Around 188,000 Australians used disability support services
funded under the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement
in 2003-04, a new report published by the Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found.
Disability Support Services 2003-04 shows that the
188,000 users of disability support services accessed services
provided by nearly 9,000 service type outlets nation-wide. This is
the first time that data has been available on all disability
services over a full financial year.
There were five main service type groupings provided by these
outlets, including employment services, and accommodation support,
community support, community access and respite services.
Of these service types, community support services (including
therapy support, and early childhood intervention and case
management) were the most widely accessed (42% of all service
users).
About one-third of service users accessed more than one service
type outlet over the 12-month period. The most common combination
of services accessed was that of accommodation support and
community access services (including learning and life skills
development).
In other findings, the majority of service users were male,
constituting 59% of all users, while 3.5% of users were identified
as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.
The most commonly reported primary disability group was
intellectual disability, reported by 45% of all service users,
followed by physical (13%) and psychiatric disabilities (8%).
For service users aged 16 years or more, the Disability Support
Pension was the primary source of income for 62%, followed by paid
employment (9%) and other pensions or benefits (9%).
Report co-author Tim Beard said that just over two-fifths (42%)
of service users reported having an informal carer.
In 69% of these cases the informal carer was the mother of the
service user, and in 6% of cases it was the service-user's father.
Of the 57,815 informal carers whose age group was collected, 6,472
(11%) were aged 65 years or more.
A total of $3.3 billion was spent by governments in 2003-04 on
services provided under the Commonwealth State/Territory Disability
Agreement.
5 August 2005
Further information: Mr Tim Beard, AIHW, tel.
02 6244 1270; or (mob): 0407 915 851.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of the Disability Support
Services 2003-04