Disability

FLATMATESCaring

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - The Australian September 18, 2025: Ben Sweet is sharing a home with his flatmate Colleen as part of an individualised living arrangement, and says for him the arrangement is far preferable from a disability group home. These living arrangements also have the potential to save the NDIS billions and provide much better circumstances for people with disability.Picture: The Australian / Nadir Kinani

Ben has found his dream home – and saved the NDIS millions

Homeshare and flatmate arrangements for people with disability not only offer greater independence for NDIS participants, but could also save the scheme hundreds of millions of dollars.

Natasha Robinson

national treasureMedical

The NDIS is on life-support. But my aunt Vicki is why this vital scheme needs saving

Our health editor Natasha Robinson was at the National Press Club in Canberra this week as Health Minister Mark Butler laid out his vision for NDIS reform. At home, her family was grappling with a broken system.

Natasha Robinson

FORENSIC HEALTHMental Health

Shiny lock with chain on rusty metal poles, background with copy space, full frame horizontal composition

Unconvicted, disabled and indefinitely detained: what’s happening in our justice system

Those who commit crimes but are not criminally culpable because of mental impairment are sent to forensic detention and should be in hospitals – but that’s not always the case as healthcare goes missing for the most severely unwell.

Natasha Robinson

PTSD TREATMENTMental Health

Scott Griffin , shown relaxing after work, turned to alternative medicines for relief from his PTSD symptoms. He poses for a portrait at his home in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, on June 27, 2025. Nate Smallwood for The Wall Street Journal

‘Combat cocktail’: how America overmedicates veterans

US veterans from conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are being prescribed combinations of multiple powerful drugs to treat post-traumatic stress. The outcomes can be disastrous.

Shalini Ramachandran and Betsy McKay

Mystery conditionMedical

Illustration showing erythema migrans, a characteristic rash seen in patients with Lyme disease. The causative bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and the typical tick vector are both shown in close up

Some doctors acknowledge chronic Lyme disease. Not in Australia

Newer trials are starting to track Lyme patients and investigate potential treatments. But in Australia the disease is not recognised.

BRIANNA ABBOTT

CHRONIC HEALTHMedical

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - The Australian. July 16, 2025: Lesley Hoatson case study in a health story about chronic illness in primary care. However, she is extremely fit and is currently packing for a hiking trip in the French Alps. Picture: The Australian / Nadir Kinani

Medical rarity: Lesley has switched GPs only once in 40 years

Trying to find a doctor who can provide continuity of care is increasingly difficult. But it’s also key to better-quality healthcare, which can result in improved physical and mental wellbeing, according to a landmark international report.

Penny Timms

EXCLUSIVEPolitics

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - May 26, 2025: Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Disability and the NDIS, Mark Butler holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Don’t cave to community: bureaucrats give ‘critical’ NDIS decree

Labor must ignore disabled Australians’ pleas to slow reforms to the NDIS if the government wants to hit its reduced growth targets, bureaucrats have warned in a frank reality check.

Sarah Ison

MAGAZINEThe Weekend Australian Magazine

EMBARGO FOR TWAM, 12 JULY 2025. ONE TIME USE. FEES APPLY. Print inside, online, social media in context of article only. Grace Spence Green, at 22 was a medical student who was paralysed by a falling man. She is now a Doctor and has written a book: Extract from To Exist As I Am. Photo: Imogen Forte / The Telegraph

A falling man left me paralysed – it made me a better doctor

A stranger jumped from the top floor of a shopping centre – and in an instant, Grace Spence Green’s life changed forever.

Eleanor Steafel

APPEALS NIGHTMARECaring

Amanda Coll with her son Finley and the device he uses to communicate. Finley is quadriplegic, has severe cerebral palsy and is non-verbal. He uses as assisted device in order to be able to speak, but the NDIS is refusing to allow him to purchase a new device after his old one broke. Picture Matt Turner.

NDIS says no to giving Finley new voice

Thousands of claims just like Finley Coll’s are being fought in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by people with a disability. There can be ‘long, crazy process’ before that happens.

Natasha Robinson

sources of wasteCaring

19 March 2025; a collage of a silhouette of a woman in a wheelchair with moody weather in the background. Collage. Sources: iStock. Ratio 4:3.

NDIS spends $1bn-plus on fees for middlemen managers

Billions of dollars a year in NDIS funding is being soaked up by middlemen plan managers and support co-ordinators who are arguably no longer necessary and drain taxpayer funds that should be spent directly on people with disabilities.

Natasha Robinson

ExclusiveHealth

24/1/2025: Louise Williams and daughter Mikaela 16, who has a spinal cord injury. Mikaela has been waiting 15 months to approval of critical supports from the NDIS. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Mikaela is exactly who the NDIS should be supporting. So why has it left her ‘stranded’?

Sixteen-year-old Mikaela Williams has quadriplegia. But the effort of learning to get on her feet and scoot around with assistance in a walker is nothing compared to navigating the NDIS.

Natasha Robinson

DISABILITY AND LOVEHealth

12/12/24: Jess Schonberger with her parents Debbie and Earl and brother Ariel. Jess has the incredibly rare Canavan Disease. Doctors said she would die before she turned 3. She is now 33. She is severely disabled and lives with her family in Randwick with round the clock care. John Feder/The Australian.

They were told their baby would die before she turned three. How did she defy the odds?

Diagnosed with a life limiting illness at five months, doctors told Jess Schonberger’s parents their first-born would not see her third birthday. What happened next has astounded everyone.

Fiona Harari

Q&AThe Weekend Australian Magazine

Dinesh Palipana made headlines for overcoming his disability to receive an internship as a doctor at Gold Coast Hospital.

‘How can we take care of our patients, if we don’t care for each other?’

He was left a quadriplegic after a car accident 14 years ago. But Dinesh Palipana defied the odds to become an emergency room doctor. Now, he’s taking aim at a medical fraternity that needs to do more to protect the next generation.

Jessica Clement

ExclusiveCaring

For SAWeekend story about disabled devotees. Close up women on a wheel chair holding mens hand

Albanese facing a pay-grab stampede

Nearly 300,000 disability workers will demand taxpayers fund an above-inflation pay rise in the wake of $15bn in wage increases given to childcare and aged-care staff.

Natasha Bita and Sarah Ison

OPINIONCaring

Dylan Alcott OAM is an Australian Paralympian and founder of Dylan Alcott Foundation

One in five of us live with disability, it’s time we are seen by brands

When I turned on the TV, the radio or read the newspaper growing up, I never saw or heard anybody like me. But with help of industry, creatives, consumers and the wider public, things are changing. Slowly, but they are.

Dylan Alcott

magazineCaring

EMBARGO FOR TWAM 26 FEB 2022. FEES MAY APPLY. 12/02/2022 Lawyer and disability advocate Sam Drummond with his partner Jo and daughter Gwendoline. Josh Robenstone/TWAM

‘Being a parent was never really on the cards. Until it was’

Parents who live with disability share their fears, challenges and triumphs.

Sam Drummond and Elly-May Barnes

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/topics/disability