Include family care tasks in disability support

Allow tasks that a non-disabled person would reasonably be expected to perform for their family, friends, whanau, community, or pets to be included in a disabled person's support plan. 
Disabled people have as much right to care for their whanau, family, and even pets, as anyone else. 
Currently if a disabled person does not have the physical ability to dress themselves, then they get funding for 'personal cares', and a support worker to come and help them get dressed. But if that same disabled person also doesn't have the physical ability to dress their two-year-old child, then they cannot get assistance with that. 
A blind person who cannot drive gets a discounted taxi through the total mobility scheme, but the taxi is not allowed to make a round trip, so the blind person cannot pop out, swing by school, and pick up their niece for a sleepover. Or even their own kid. 
People who can't vacuume the house, brush their hair, go for a walk, or go to the toilet without assistance, etc can have all those tasks put in their care plan. But you cannot have tasks in your care plan for the care of pets, such as brushing your dog's hair, changing the litterbox, or taking the dog for a walk. 
Or, so far as I am aware, in care of your children, such as changing your baby's nappy. 
Currently disabled people needing support workers are seen as a single item, not as a part of a family, not as a complex being, with complicated relationships and responsibilities. That's not how people work. 
We need the right to care for our families, and our community responsibilities. To have children, and friends, and pets, and families. To do all the tasks that come with these complex relationships, and have all the assistance we need. Whether that be supplies, support worker tasks, funding, etc etc etc. 
 

Why the contribution is important

Disabled people are not currently given what they need to be an active part of their whanau, we are not given choices, we are not given the right to do normal things that are granted us through our human rights, and our rights as a part of society. 
Some of us are effectively denied the right to have children. That's eugenics, which to be clear, is bad. 
Others have their children stolen from them, due to either ableist assumptions that they cannot parent due to their disabilities, or due to not getting the support they need to care for their whanau as anyone else would. Often both. 
If I have to tell you this is BAD. Then I have already lost. This should be blatantly obvious. 
 

by AceTimelord on March 11, 2023 at 06:21AM

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