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Western Australia - Organisation

Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (1986 - 1993)

From
1986
To
1993
Categories
Care Provider and Government Agency
Alternative Names
  • AIH (acronym)
  • Irrabeena (also known as)

The Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (AIH) was formed by the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons Act 1985. Its role was to advance the 'rights, responsibility, dignity, development and community participation of people with intellectual disability in Western Australia'. The AIH ran many hostels and developed a Local Area Coordination service to assist people with disability in country WA.

Details

In 1981, the 'International Year of Disabled Persons', the Western Australian government commissioned a report on the delivery of services to people with intellectual disability. The 'Beacham Report' as it was known, recommended removing these services from the Health Department and creating a separate statutory authority. Legislation to do this, the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons Act 1985 passed in October 1985. The Act enabled the Authority to appoint a Board of Management. The Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (AIH) replaced the Division for the Intellectually Handicapped (DIH) on 1 January 1986.

The AIH retained the name 'Irrabeena' for its service delivery arm. Irrabeena had been the name used by the DIH, which had adopted the name originally given to the assessment centre by the Slow Learning Children's Group.

By 1989, Irrabeena was providing support services, funding and coordination of public and private sector residential facilities. The AIH established a number of hostels in the metropolitan area. These hostels provided indefinite and short-stay accommodation.

'Historically, there has been little government-owned residential accommodation outside the metropolitan area' (Stella, p.128). In 1986, the AIH established Regional Advisory Councils whose membership included people with intellectual disabilities, their families and other people from the community. A Local Area Coordination service started in Albany in 1988. The Local Area Coordination service aimed to provide people with disabilities and their families with respite care, and local service delivery that would support people to live at home and participate in community and family life. Local Area Coordination expanded to other country areas in 1989, to Perth in 1991 and to all areas of the State by 2000.

Timeline

 1978 - 1986 Division for the Intellectually Handicapped
       1986 - 1993 Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons
             1993 - Disability Services Commission

Related Organisations

  • Bureau for Disability Services (1991 - c. 1993)

    The Bureau for Disability Services and the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons merged after 1993 to become the Disability Services Commission.

  • Slow Learning Children's Group (1951 - 1989)

    The Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons took the name Irrabeena for its its service delivery arm, a name previously used by the Division for the Intellectually Handicapped for the assessment centre fun by the Slow Learning Children's Group

Publications

Book Sections

  • Stella, Leonie, 'Normalisation and Beyond: Public Sector Residential Care 1965-1990', in Errol Cocks (ed.), Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia, Centre for Disability Research and Development, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, 1996, pp. 92-136. pp.126-128. Details

Online Resources

Sources used to compile this entry: Disability Services Commission, History of disability services, Government of Western Australia, https://web.archive.org/web/20220311064024/http://www.disability.wa.gov.au/understanding-disability1/understanding-disability/history-of-disability-services/; Stella, Leonie, 'Normalisation and Beyond: Public Sector Residential Care 1965-1990', in Errol Cocks (ed.), Under blue skies : the social construction of intellectual disability in Western Australia, Centre for Disability Research and Development, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, 1996, pp. 92-136. pp.126-128..

Prepared by: Debra Rosser