14.8%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reported living with physical disability which is the most commonly reported type of disability; whereas, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (aged 0-14 years), intellectual disability (7.0%) was most commonly reported.

Other forms of disability include psychosocial disability (6.6%), intellectual disability (5.9%), and head injury, stroke or acquired brain injury (2.1%), sensory and speech disability.