Thread by @PWDAustralia

For the last day of this #DisabilityRoyalCommission hearing, @MegClementC will be tweeting in the morning and @gdevera later in the day.

We'll also chime in from here periodically - hashtag to follow or mute is #DisabilityRC

@DRC_AU stream will be at disability.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.…

Great point from @RosemaryKayess about segregation increasing the risk of abuse across all areas - housing, education, work. Other witnesses have also emphasised research showing that being part of the wider community, with strong relationships, protects people. #DisabilityRC

People with #disability are not "vulnerable" or "at risk" by default because of our disability! We are MADE vulnerable and PUT at risk by systems that isolate us from other people (with disability and without!)

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The next #DisabilityRoyalCommission witness will be @LIDSLaTrobe who does research on social inclusion.

scholars.latrobe.edu.au/display/cbigby

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@LIDSLaTrobe She is talking about spending a lot of time physically observing what happens in group homes to see things that the people who live there can't explain and the people who work there won't explain.

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Christine Bigby is talking about how the quality of support is important whether someone is in a group home or not.

Chair asks her if people's rights under the #CRPD are inconsistent with group homes, and she says no because some people might want to live in one.

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She says about 30% of people in group homes could move out tomorrow if there was affordable housing + disability support available, but a lot more work needs to be done to create alternatives for the rest.

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Bigby: Some people have never known anything else, so it's hard for them to make those choices. "The only way you can know that is by giving people those experiences."

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She "doesn't want to demonise group homes", but we'd say they're doing a pretty good job of demonising themselves.

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The fact is that all of these practical concerns are valid but do not change what people's rights are.

Let's start from the position that people have a right to not live in a group home, and commit to whatever it takes to create other options.

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Bigby says people with intellectual disability need good support workers backed up by good supervision and organisational support, but they also need relationships outside of support relationships.

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She's now talking about her research into the characteristics of better and worse group homes.

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There are some pretty upsetting descriptions of how staff dehumanise people with #disability in the worst group homes. "Residents were seen as non-people."

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When the researchers asked around about better group homes, they found only three of the homes suggested were actually up to their standards - which definitely says something.

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At those three, support was a lot more individualised, with support workers considering people's different support needs and seeing them as people. (Wow.) Staff had warm relationships with people and felt their purpose was supporting ppl's will and preferences.

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Bigby also says those group homes had very open culture, welcoming outside visitors.

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Bigby: "Good culture is vulnerable to change" when management/leadership are not actively creating that culture.

And what can the people who live there do about it when that happens?

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Bigby's research team looked at a very large number of factors in group homes, and found the only thing that reliably determines how well people are treated is how good the management is.

So who holds management accountable?

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Bigby: We developed training and were repeatedly told that #NDIS funding wasn't enough for staff to actually do the training, so they just watched the videos.

Commission: Is that enough?

Bigby: No!

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The training is free, so that funding shortfall is literally just about paying for staff time.

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81% of the information in an audit is drawn from paperwork, which Bigby's research found is more or less irrelevant to the quality of the service.

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Bigby: Some people living alone with drop-in support "are no more connected to the community than people in group homes" - moving people out of group homes is not enough.

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Bigby says people with more severe impairments may have different preferences to the people with intellectual disability who are able to speak to the Commission.

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She warns against being too politically correct, @almcewin asks what that means. #DisabilityRC

@almcewin Bigby: "I've been criticised by NDIS and advocates for not having people with ID involved with designing the research... When we've talked to hundreds of people with ID in our research, bringing out one person is tokenistic."

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@almcewin Bigby: "It's about having multiple insights."

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@almcewin Next witnesses are Dr Lisa Hamilton, Belinda Epstein-Frisch, and Leanne Pearman, appearing as a panel.

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@almcewin Counsel Assisting asking questions is Mr Fraser. He's introducing all the panellists now.

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@almcewin For more #DisabilityRoyalCommission tweets this afternoon, follow @gdevera