1. Psychosocial NDIS Communities of Practice (CoP)

2. Council of Aboriginal Elders
Welcome to Country
Garth Dodd
Executive Officer
Council of Aboriginal Elders

3. Local Area Coordination – Mission Australia
Georgii Snowball, Regional Leader, NDIS LAC Partner, Mission Australia

4. Introduction to NDIS Access
Brendan Livingston, NDIS Resource Co-ordinator, CAH PIR

5. Who is the NDIS for?
Predicted total number of NDIS participants; 460,000 people (all disabilities)
“It is estimated that there are 600,000 Australians living with severe and persistent mental illness of which 290,000 require support periodically. It is anticipated that 64,000 people with severe and persistent mental illness will be eligible to access the NDIS.”

6. Access criterion
the person has a disability that is attributable to one or more intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory or physical impairments or to one or more impairments attributable to a psychiatric condition; and
Do I need a diagnosis?
Section 24, NDIS Act 2013
Answer: No. HOWEVER, difficult to provide evidence of permanency without a diagnosis as this will form a basis for the recommended treatments.

7. Access Criterion continued
(b)  the impairment or impairments are, or are
likely to be, permanent; and
Who can make this decision? What information or evidence determines likelihood of permanence???
Section 24, NDIS Act 2013
Permanency – are there any known treatments for the condition and has the person tried these? What was the result? If not tried all, why not? It may not be appropriate for a person however need medical professional to provide outline as to why.
What has been tried and what was the result? How long has the person had the impairment?
If it was diagnosed only last year but they have been living with the attributed impairments for a much longer period, document this. This provides context to how a diagnosis is useful but not necessary.
Is the health professional willing to write that the impairment is LIKELY to be permanent? If not, unlikely to meet the criterion. Assessor don’t make clinical judgements based on reading between the lines. Although they may have clinical backgrounds, they are making legislative decisions based on information available to them.

8. Access Criterion continued
(c)  the impairment or impairments result in
substantially reduced functional capacity to
undertake, or psychosocial functioning in
undertaking, one or more of the following
activities:
(i)  communication;
(ii)  social interaction;
(iii)  learning;
(iv)  mobility;
(v)  self‑care;
(vi)  self‑management; and
Section 24, NDIS Act 2013

9. How might you describe significant functional impairment?
“People who are eligible for an individualised NDIS plan generally need assistance (and will continue to need assistance throughout their life) to carry out key everyday tasks in at least one these areas:”
Assistance includes things like physical assistance, guidance, supervision or prompting. To qualify for individualised support a person will:
 usually not be able to do most tasks within one of the areas listed above; and
 without support, have substantially reduced capacity to function in one of these areas.
Importantly the NDIA looks at both what a person can and cannot do. For example, someone who has substantially reduced capacity in self-management may be able manage their own small budget for incidental expenses but need another person’s assistance to make major life/financial decisions and budget.
This looks at episodic and considers that a person requires support day to day. Mixed messaging of describing best and worst day. Don’t discount episodic issues but focus on day to day. Example, hospitalisation – number of days hospitalised, or number of hospitalisations in a year. Just because eligibility is based on day to day functioning doesn’t mean you can’t mention the worst day, but if you focus on this alone it wont give the assessor context of ‘daily life’ for the individual, as they may function extremely well day to day and occasionally become extremely unwell. Remember we are talking about psychosocial disability and mental health still sits in a separate system (290k vs 64k).

10. Mental Health Access Snapshots

11. Summary
A lot of programs are contractually obliged to support their consumers to submit access requests for NDIS as part of determining continuity of support – there is an expectation that not everyone who applies is going to be eligible for the NDIS.
There are conflicting messages around evidence needs as we progress and learn more (from both sides) so we require patience as well as advocacy.
Although it isn’t our determination to make, as we progress we will start to get an understanding of who does or doesn’t meet eligibility. We don’t want to set up unrealistic expectations that the NDIS is the be all and end all for everyone and if they don’t meet access that all hope is lost. We are unaware of what continuity of support looks like so it is a challenge but we have to keep moving forward. If we challenge every single decision we don’t agree with it will hold the process up for people who desperately need the service and prolong the time in which everyone has a set access decision to plan for continuity of support.
Bars are continuing to be set based on interpretation of the legislation and continuous improvement/best practice through experience. This is extremely challenging but everyone is learning at the same time from different perspectives and so we need to ensure we adapt to change but also feel confident in our own understanding and use this to inform our advocacy – eg using the legislation which is what the agency uses to make decisions. Request information on outcomes.

12. Morning tea

13. Issues with access, lessons learnt
Natalie Berg, Advocate, Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion

14. Deb Milford, Line Manager, CAH PIR
Networking – NDIS Buzz
Deb Milford, Line Manager, CAH PIR

16. Beverley Scott, Program Coordinator, CAH PIR
Wrap Up
Beverley Scott, Program Coordinator, CAH PIR

17. Evaluation
At last CoP attendees were asked what was wanted at future CoPs:
Access
Planning
Addressing special needs groups
Tools
Working in partnership
Continuity of support
Advocacy
Appeals

18. Future CoPs Tuesday the 4th September. Focus on planning.
Tuesday the 4th December. Focus will be reviews, appeals and advocacy.
March and June Dates and themes to be confirmed.

19. www.neaminational.org.au/CAHPIR/NDIS/CoP OR http://bit.ly/2HmjRb6
CoP Portal OR

20. For more information
Beverley Scott Program Coordinator Central Adelaide and Hills Partners in Recovery Phone (08) Web service/central-adelaide-and-hills-pir