Towards a Culturally Diverse Disability Sector

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The Current Situation: Services for Anglo-Australians

Currently, three out of four people from a NESB with disability miss out on disability services simply because of their ethnicity. Across NSW only about 5% of all disability service users are people from a NESB. 100% of the disability dollar goes to about 80% of the target population, which is mainly comprised of Anglo-Australians with disability.

There are over 500 disability services in NSW; of those only 6 are either NESB-specific services or multicultural services, dealing exclusively with people from a NESB. The overwhelming number of disability services are so- called 'mainstream' services. These so-called 'mainstream' services are, in fact, predominantly ethno-specific services, as they largely cater to only one particular community: Anglo-Australians.

The Future: Culturally Diverse Service Delivery

The above model, developed to meet the needs of a culturally diverse community, is made up of two components:

1. Culturally Diverse Services

This would be the standard model of operation with services providing for all people of the target group (for example people with disability) in the community regardless of their cultural and linguistic background. Given the cultural diversity of the community, every service must become culturally diverse. Culturally diverse services would:

• have a high level of cultural competence; and
• run in accordance with a culturally diverse service delivery model.

These services would work with all members of the community and purchase culturally specific expertise from ethno-specific services when needed.

2. Ethno-Specific Services

This would be the exceptional way of service provision. An ethno-specific service would need to justify why it needs to be ethno-specific. Thus, a current Anglo-Australian service would need to justify why it is run as an ethno-specific service.

There are reasons why a service might be allowed to operate as an ethno-specific service. For instance:

• to provide to a particular cultural or linguistic group only, where specific cultural or linguistic needs and requirements can be demonstrated; and
• where a particular service model is demonstrated to be more appropriate for delivering services to a particular cultural group only.

The Current System Costs

There are real dollar costs of the current system for people from a NESB with disability and their families. In 2002-2003 the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care spent over $820 million dollars on community and accommodation services for people with disability (for government and non-government services). People from a NESB with disability currently only have access to about $41 million. This means that currently, people from a NESB with disability miss out on state funded disability services to the value of over $150 million annually. The figures for Commonwealth funded disability services are equivalent.

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