New Disability Services: The Critical Role of Staff in a Consumer-directed Empowerment Model of Service for Physically Disabled People

Australian disability services have undergone a major review. Initiated by the government and now enshrined in new legislation, this review has significant implications for non-government social welfare organisations as major service providers in that it demands a significant service delivery reorientation. This paper describes one demonstration project involving four physically disabled persons, one female and three males, located in one domiciliary unit which signposts this new service direction and identifies it as a consumer-directed and empowering model. This is contrasted with previous institutional and care models of service. It identifies the staff role as important in this client-empowering model of service and raises a range of critical issues in the consumer-staff interface which enhances such empowerment. The paper suggests that where these staffing features and empowerment processes are lacking deinstitutionalisation may well have occurred without consumer empowerment being achieved.