From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host Sam Colley.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
We really need to see service providers or other disability workers calling out risky conduct. And the ultimate purpose, again, is to make sure that people with disabilities are safe when receiving disability services.
Welcome to the program. This week we have a chat with Victorian Disability Worker Commissioner Dan Stubbs about a new campaign. The VDC is running to ensure the safety of people with disabilities when receiving support services and working with support workers. That conversation's coming up very shortly, so make sure to stick around. Then after you hear from Dan, I'll catch up with producer, writer and actor of the new movie My Eyes coming out on the 28th of May. Suzanne Chambers.
Then after that, we wrap up with some FYI news from the editor of FYI, Liz Dalakouras. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. I started my conversation with Dan by asking him about the Victorian Disability Worker Commission and his role as commissioner.
Sure, Sam. So the Victorian Disability Worker Commission is the only regulator like it in Australia. We regulate all disability workers in Victoria and really that any support worker or practitioner working with people with disabilities to support them in relation to barriers created by their disability. It's a pretty broad definition, and the overall objective is to promote and
provide for a safer, stronger disability sector in Victoria. And we do that by a range of functions, including promoting a code of conduct, accepting complaints from anybody and receiving mandatory notifications from key people.
And Dan, I understand you're conducting a new campaign to encourage disability providers and workers to notify the VW of conduct by disability workers that may put the people they support at risk. So could you explain a little bit more about this?
Sure. So this is all about us making sure that disability workers so people anyone working in the disability sector and disability service providers. though employers of disability workers who provide disability services know that they have an obligation to notify us of certain types of conduct, and that's conduct
that puts people with disability at risk of harm. And so the key aspect of that for people to remember is if they have a reasonable belief of anyone with a disability being put at risk of harm by their disability worker, then we need to be told about that by either the service provider or another disability worker who becomes aware of that.
And following on from that. Dan, why do you believe it's important that disability workers and their employers notify the VDC?
There's a few reasons. And the primary reason is because often people with disabilities are in a vulnerable situation when they are relying on disability workers to provide assistance to them in the wide range of ways that we get support from disability workers and practitioners. The other reason that I think is really important is that often people with disabilities themselves. So when we're using disability services, it's a big ask to require that the person with disability make
the complaint to us. You know, I think it's the hardest thing we can ever ask anyone with a disability or their family to do. And that make a complaint about their support worker. We really need to see service providers or other disability workers calling out risky conduct. And the ultimate purpose, again, is to make sure that people with disabilities are safe when receiving disability services.
Does this apply to services to older people?
Dan Yeah, good question. Sam. It does because the Disability Worker Commission covers people working in disability, regardless of the age of the people disability. And there's many older people in places like aged care settings, or even in their own home where they're receiving my aged care type services. They're usually receiving those kind of services because they have a disability. It might be an age related disability, but they are still receiving disabilities. So it doesn't matter what
age someone is. It's about the fact that they're receiving a service in relation to their disability.
Could you give examples of some types of conduct that absolutely must be notified to the Commission, the sort of things they're looking to be aware of and stamp out?
There are four general categories that we require people to notify us of risky conduct. There's the situation where a worker is intoxicated by drugs or alcohol when working as a disability worker. The second one is when a disability worker has engaged in sexual misconduct while working. There's the situation where a disability worker has an impairment that puts a person with disability at risk of harm when they're practicing. Now, I just want to clarify. That doesn't mean that someone
with a disability can't be a worker. It's very much about if that impairment puts someone at risk of harm. And the final one and the one where we deal with a lot. It's where a disability worker has departed from acceptable professional standards in the delivery of their disability service. And that's a fairly broad definition. But really, I really want people to concentrate on a disability worker putting someone
with disability at risk of harm. That's the key criteria that overlays all of those areas of conduct.
When should a disability service provider or a worker make a notification?
The key driver for that is when another worker or the service provider has a reasonable belief that a disability worker has put a person with disability at risk of harm.
Dan, I noticed you mentioned reasonable belief in there. Could you expand on that a bit?
Reasonable belief is if someone has some sort of direct knowledge of the risky conduct that a worker is engaged in. So it's not going to be when someone maybe has a suspicion, but they don't also need to have seen the conduct. They can reasonably believe it because they had it reported directly to them by someone who witnessed it. So it's more than just a suspicion, but it doesn't mean you have to have direct evidence of that conduct.
Do disability service providers and workers still have to notify the VDS if they have reported it to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission?
Yeah. One of the things about Victoria is that we have this scheme that regulates all disability workers across all types of funding and yes, some disability workers are funded by the NDIS, some are funded in the aged care setting and some are funded in other places like education and health, we do require all types of conduct that put people with disabilities at risk of harm to be notified to us, particularly by service providers. It's really important
that they let us know. Sometimes service providers will finish someone up or let them go if they are unhappy with their conduct. We want to be able to make sure that worker doesn't just go and act in the same way, with the same risky conduct at another service provider. And when we do receive these notifications, we are obliged to let the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission know about something.
So anyone notifying us can feel confident that once they've told us if it is a matter, if it is an area of service that is funded by the NDIS, then they can be confident that the NDIS Commission will be notified by Arth two.
What is your message to our listeners regarding mandatory notifications?
I think the key thing is I know listeners will be users of disability services in different way, and I think people need to feel confident that if they use the services of any disability support worker, they are being held to a standard in Victoria where they have to be notified about if they are putting someone at risk
of harm. And I think it's also important that if you experience the sort of conduct by a disability support worker that you feel has put you at risk of harm, you can let the service provider know and they will have to tell us. And I think that's really important. You don't need to necessarily do much more than that.
What's your message to disability service providers regarding their workers and mandatory notifications?
It's really important that service providers recognise that it's a lawful obligation, that they notify us of unsafe conduct by any disability support worker, and they should also make sure that the workers who they employ are qualified and capable and operate to a certain standard and know their obligations to report certain types of conduct. Know how to report that conduct to us. And probably most importantly, feel supported by their employer to notify them and us of concerns they have.
Only. Dan, how can anyone find more information about mandatory notifications or the VD c more broadly?
First of all, I just want to let everyone know that in a few weeks time, we're holding a webinar for anyone interested. That's later in May. We're holding that webinar, and people can log into that or see a recorded version on our website, and that will set out all the information anyone needs to know about making a notification.
People can go to our website, which is simply. We're pretty easy to find on the internet by just googling us, the Disability Worker Commission in Victoria, and if there's any workers out there or service providers and they believe there has been the sort of conduct they need to notify us of, but you're not sure. Let us know and we'll talk you through that. Our intake staff are people who are very experienced in the disability sector, and we
can talk people through what that is. And if people with disabilities want to let us know about poor quality services or the type of services that they think is putting them at risk of harm, they can also call us directly and we can deal with that directly with them as well. So please don't hesitate to give us a call and talk us through any matter that you're concerned about with your disability worker.
I've been speaking today with Victoria Disability Worker Commissioner Dan Stubbs about the latest campaign. The commission is currently running to inform people about mandatory notifications and give greater awareness for the rights of people with disabilities. On Sam Culley and Joel listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio, associated stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Dan Stubbs.
If you missed any part of that conversation with Dan or you'd love to hear it again. Talking vision is available on the Vision Australia Radio website. Simply head to RVA radio. That's RVA radio all one word dot. Or you can also find the program on the podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia library. And now please enjoy my chat with writer, producer and actor Suzanne Chambers. I started off by asking Suzanne about her new movie, My Eyes.
Yes, well, it is a feature film inspired by true events, actually, of my life. When I volunteered at the Paralympic Games and fell in love with a judo athlete, actually, by the way. Um, but it's a beautiful film, actually, about love, resilience. The lengths we go for family also raises awareness about preventative eye health as well, which is true to my heart being an optometrist by trade, and it stars an
amazing cast as well. We've got Adam Garcia, who some of you may remember from Coyote Ugly Bootmen back in the day. Eduardo Sanchez, who is a Mexican judo Paralympic champion. He won gold twice and CU Chin from the Joy Luck Club. If you're big fans of that movie. So it's something that we've worked incredibly hard to create. And yeah, glad it's out. Coming out.
Yeah. Now, um, tell us a little bit about your involvement with my eyes. Suzanne. Um, I understand you're the producer of the movie.
Actually, I'm on both sides of the camera. Actor, writer and producer. Oh, okay. So, yes, but in terms of the story, yeah, it is obviously something very close to my heart. It's almost like a love letter. Back to the IC industry, really, from my perspective, something that I wrote back in Covid, you know, five years ago, based on obviously, my experiences with volunteering when working with the judo athletes who are vision impaired. And it was such
a profound experience. Obviously, I wanted to really tell the story, and it was one of the things that I also produced it, which basically means the buck stops with me when making everything happen. And it was a hard decision also to decide whether or not to play my character in the film. Originally, I wasn't going to do that. I went, oh no, let's get someone famous, you know,
like a Aquafina or Gemma Chan or someone. But one of my mentors said to me that, you know, he said, Suze, it's, you know, this is your story and you've got to think really hard about it. If you ended up seeing someone else play you in this, are you going to regret it? You know, because it's one of a lifetime kind of shots. And so something that I thought about and went, okay, no, okay. All right. I will regret it. And so I decided obviously to play also my character
in the film. So yes, a few hats. Still, though, in the making of it.
Certainly. And Suzanne, as you've mentioned there, this has been quite a few years in the making. Um, and of course, Covid does sort of throw a spanner in the works in terms of preparation and availability of people and resources and all that sort of thing. Did that slow things down for you, or did it all sort of really take off after anyway? So it wasn't in the pipeline just yet?
Yeah. Well, I guess a blessing in disguise with the Covid was that it gave me time to develop the script to write. I mean, I was working quite heavily as an optometrist at that time as well, because even though the entertainment industry might have ceased, that's when all our healthcare services, you know, hemorrhaged really in terms of
the need. But in terms of the impacts, it was hard to decide whether or not to shoot overseas or within Australia, because once we decided that we were going to have Eduardo play the role of, well, pretty much play himself, being the character and having tunnel vision. You know, it was hard going. Can we shoot in Mexico? Actually,
the resounding answer was no. But. So fortunately, by the time we got to production and Borders open, that's when we went, okay, let's see what we can do and actually shoot over there as well.
Was this the first movie that you'd put together yourself? Had you been involved with production or acting or any of that sort of thing prior to my eyes? Or was this the first kind of foray into that for you?
I've actually been in the industry now for 11 years professionally. I know, I know, My Eyes is actually my third major feature film. My first one, unsound, was actually back in Covid days, actually, and that was actually about a deaf trans man, actually. And another love story in a sense with that. But it was my biggest one so far in a sense of in terms of the budget,
it was like a $4 million feature film. My eyes and, you know, yes, I've been obviously, you know, acting and writing and producing all through the last decade and in my day job I also work as a production accountant. I believe my brain, I know, and then I work on other major productions as well in relation to that. But yes, it's a big undertaking making these projects. They take many, many years to get up.
Um, you know, juggling all of that with the day job and being the accountant and being involved with optometry and being involved with writing, producing, acting, everything. So that's just, um, incredible. But let's have a bit of a chat about the finer details of my eyes and when people can go and check it out. So it releases on the 28th of May. Where can people go and watch if they'd like to head along?
Yeah, yeah, it's incredibly exciting. We are releasing across select cinemas around Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and because every portion of every ticket that we sell, for my eyes, it's actually being distributed evenly amongst a group of not for profit organizations dedicated to eye care and blind sports. And so because of that, tickets can only be found on the Fan Force website, which is fan force. And basically that's where you'll see all the location times.
We've got a few obviously in Melbourne, Sydney and across every single state and territory in Australia. And as I mentioned, New Zealand and with some of these screenings, we're obviously having a Q&;A as well. So you'll get to actually meet myself. You'll get to also meet Eduardo Sanchez, who is the real life judo Paralympic champion coming through as well, and also some of the other cast and crew in various different screenings. So it's going to be a lot
of fun. We had our world premiere at the 39th Mar de Plata International Film Festival in Argentina last year. Actually, it's one of the most prestigious and only class A film festivals in Latin America, and it was incredible. The film also got picked to represent Australia at the 69th Asia Pacific Film Festival, Macao, which I was also very lucky to be invited to go across, and we only just had a full house recently, last week actually at the Gold Coast Film Festival as part of that. And yes,
and you know, we really enjoyed the Q&;A. We had great response. And yeah, it was a great start to this. And we're really hoping that we can raise awareness about preventative health, about inclusion, and to really put our industry and vision on the map. You know, I think it's something that's quite unique and it's never really seen much on the big screen.
As you've said, you've released a couple of movies before, but this is the one that's really focusing in on vision, on eye health, on what people who are blind or have low vision are capable of. And so was that something you'd always really wanted to get stuck into and tell that story and show the world what people from the blind and low vision community can do?
Yeah, absolutely. It is one of my passions of mine. I come from a public health background with optometry. Spent a lot of time in third world countries, and I really wanted through this story to show that people with vision impairments, with any form of disability, it's not a negative thing, in a sense of that typical trope. You know, the stereotype that we tend to see or fall into in the story. It is uplifting. It's seeing people with vision impairment just be normal people, you know, like they
can fall in love. They can have, you know, children, they have emotions. They're grappling drama, right? And they can be super hot, you know, like just like, you know, Eduardo, he's amazing, amazing person. And you know, with just like everyday people, you know, and that's where the authenticity comes from. And, and I think it's something that it's important to just reinforce, but in a very entertaining way. It's something that I do focus on in my work. I call it Impact Entertainment.
You know, we want to make a positive impact but also entertain.
Mhm. For sure. Now let's get the details about a movie launch event, which is coming up on the 2nd of June for Sydneysiders out there to head along to. It's at the Burwood Cinema. So tell us a bit about that one.
Yeah, yeah. So very excited that we're going to have someone from Vision Australia hosting that event. Actually we're going to be having myself, one of our consultant directors, Eduardo, there for the Q&;A, which means that audiences can ask us anything. It is free rein.
Wow.
Okay. And yeah, and you obviously get to see the movie and be amongst the crowd. And yeah, we just want to amplify these voices and it's going to be exciting. It's going to be the same with every single Q&;A that's going to be across the country, really. And we're really, really looking forward to it.
Looking forward to hearing what sort of questions come your way. I'll have to keep tabs on that one. That could be quite interesting. But yeah. Suzanne, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to catch up with you today and chat about my eyes. So that's my eyes coming out on the 28th of May across Australia, New Zealand and the USA. And if you're in Sydney, you can head along to a session that Vision Australia is involved with on the 2nd of June. Suzanne, thank you so much.
It's been so good and I'm really excited to hear how the movie goes.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Sam. Thanks, everyone.
And now here's Liz Dalakouras, editor of For Your Information, otherwise known as FYI. We kicked off our chat this week by chatting about a few articles.
Yeah, absolutely. So one that's proven quite popular this week just speaks about the cost of NDIS misinformation. So Steph Travers, who's the board director at the people with Disabilities Australia, who also receives the NDIS herself. She recently spoke out about the public discourse that's left her and many others
in the community feeling like a political football. It's just a really interesting opinion piece article that really highlights the importance of getting the information right when it comes to the NDIS.
And there's a couple of other articles that people can look forward to as well is.
Absolutely there is. So we at Vision Australia have created a new one that focuses on advocating for yourself, as in someone who is in the aged care system. So no matter your age, your location or your circumstances, remember that you always have the right to advocate for yourself and take control of your life. That article can be found in the news section of our website.
Third, and finally, there's a third article of Vision Australia's been involved with.
Absolutely. It's a really interesting topic, Sam. It's about protecting your information online. So going online we know can be quite a scary thing, particularly when you're asked to put in your bank details, your address, your phone number. Nobody's keen to do it, but we know there are safe and non-safe ways to do it. And this is the sort of article that just helps you feel more confident and comfortable being online and live.
There's different ways for people who are blind or have low vision to enjoy their favorite sport, with some tactile feedback. That's now becoming available, so that's quite exciting for people out there.
It really is. It's not only exciting, it's really cool. Imagine following a live sporting match with your hands. It's an incredible innovation. This device has real time vibrations that are mapped out to the action, and it just changes the way you can watch tennis, basketball, baseball, AFL, whatever sport it is you enjoy, you get to now feel the game.
That's right. But on a slightly related topic, there's also some life hacks for people to enjoy and check out and see what works for them. In particular, I think, Liz, you wanted to have a chat about rubber bands.
Absolutely. So as a part of FYI, moving forward, we're going to have a little section that's going to highlight our life hacks, and there'll be a new one in there every week to kick off this series. We used one of the new videos in our series. Who knew that rubber bands could be your new best friend? So this video will highlight that. Simply put a rubber band on your sauce bottle and not on your mustard bottle so you know which one is which. It's an amazing video.
Visit our website, jump on the Lifehack section and you will lose yourself scrolling down and seeing all these cool little tips and tricks.
And Liz, I understand the calendar artwork competitions back open again for people to take part. Tell us a bit about that one.
Yeah, it sure is. It's such a great competition, Sam. You simply submit your artwork and then you have a chance to be featured in our large print calendar or diary. Plus, you can win a $200 gift card. Wow. So it's time to ready, set, create, because then you get to have your artwork displayed in people's homes.
Fantastic. Now it's always a great competition and it's always lovely to check out the winning entries. There's a lot of amazing talent out there, so look forward to checking out this year's edition. And speaking of editions, the way that you can sign up to the FYI mailing list hasn't changed. Go on to the Vision Australia website and head to FYI and you can get your email on the FYI mailing list. Isn't that right, Liz?
That's exactly right. Super easy. Delivered to your inbox every second Thursday.
Perfect. There you go. I've been speaking today with Liz Dalakouras, editor of Foyer Information, otherwise known as FYI, having a chat with me today about the latest edition of Vision Australia's fortnightly newsletter. Liz, thank you so much as always for your time today. Great to catch up with you and have a chat about FYI.
Absolutely. Thank you for having me Sam. It's always so much fun.
And that's all the time we have for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you. So please get in touch anytime on our email at Talking at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One word at Vision Australia. But until next week it's Sam Culley saying bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74 six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.