With government accusations of overspending in the disability sector and cutbacks in benefits, I called Mel Smith who is the CEO of CCS Disability Action to get her perspective on these issues.
Mel has worked for and with people with disabilities for more than 20 years since she was a student social worker at Otago University. After a stint in Perth as an Employment Consultant with the Western Australia Deaf Society she not learned to show employers the reality behind many of their myths around employing Deaf people, but walked the talk, by becoming an Australian sign language interpreter.
She returned home to New Zealand in 2009 to take up the Team Leader role at CCS Disability Action Otago rising to become the General Manager for the South Island.
Now Melissa (call me Mel) heads up CCS Disability Action and spoke frankly with me about the myth of overspending and some of the realities facing people with disabilities in our country today.
You can find out more about CCS Disability Action here:
https://www.ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz
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Episode 6 - Mel Smith