About Us

Who are we: Mackay Advocacy is an Independent Disability Advocacy Service supporting people in our community from Birth.

What we DO NOT do: Offer legal advice, Financial Advice, Counselling, Secretarial Services, Decision Maker.

What is Advocacy: Advocacy is speaking and acting uphold and defend the rights and needs of people with a disability to ensure their basic human rights are being met and to empower the individual to speak for themselves. 

Why do we need Independent Disability Advocacy?

• To ensure people with disabilities’ fundamental human rights are being met and to ensure we minimise the risk of harm, neglect abuse and exploitation.
• To assist  individuals to have control and direction of their own lives.

As a community to ensure we are all connected & responsible for enabling inclusions.

“The good things in life are universal and include being treated with dignity, respect, acceptance, a sense of belonging, an education, developing and exercising one’s capacities, a voice in the affairs of your community and society, opportunities to participate, a decent material standard of living, a normative place to live, and opportunities for work and self-support” ~ Wolfensberger et al 1996 ⁷

What Disability Advocates Do:

Disability advocacy may include:

• Providing information to people with a disability on issues, strategies, their human rights and identifying instances of discrimination, including the right to have access to a wide range of services to meet their individual needs.
• Assisting people with a disability to uphold their rights by speaking to people and organisations to raise awareness of problems and seek solutions

What are the Key Advocacy Issues:

• Abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence
• Access to non-National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) service
• Child Protection
• Community inclusion – social/family
• Disability services
• Education
• Employment
• Equipment/aids
• Finances
• Government payments
• Health/Mental health
• Housing/Homelessness
• Legal/Access to justice
• NDIS – Internal review
• NDIS – Access/planning
• NDIS – Support implmenting plan/accessing services/complaints
• Physical Access
• Transport
• Vulnerable/Isolated people with disabilities
• Other Issues

We are funded by: Department of Communities, Disability Services and Seniors & Queensland Health

MISSION STATEMENT

Mackay Advocacy Inc. provides free, confidential, individual advocacy
and assistance to people with a disability in
Mackay, Whitsunday and Isaac regions to ensure their fundamental,
human rights are met.

Management Committee