ndis

The NDIS provides funding to eligible people with disability to gain more time with family and friends, greater independence, access to new skills, jobs, or volunteering in their community, and an improved quality of life.

The NDIS also can connect anyone with disability to services in their community.

To become an NDIS participant a person must:

• Have a permanent disability* that significantly affects their ability to take part in everyday activities.
• Be aged less than 65 when they first enter the NDIS.
• Be an Australian citizen or hold a permanent visa or a Protected Special Category visa.

Individuals aged between 7 and 65 years can download a Access Request Form (ARF).

*Some conditions (List A) are likely to meet disability requirements. Other conditions (List B) are likely to require assessment of functional capacity. People currently accessing the schemes in List C, will generally be considered to satisfy the disability requirements without further evidence being required.

For patients you think meet the criteria for the NDIS but need extra support to apply you can contact the LAC in your region, or if they have a mental illness or psychosocial disability you can link them in with one of the services below.

Flourish – We can help prepare people for planning meeting so that they can be confident the plan will meet their needs.

Embark – Embark Access directly supports eligible people in the Sydney Metropolitan Area to apply for the NDIS.

Early Childhood Approach Partners (ECA). A guide for health professionals.pdf

Who is it for?

Children younger than 7 with developmental delay or disability do not need to be an NDIS participant to receive support through ECA. However, if the early childhood partner identifies that the child would benefit from longer-term, funded early childhood intervention supports, the child must meet the NDIS access criteria for early intervention or disability to become an NDIS participant.

A key part of early childhood intervention is ensuring that parents and caregivers have the information, tools and support they need to help build a child’s capacity within their natural environments, like at home and childcare. This ensures that capacity building is not just limited to formal clinical settings but occurs at every opportunity. This is in line with research that shows the important people in a child’s life have the biggest impact on a child’s learning and development.

ECA support is NDIS access becomes relevant when a child with delay or disability would clearly benefit from a coordinated, long-term, multidisciplinary service response.

Children with a diagnosis … https://ourguidelines.ndis.gov.au/home/becoming-participant/applying-ndis/list-conditions-are-likely-meet-disability-requirements

What do they offer?

Early childhood partners have specialist skill sets in early childhood intervention. Early childhood partners do not provide free diagnostic assessments (e.g., speech pathology diagnostic assessments for language delay). Rather, early childhood partners use their specialist expertise to assess the functional impact of a child’s developmental delay or disability, identify goals, and discuss evidence-based supports that will assist the child/family in meeting these goals.

Importantly, early childhood partners employ a ‘team around the child’ approach, ensuring a holistic assessment of a child’s function based on parent report, objective assessment, and observation of the child. This ensures the right breadth of supports are put in place for a child, supporting the delivery of best-practice early childhood intervention.

Sydney and South East Sydney ECA partners are:

Lifestart: https://www.lifestart.org.au/contact-us/referral-contact-form/

EACH: https://www.each.com.au/service/early-childhood-early-intervention/

Support for patients

Summer Foundation– are passionate about stopping young people with disability from being forced into residential aged care, by helping them access the support needed to be in control of where, how and with whom they live.

Functional Assessment resources

Eastern Health – Connecting NDIS functional domains, symptoms, functional impact & support.

Psychosocial

STRIDE– Providing evidence of Psychological Disability for the Access Request Form.
NDIS – Providing evidence of Psychosocial Disability form.
Reimagine Today – Supporting people with mental health conditions to navigate the NDIS.
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District – Functional Impact of Psychosocial Disability – NDIS Assessment Resource.

Allied Health

VALID
10 steps to excellent NDIS therapy reports: VALIDS’s guide the NDIS therapist reports for allied health professionals.