Carol Smail*, Tony Giles
ACL Disability Services and Gig Buddies, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
*Corresponding author: Carol Smai
Abstract
A gender imbalance in the disability and health sector, with a bias towards female health workers, may deny young males with disability the personalised care they desire. Data from the disability service industry, primary care givers, and the Gig Buddies volunteer project, has provided insight into this imbalance, with quantitative and qualitative data from over 6 years of pairing volunteers with adults with mild to moderate learning disability and/or autism. Research shows that many males with disability have little or no contact with male support or role models and have expressed the want to have a male buddy or friend to catch up with regularly. Introducing males to the disability sector, through an enjoyable and rewarding volunteer befriending scheme, and an informal introduction to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), may help address the gender imbalance and help create a more gender-balanced paid care workforce.
Keywords
Gender, Workplace, Disability, Volunteering
References
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How to cite this paper
Individualised Funding and the Feminised Paid Care Workforce
How to cite this paper: Carol Smail, Tony Giles. (2022) Individualised Funding and the Feminised Paid Care Workforce. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 6(1), 74-80.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2022.01.008