More men than women are using disability support resources with community services the most in-demand. An estimated 321,531 people used disability support services under the National Disability Agreement (NDA). This is a 9 per cent increase since 2009-10, and a 3 per cent increase since 2012-13, according to the latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
About three-quarters of service users were younger than 50 years, with an average age of 34 years. More males than females received services (59 per cent compared to 41 per cent) and more than half (55 per cent) had an intellectual or learning disability (44 per cent as their primary disability). The majority (44 per cent) used community support services to help them live in non-institutional settings that included therapy support, early childhood intervention, behavioural or specialist interventions and counselling. Around 84 per cent of service outlets delivering the support were non-government organisations.
Many services provided by the NDA will be gradually replaced by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) over the next few years. During 2013-14, an estimated 4,200 NDA service users transitioned to the NDIS.
For more information visit: http://www.aihw.gov.au