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National conference to celebrate achievements in disability services

November 07, 2005

Mead.jpgA national conference at The University of New England at the end of this month will celebrate Australian achievements in the provision of services for people with a disability.

Challenge Armidale is convening the National Best Practice in Disability Conference, which will run from Tuesday 29 November to Thursday 1 December. Challenge, which provides services for people with an intellectual disability in and around Armidale, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

About 150 people from throughout Australia will participate in the conference. “We thought that, for our 50th anniversary, we would do something special to celebrate everything that our people and organisations do well,” said Mr Kevin Mead, General Manager of Challenge Armidale. “Best practice is something that should be shared.”

This will be the first national conference highlighting best practice in disability services. Mr Mead (pictured here) said that providers of these services often had to be so focused on simply complying with government regulations that they had little time for innovation or vision. “At our conference,” he continued, “they’ll get a chance to ask and answer questions such as ‘Do you succeed?’ rather than ‘Do you comply?’”

Mr Mead said he believed that the New England / North-west region was “a centre of innovation for disability work”, and that Armidale, as a centre of educational excellence, was an ideal location for a best-practice conference. Challenge Armidale and UNE signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year as a basis for broadening the relationship between the two organisations. (This relationship includes the employment of some Challenge clients on the UNE campus, and UNE’s use of Challenge services such as paper recycling and mail packaging.)

“Our range of subjects at the conference will include (but not be limited to) governance and management, ageing and disability, health and wellbeing, innovation in employment and accommodation support programs, day programs, therapy services and children’s services,” Mr Mead said. The conference program (plus registration and other details) is at: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/confco/bpdc2005.

Keynote speakers will include Dr Roger Stancliffe and Dr Vivienne Riches (both Senior Research Fellows at the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies in Sydney), Judith Ellis (a leader in family advocacy), and Andrew Buchanan (Chair of the NSW Disability Advisory Council). The Federal Minister for Family and Community Services, Kay Patterson, will address the conference.

Selected entries in the 2005 Olphert Art Competition for people with an intellectual disability will be on display throughout the conference. The Olphert Art Competition, organised by the conference committee, Challenge Armidale, and the Olphert family, is an official event of the International Day of People with Disabilities. The winning entries will be announced on Thursday 1 December, and they and other selected entries will be exhibited at the New England Regional Art Museum throughout December. (Full details about the competition, and an entry form, are available on the conference Web site quoted above.)

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 7, 2005 04:34 PM