Beloved community member and vibrant artist River needs urgent, ongoing funds to cover the cost of in-home support, food and medication whilst they wait to be granted NDIS funding.

River's health conditions have deteriorated to dangerous levels: River is no longer able to live independently, but has no other living options. The NDIS approval process will take months at minimum, but River needs in-home support now to survive the wait.

If River is to pay the 30 hours a week of support they need out of pocket, the cost is $1,800 per week. (The standard hourly rate for disability support workers is $60 per hour.)

Please consider donating to help River survive until they receive NDIS supports. Recurring donations are by far and away the most helpful, no matter how small.

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People who know River (they/them) know them as a vibrant, caring person.

A person who is obsessed with vibrant colours and dedicated to uplifting others, constantly sharing joyful artwork, openly talking about mental health, teaching others art, celebrating and encouraging people for creating, especially people who have fierce inner critics who have never let themselves try creating before!

Oh, and also, a lover of animals, especially cats... and for having a thing for creating quirky hilarious blind drawings of cats (drawings made without looking at the page).

What you might not know is that River has been very unwell for many years now.

They have not been able to work since 2017, due to chronic health issues and multiple periods of homelessness.

River lives alone in housing for survivors of domestic violence.

River is now no longer well enough to live independently without regular support, but they have no other living options, no regular supports, and have been told that the only way to get any support is by getting onto the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Their sole income is Disability Support Pension, which after paying rent and utilities is not enough to cover the costs of medications and healthcare and food.

Whilst they have had a couple of brief, glorious periods in the last decade where they had stable enough health and housing to be able to sell their art (pictured below), this has not been an option for them for several years now, being too unwell to package art and safely make the journey to the post office to send it without help.

Due to lack of supports, River currently experiences food insecurity, extreme difficulty accessing healthcare and support services, very low quality of life, and rapidly declining health.

River and their doctor have spent more than 2 years trying to identify services who can provide supports, including River’s local council, the organisation responsible for providing comprehensive health support in their region, community health services, social workers, housing workers, and crisis lines, to no avail.

The only mainstream service that provides a small selection of the supports that River needs is their local council home care services, who assessed that River requires the highest level of support - however they cannot provide any support at all due to funding cuts, stating that they will continue to have zero availability unless a vast number of their current participants die.

River has spent the last 6 months undergoing assessments to obtain the reports required to be able to apply for NDIS and is currently lodging an NDIS application. (Image: how it feels trying to get onto NDIS.)

Unfortunately, the NDIS application process is slow and even if adequate funding is approved (there are no guarantees, especially in the current political environment), it is unlikely to start for many more months yet.

River is so unwell that they've only had energy to make 3 blind cat artworks so far this year - pictured below (when they used to make at least one EVERY DAY). River cannot stand long enough to cook without experiencing extreme dizziness and risking fainting, are housebound, and often too unwell to get out of bed.

The functional capacity assessment report completed by the occupational therapist states that River needs at least 30 hours of disability support per week to be able to survive and experience any quality of life.

River currently has zero hours of support.

If River were to pay the 30 hours of support they need out of pocket, the cost is $1,800 per week. (The standard hourly rate for disability support workers is $60 per hour.)

River also needs to see multiple specialists for further diagnostics and treatment, which they cannot afford.

Please consider contributing funds to help River survive whilst they wait for NDIS support. Recurring donations are the most helpful of all, no matter how small!

Your contributions will go towards:

Every little bit helps.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Sharing this with your friends and family is also very helpful and much appreciated.