1. The NDIS and Mental Health: The value of Communities of Practice
Tina Smith, Senior Policy Advisor – Sector Development
Mental Health Coordinating Council
TheMHS Conference 24 August 2016: People - Authenticity starts in the heart Choice, Control and Better Outcomes

2. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Funded disability support services for 430,000 Australians with very high levels of disability to increase social & economic participation
57,000 of these will be people with psychosocial disability related to a mental, health condition (19,000 in NSW)
Administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)
Individually funded disability/recovery support services delivered by NGOs
‘Learn and build’ approach to implementation
Many opportunities and challenges

3. NSW NDIS and MH Analysis Partnership Project
MHCC and the NSW Mental Health Commission
June 2013 to June 2016
PT MHCC Project Officer
Hunter trial site (Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Maitland)
Considerable mental health services/sector impacts
Early experience that much learning was occurring in silos
Decision to establish a Community of Practice (CoP)

4. What is a Community of Practice?
A Community of Practice (CoP) is:
“Groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”.
Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
A place where ‘situated’(ie, social leaning occurs).

5. Hunter NDIS and MH CoP Agreement to establish the COP in October 2013
Nurturing a learning environment
Main activity of the CoP is a quarterly forum
11 CoP forums held through to June 2016
Regular updates from consumers, carers, the NDIA and HNEMHS
Consumer and carer engagement and participation
Other activities include a six monthly newsletter, other publications/documents, MHCC website

6. NDIS & MH CoP Forum participation
At the end of June 2016, the forum had engaged with 555 people
249 community sector workers from the trial site
106 community sector workers from outside the trial site
122 other people from the trial site (these are mostly Hunter New England Mental Health Service/HNEMHS staff)
60 other people from outside the trial site
18 consumers and carers.
Many other consumers and carers attended the forums as paid Peer Workers.
Participants came from a wide range of mental health/health, disability, drug and alcohol, homeless, housing, emergency services, education, university and advocacy services.

7. NDIS access for MH conditions
At the end of March 2016 there were:
1,602 people nationally with a primary psychosocial disability accessing the NDIS
This includes 616 people in NSW (MHCC’s benchmark for the 3 year trial was 1,300; ie, 13% of trial target of 10,000)
This is just 9% of the 7,167 trial site participants compared to 14% in Victoria
MHCC is seeking NSW trial site data to better understand this difference and to create opportunities to change this.

8. Consumer participation in the NDIS

9. Evolution of NDIS and MH CoP.
2013/14
Establishment of CoP & identifying activities to support learning
2014/15
Consolidating CoP & its’ learning
2015/16
Progressing learning arising from issues
2016/17 & beyond
Scaling up the NDIS
Establishing CoP across NSW (CoP Guide; new project funding request)
Stakeholder participation in reform, including consumers and carers

10. Scaling up the NDIS and MH reform
Emphasis is on transition of ADHC clients (ie, NSW state funded disability services to close by July 2018; replaced by NDIS)
Community sector change (through NDIS & also Commonwealth and state MH programs directions)
National mental health reform & Primary Health Networks
New NDIS entrants in NSW

12. Value of NDIS and MH CoP
Enhanced learning, increased opportunities and reduced challenges associated with implementation of the NDIS in NSW from a mental health perspective
Promoting local level innovation, learning & leadership in mental health reform

13. Guidelines to establish a CoP
Developed to encourage local communities in NSW to establish a NDIS & MH CoP
Establishing a local CoP to enhance learning arising from NDIS implementation & other mental health sector reforms
Encourages innovation, learning & leadership in maximising opportunities presenting through the NDIS.
… and a complimentary report on lessons learned through the Hunter trial site experience!

14. Contents 1. Introduction 2. What is a Community of Practice?
3. Establish a Community of Practice to enhance NDIS learning
4. Guidelines for thinking about qualities of a Community of Practice
5. Guidelines for next steps in establishing a Community of Practice
6. Concluding remarks

15. Endorsement of CoP approaches
“The Community of Practice in the Hunter provided significant benefit to the sector … it enabled information sharing between a range of stakeholders, including the NDIA, mental health NGOs, public mental health services, consumers and carers.
I support in-principle the establishment of other Communities of Practice across NSW … “.
Correspondence to MHCC from the
The Hon. Pru Goward, NSW Minister for Mental Health
July 2016

16. Thank you for your participation!
To contact Tina Smith:
For more information about Hunter NDIS and MH trial site activity:
… or … : MHCC NDIS