Graduate Diploma of Disability

This unit introduces the contemporary landscape of person-centred support and develops understanding of systems, services and practices of contemporary disability support. It explores the genesis and development of person-centredness as an approach to policy and practice in disability and examines how this maps to the nature and structure of the Australian disability service system. Knowledge will be developed about the range of service types, the disability workforce and the diversity of service users and their support needs and applied to real world settings. Characteristics of the range of models of support, assistive technologies and support relationships (both formal and informal), are explored in order to develop a deep understanding of the issues that people with disability and those who support them experience in the support encounter. Key frameworks underpinning disability support in the context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and beyond, including safeguarding, service quality and practice standards will be explored to promote understanding of best practice in person-centred support to enable  people with disability to exercise choice and control in their lives and promote their independence.

This unit introduces students to the key ethical challenges in promoting and supporting the rights and choices of people with disability. Spanning issues of social justice, human and legal rights, risks and safeguards, the ethical responsibilities of professionals working with people with disability to support their rights and choices is explored as an integral part of disability practice. In engaging with ethical issues of practice and in and about the lives of people with disability, students will develop knowledge and skills to recognise and articulate their own lifelong learning needs in relation to disability and develop capabilities and strategies to maintain professional, technical and research-based knowledge to ensure their professional practice aligns with contemporary developments and innovation in the field of disability.

This unit explores the ways disability and inclusion are understood and responded to beyond the specialist disability service system, examining the impact of barriers to social and economic participation in the broader service and community context.  Foundational concepts of inclusion, participation, citizenship, and access and accessibility are examined in the context of meeting human rights obligations and societal expectations that people with disability are able to make choices and have opportunities to take part in the political and policy process, education, employment, recreation and culture on the same basis as others. Similarly, mainstream human, social and other services have obligations to make their services accessible and responsive to the needs of people with disability. Students will explore the multiple interpretations of community participation and consider different models for working to support inclusion through universal design, disability adjustments and accommodations and systems change.

This unit develops knowledge and skills required of practitioners to select, implement and evaluate approaches to case management across human services with a focus on disability and aged care. Students will develop advanced knowledge of the definitions, theories, characteristics and processes of case management in human services focusing on the NDIS and the aged care sector. Approaches to critiquing the influences on services and practice models and critical issues and ethical dilemmas in case management will be canvassed. Collaborative skills and key research literacies will be explored to enable students to develop their expertise to implement knowledge into their professional practice.

This unit explores issues in theory, policy and practice in working with diversity and complexity in client populations. Utilising the theoretical orientation of intersectionality, students will develop a critical appreciation of the multiple and intersecting domains of difference and the ways that these can compound to heighten risks for marginalisation and social disadvantage. Understandings of key principles in working with the variety of diverse and complex issues associated with gender, race, ethnicity, and disability/impairment are developed and best practice approaches explored.