Disability services for Indigenous people must be culturally appropriate, respect kinship structures and embrace holistic understandings of health, the CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) has told a national summit.

Delivering the keynote address at the National Disability Summit in Melbourne, Dr Jill Gallagher warned that mainstream systems are failing First Nations communities and leaving many people without proper care.

“The majority of First Peoples with disabilities live in poverty. They lack access to disability appropriate housing and they lack the support they need to participate in the cultural life of their community,” Dr Gallagher said.

“Many young Aboriginal people with disability cannot attend school or can only participate in a very limited way because their local school cannot accommodate their disability.”