Hi. My name is John. I’m a 50 year old man with Cerebral Palsy, which confines me to a wheelchair. I talk via a Communication Board.
Aged 26, after 22 years in various institutions, and with the help of Rev. Jack Frewen-Lord and the Mount Lousia Uniting Church [Townsville], I moved out into a flat in the community.
This led to deinstitutionalisation in Qld.
As a person with disabilities who is credited with pioneering deinstitutionalisation in Queensland, I've formed "Give Us Our Lives Within the Community" through sheer frustration with the Qld. State Government who treats people with disabilities [pwd] like third class citizens.
Deinstitutionalisation in Qld. has only changed the "bricks and mortar" stuff, not the "real life" stuff.
We are being put into the community, being encouraged to live "normal" lives, but this government refuse us the required means to meet our basic day-to-day survival needs.
The lives of pwd are being endangered by the Qld. government's "display cabinet" approach.
Recent media stories have reinforced this, and we need to combine our voices, and stand up against this government's mistreatment of pwd.
While Disability Services [DSQ], cries “poor”, they continue creating layers of management positions which are filled by people who are rarely available to people with disabilities who get denied basic human rights such as three meals a day, down to being able to answer the call of nature.
DSQ is not deinstitutionalising pwd. They are invading pwd's privacy and breaking the Commonwealth State and Territory Disability Agreement [CSTDA].
Please join our group, and share your story.
If you would like to contact me, please do so.