The Australian: NDIS the key to 'happy families'

NDIS the key to 'happy families'

• by:RACHEL BAXENDALE
• From:The Australian
• January 23, 201412:00AM

Vanessa McCallum, left, and Tina Gulino are participants in a program designed to assess the effectiveness of DisabilityCare. Picture: Stuart McEvoySource: News Limited

DESPITE having a five-year-old daughter with significant physical and intellectual disabilities and a husband who underwent chemotherapy after being diagnosed with leukaemia last year, Geelong mother Vanessa McCallum says she and her family are "actually really happy and relaxed".

The McCallums' optimism is largely due to the younger of their two daughters, Tayla, becoming one of the first people to benefit from the national disability insurance scheme.

Ms McCallum, 43, spoke to The Australian as one of 22 participants in LEAD Barwon, a Victorian government-funded project aimed at developing the communication and advocacy skills of the disabled people, families and carers who are the first users of DisabilityCare, to help ensure the new scheme achieves its aims.

Tayla has Kleefstra Syndrome, a rare genetic abnormality that means she is unable to walk without support and is non-verbal and incontinent. She goes to Barwon Valley, a school for students with IQs below 50.

With the introduction of the scheme, the McCallums have gone from receiving a Helping Children with Autism lump sum, to needs-based funding, which will fund daily care for Tayla, respite for the family, and house and car modifications - including a new ramp and stair lift in their home. "Before the NDIS we would get respite 16 hours a month, so when she was on holidays we would have to cut and paste that and put it on weekdays just to be able to get her and her (eight-year-old) sister off to school in the mornings," Ms McCallum said.

"Stepping into NDIS, it's basically what do we need for Tayla to meet her personal needs and also for us to survive and function happily as a family. She is thriving, and her social level, her cognitive level, just seems to be getting better and better with all the different people she's with."

Ms McCallum said DisabilityCare was also playing a huge role in increasing the capacity of disabled people and their families to work. She said she had been able to work more hours in her job as an anaesthetic nurse.

"Tayla also has a very intelligent, articulate sister, who won't hopefully in the future have mental health issues and stress associate with being the sibling and the carer," Ms McCallum said. "So it's actually helping four people and the wider community."

Through the LEAD Barwon program, Ms McCallum has been able to network with other carers and disabled adults, including Tina Gulino, 45, who has cerebral palsy.

Born into a large Italian Australian family, Ms Gulino said the NDIS had realised a 40-year dream she and her parents and siblings never thought they'd live to see: "My parents took me into the specialist here in Geelong, and he told them to forget they ever had me and put me in an institution. They wouldn't have dreamt of doing that, but it was still very tough.

"It's so good to hear that families aren't having to have the same nightmares my family had 40 years ago."