Gateways also respects your right to seek support from an advocacy service of your choice. An advocate is a person who supports a consumer, like yourself, to protect and promote your rights and interests. An advocate can, with your permission, negotiate on your behalf or support you to negotiate for yourself. An advocate ‘stands beside’ you to support you to make your own decisions. An advocate is an important resource for you in situations where you feel confused, overwhelmed, intimidated or under-confident and are not sure what to do. An advocate can be a family member, friend or an outside organisation.
Some advocacy groups are:
Adults / children
- ADEC (Action on Disability in Ethnic Communities) ph. 1800 626 078
- Assert 4 All ph. 1300 942 773 (a division of Barwon disAbility Resource Council)
- Regional Information and Advocacy Council (RIAC) ph. 5245 7986 / 1800 221 944
- South West Advocacy Services ph. 5561 4584
- The Victorian Disability Commissioner ph. 1800 677 342 (free call) or 1300 728 187 (local call) TTY: 1300 726 563, Fax: 03 9603 8310 or go to the website.
- VALID ph. 9416 4003
- Villamanta Disability Legal Service ph. 5229 2925
Children specific
- The Association for Children with a Disability ph. 1800 654 013 or 9500 1232
- Autism Family Support Association mob. 0421 642 364
- Commission for Children and Young People ph. 1300 78 29 78
Aged
- National Aged Care Advocacy Line / Elder Rights Advocacy (Vic) on ph. 9602 3066 or 1800 700 600
- Seniors Rights Victoria ph. 1300 368 821
Victorian Disability Worker Regulation Scheme
If you have a complaint about a disability worker, the Victorian Disability Worker Commission offers a free and independent service that can investigate.
Under the scheme, a disability worker is defined as someone who:
- directly provides a disability service to a person with a disability, or
- supervises or manages another person who directly provides a disability service to a person with disability.
Complaints can relate to:
- Their standard of work,
- The knowledge skills or judgement of the disability worker,
- Their capacity to provide service safety,
- An alleged breach of the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 (Vic) or the Disability Service Safeguards Code of Conduct.
You can make a complaint about any disability worker in Victoria by:
• Completing an online form
• Calling us on 1800 497 132
• Writing to us at GPO Box 181, Melbourne 3001
For any questions in relation to Feedback and Advocacy at Gateways Support Services, please contact our Quality Manager email quality@gateways.com.au or phone 03 5221 2984.
