The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has released its Sixth progress report highlighting a range of activities held over the first six months of 2022.
During the period between 1 January and 30 June 2022, the Royal Commission received a 65 per cent increase in submissions on the previous six months (a total of 1,389 submissions). The Royal Commission also published three public hearing reports, two policy documents related to the Omicron wave of COVID-19, and a research report on changing community attitudes. The Royal Commission also:
- held five stand-alone public hearings on topics such as employment, education and family violence
- conducted 294 private sessions
- facilitated two policy roundtables on guardianship and supported decision-making.
We held a range of community engagement activities during this period with some focusing on women, girls and children and others on First Nations communities in Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The Sixth progress report also draws attention to impacts the Royal Commission had in the first half of this year. These include commitments from the Australian Government to three major health care investments including:
- to reduce the inappropriate use of psychotropic medication to manage the behaviours of people with disability and older people
- the release of a ten-year primary health care plan with a specific action area on ‘improved access to appropriate care for people at risk of poorer health outcomes’ which includes people with disability
- funding for a National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.
Submissions to the Royal Commission remain open until 31 December 2022 and more information can be found at https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/share-your-story.
