Richard Bruggemann a prolific advocate in South Australia to lift lives of people with intellectual disabilities
Richard Bruggemann, named 2021 South Australian Senior of the Year, was made a life member of Inclusive Sport South Australia, one of his myriad involvements in striving toimprove the lives of people with an intellectual disability.
Image by Salty Dingo
Richard Bruggemann became nationally recognised as one of South Australia’s most prolific advocates for making a difference to the lives of people with an intellectual disability.
Bruggemann was introduced early to people with intellectual disabilities with both his parents working at the Piddington School at the Strathmore Centre in Adelaide’s northeast. He saw people with intellectual disabilities and their families as segregated and largely hidden from the community.
Bruggemann spent more than 30 years advocating for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. He helped set up the Intellectual Disability Services Council in 1982 and was its chief executive officer from 1984 to 2006. His previous experience included divisional director in the South Australian government’s health commission; chief personnel and training officer in the government’s hospitals department; and the manager of training at Chrysler Australia Ltd.
For the Intellectual Disability Services Council, Bruggemann managed more than 1,300 staff and an annual budget of $55 million. Following his mantra of leading by listening, Bruggermann manned the council’s after-hours phone service with other senior staff each night for eight years while chief executive.
The Intellectual Disability Services Council aimed for people with intellectual disability to rely less on institutional or special services. Big accomplishments included closing Ru Rua Nursing Home and moving residents to community settings with individual supports; a new case management system expanded to nine country locations; more accommodation and respite services; new non-government organisations; and reducing the people living at Strathmont Centre through community alternatives and individual supports.
Bruggermann was involved in developing agencies and other groups in the disability sector. He was a board member of the South Australian Council on Intellectual Disability; board member of Interchange; director of Minda; and director and honorary treasurer, National Council on Intellectual Disability.
He also was a board member of SASRAPID (South Australian Sport and Recreation Society for People with Integration Difficulties) and made life member of the later Inclusive Sports South Australia; president of NAPCAN SA (National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect); board member of ASSID (Australasian Association for the Study of Intellectual Disability); board member of DSSSA (Down Syndrome Society of South Australia); consultant to Hills Disability Housing; board member of Arts Access SA; board member of Skinny Alympics; council member and former president of SHine SA (Sexual Health information networking and education); and chair of the state government families and communities’ department legal issues committee.
Bruggermann was a professorial fellow in the disability and social inclusion department at Adelaide's Flinders University. Named 2021 South Australian Senior of the Year, Bruggerman wrote extensively on services to people with disabilities. He contributed many consultancies of national significance and was called on by the South Australian government to join the special taskforce investigating the death of cerebral palsy sufferer Ann Marie Smith in 2020..
