B-HART – Human Rights-based Practice Model for the Disability Sector​

 

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The B-HART service model has been designed to address the following issues:

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• Providers of services and supports needed a clear and defined human rights-based practice model that would guide them to intentionally and consciously respect, protect and fulfill people’s human rights.

• People with disabilities and carers/families needed to be able to make decisions about the services and supports they choose based on understood and easily identifiable human rights-based approaches.

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These issues were identified through discussions and from research about existing practice models and best practice indicators for human rights practice and in disability services.

 

These discussions reflected on:

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• Competition, challenges of commercialisation and diverse care models creating imbalances in the disability marketplace.

• The consequences of sector and service limitations being carried by people with disabilities and their families.

• Disability support and care workers leaving large providers because of concerns about service standards often resulting in them setting up small support practices.

• People with disabilities reporting their struggles to experience respect and protection of their basic human rights, the limitations of advocacy services and lack of agency they felt when self-advocating services and supports with providers.

• Providers frustrations with a standards system driven by compliance and not by best practice, unable to differentiate and quantify ‘real’ quality.

• How participant satisfaction measures leave the burden of quality control on the most vulnerable.

• People with disabilities and their families, expressing confusion about HOW their rights should be respected and unsure about how to advocate for their rights, often feeling ‘scared’ of repercussions including delays and loss of supports and services.

• Finally, the evidence emerging from all the research, reviews, and reports highlighted that high incidence of infringements on people’s human rights and best practice models all referenced the need for human rights informed practice.

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[for more information go to B-HART Service Model click here]