This panel will explore evidence being drawn together by governments and the disability sector as NDIS reforms unfold, with a focus on designing and commissioning foundational supports. We will explore how evidence is being used in policy and practice, and gaps in evidence, tied to the introduction of foundational supports and more broadly, government responses to the recommendations of the DRC and NDIS Review.

People with disability often have little or no say in the research that is conducted about them. Although co-research is increasingly considered best practice, there are few resources that can be used to build skills and support people with disability to be involved in all aspects of research. There is also little information about outcomes for people with disability who learn about doing research.
We will present results about whether the course helped participants learn about research, the range and type of benefits, if any, attained (e.g., confidence, relationships, sense of purpose, motivated an interest in research), and how the course can be improved.
An outcome of the research is the creation of resources that can be used to build research capacity in people with disability. Recommendations for delivering the course will be made, and learnings relating to supporting people, predominantly with intellectual disability, to participate in the course and achieve outcomes will be shared.

Plain Language Abstract

This presentation is about people with disability being researchers with people without disability. This is sometimes called co-research.

We ran a course for eight people with disability. The course was about doing research.

We talked to the people after the course. We asked them what they learnt at the course. We asked them what could be done better next time.

We hope that the voices of people with disability can be heard more. We hope that people with disability can be more involved in things that affect them.

The Communication for Safe Care (C4SC) project is a Department of Social Services funded NSW Health project, aiming to enhance healthcare access for people with communication support needs. The project is also partnered with the University of Sydney. 1.2 million Australians have a communication disability, and the inability to communicate in a healthcare setting can mean poor transfer of healthcare information, misdiagnosis, poor healthcare outcomes and preventable death. The C4SC project is working with four services across South Western Sydney and Western NSW to identify the main issues to communication, as well as co-design solutions with people with lived experience. 
At the core of our project is the message of accessibility and inclusive communication. We believe through educating people on accessible communication, we will help ALL people with communication support needs. We learned that nothing can be done without the person experiencing the problem guiding the solution.

Plain Language Abstract

This presentation is about health and communication.

People who have communication differences and difficulties can have health problems. They can have more difficulty when they go to doctors. They might have difficulties sharing information and getting the information that they need.

We did a project called Communication for Safe Care (C4SC).

We worked with four big services for health in NSW.

We asked people with communication differences about their communication difficulties at the services.

We made workshops with them to make things better.

Each of the services made a plan to make things better.

Disability service providers and service users are increasingly required to demonstrate evidence of outcomes to secure support and services. Outcomes measurement can support service evaluation and improvement activities, drive innovation, and increase accountability. Outcomes measurement can also support understanding how people with disabilities are faring to promote equality of outcomes and support advocacy. This paper explores the development of the outcomes framework and measurement approach of an in-home and community support service and the outcomes of value described by customers.

Plain Language Abstract

This presentation is about outcomes. Outcomes are a way of describing how someone is doing with a goal or a part of their life. 

There are many ways to measure if someone is achieving a goal or change in their life. 

We looked at a lot of information in one big disability organisation. We talked to people who used the organisation. 

We asked people how they measured outcomes. 

Some people wanted the outcome of something being better or the outcome of achieving a goal. Some people wanted an outcome of things staying the same. 

We learnt about how outcomes are measured. We learnt that measuring outcomes can be difficult.