$70m a week for the

NDIS in this state alone tells me that there are people receiving it who should not be receiving it. There are others who should be receiving it or receiving more of it and are receiving nothing or an inadequate amount for essential care.

I had an appointment for a shingles vaccine yesterday. It was part one of a two part jab you get over a certain age and I am grateful to live in a country where such things are considered important.

In the waiting room I sat almost next to a young Asian man who was the "carer" for another young man of about the same age.This other young man was severely autistic. He was rocking backwards and forwards and sometimes shouting nonsense. Other patients had moved away. 

The doctor they were seeing is the one we usually see. She would do a good job of handling him but it would be difficult and time consuming. She was already running late and keeping the autistic patient waiting was just going to make matters worse. 

One of the clinic nurses came quietly up to me and asked if I really needed to see the doctor. I told her "No, I just need the first Shingrix jab. You could do it I am sure."

"Thanks."

We went off and a quick call to the doctor to say, "Cat's here for her jab and is happy for me to do it if you are."

The response was "Go ahead."

It is a clinic requirement that you then wait five minutes before leaving so I resumed my seat and heard the carer on the phone, "No, I am supposed to be off duty in five minutes but I cannot just leave him. Someone has to be with him at all times." 

There was apparently nobody who could take over so this young carer was going to have to work without pay until he could eventually return the other young man to his place of care.  He finished the call and looked at me in a frustrated sort of way.  I said sympathetically, "Does this happen often?" 

He nodded. On his reckoning he can put in between seven and ten unpaid hours a week. He is a student. He needs this job. It is a job not many people are prepared to do. We talked about it for a few minutes and he told me that there were other people he knew doing similar work who are being paid almost nothing and often doing unpaid overtime.

I am actually aware that this does happen. I know several severely and profoundly disabled people who genuinely need all the assistance they are getting and probably need even more. I also know that this state has the highest rate of "autism" diagnoses. Some of them will be as severe as the young man I observed. He really does need one on one care. There is an entire range of "autism" beyond that. Some of those people need extensive help but others can function with no assistance at all. They are often just people with delightful personality quirks who would once have been considered a little eccentric.

On my way back here I called in at the shopping centre and was almost knocked over by a child running around. Someone tried to stop him only to be told by his "responsible adult" that he was "autistic" and "has ADHD" so could not help running around. While this was being said the child in question was making faces at the man who had tried to stop him.  There was a knowing grin on his face.

"We're getting funding because he is so hard to manage," I heard his responsible adult say.

Perhaps he is autistic but he came across much more strongly as a child not properly under control. If this is where the NDIS money is going I hope his parents are getting some parenting lessons.