On #poverty, health care and disabled people in Australia.

42% of adults with disability rate their health as poor or fair, compared with 7.0% without disability.

2/ Working-age people with disability (10%) are twice as likely as those without disability (4.6%) to be unemployed.

32% of adults with disability experience high/very high psychological distress, compared with 8.0% without disability.

3/ 1 in 4 (24%) who see a general practitioner (GP) wait longer than they feel is acceptable to get an appointment

3 in 10 (29%) wait 1 or more days after making an appointment to see a GP for urgent medical care

4/ 7 in 10 (70%) who have been on a public dental waiting list wait 1 month to more than 1 year for dental care

1 in 13 (7.6%) who need to see a GP delay or do not go because of the cost

1 in 22 (4.6%) who need to see a medical specialist do not go mainly because of the cost

5/ 3 in 10 (28%) who need to see a dental professional delay or do not go because of the cost

1 in 28 (3.6%) who need to go to hospital delay or do not go because of the cost

6/ 1 in 5 (21%) who see 3 or more health professionals for the same health condition report issues caused by lack of communication among them

1 in 29 (3.5%) experience disability discrimination from health staff (GP, nurse or hospital staff)

7/ 1 in 8 (12%) have difficulty accessing medical facilities (GP, dentist or hospital)

1 in 5 (18%) who need help with health‐care activities have their need only partly met or not met at all

8/ 38% of households which included a disabled person had a low income ($593 or below per week) vs 18% non disabled people.

For disabled individuals with low income ($383 or less per week) it was 38% vs 27% non disabled people.

9/ Disadvantage isn’t made up. And poverty should be a pressing issue in this country, because poverty causes death and awful outcomes of all kinds.

https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/7005c061-1c6e-490c-90c2-f2dd2773eb89/aihw-dis-77.pdf.aspx?inline=true

This is real.

Try living it. We must fight against disadvantage and poverty for disabled Australians.