How to get support for a loved one with special needs |Part 1: Introduction  
This information is for people with disabilities and their families. 
Part 1 is about disability and how to contact MRC Tas. Part 2 is about different types of help.
It is presented by Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania (or MRC Tas for short).
People living with disability have special needs to support their participation in the activities of everyday life. 
Without support, people living with a disability and their family members caring for them can miss out on life’s opportunities.
Unfair social beliefs, attitudes and shame is an additional challenge faced by many people living with disability. 
In Australia there are supports for people who are living with disability. This is because they have the same rights as everyone else. Disability is not a curse and does not mean a person is less good or less valuable. 
Disability can happen to anyone. It can be caused by an accident or a health condition. Or it can be something you were born with. 
Most people understand that a person using a wheelchair is living with a disability because they can see the physical disability. 
Other types of disability are harder to notice such as difficulty seeing, hearing or speaking. 
Some disability is invisible and noticed in how they learn, grow and behave. 
A person may have difficulty developing as a child (such as intellectual disability – this can make learning new things hard).
A person may have difficulty with their brain and thinking (such as a cognitive disability from a head injury – this can make remembering things hard). 
A person may have difficulty with their mental health (such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – this can make daily life hard when a person keeps re-experiencing past traumas) 
A person may have difficulty with their feelings (such as depression – this low mood can make motivation to take actions hard).
A person may have difficulty socially (such as people living with autism – this can make social interactions very hard) 
In Australia, regardless of the type of disability, or how it was caused, people living with disability have as much right as everyone else to learn, work, and enjoy their lives. And so do the family members who are ‘carers’ for them. 
With support, people living with a disability and their family members caring for them can enjoy more of life’s opportunities. Part 2 is about different types of help.
To talk with us about the information in this introduction, please phone between 9am – 5pm. If you need an interpreter, call 131 450 first. 
Say your language, tell the interpreting service your name, and give the interpreter the phone number for Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania 03 6221 0999.

Oromo_People with special needs

Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania (MRC Tas) is a not-for-profit organisation that has been supporting people from migrant backgrounds to settle successfully in Tasmania since 1979.