1. Sandy Jeffs David Clements Sue Ham Flick Grey Judy Bentley
Panel Discussion
Sandy Jeffs
David Clements
Sue Ham
Flick Grey
Judy Bentley

2. It’s the National Disability Insurance Scheme
It’s a new way of supporting people with a permanent and significant disability.

3. If your disability affects your ability to take part in everyday activities and you acquired it before the age of 65, the NDIS wants

4. “Qualifying” for NDIS
The judgement of the disability and its likely persistence tends to be made using a standard battery of tests…and/or the opinions of appropriate experts
ISSUES:
The experience, skills and understanding of the person doing the assessment
The complexity of mental illness and dual diagnosis or co-morbidities
QUESTIONS:
Panel
what has your experience been of this. Has qualifying been easier or more difficult then expected?
People passing the muster – how easy or difficult is it to get in??
When should you look at being assessed? When you’re well or not well?
Sue – how does/will NDIA ensure the skills/expertise to assess people with a psychosocial disability?
David – what impression do you have from service providers in regards to how this is working? Does the sector sense some concerns?
NOTES:
According to Terri Werner, Chair of the Mental Health Consumer Network; You may have a person with a generalised anxiety disorder who is able to work full-time, interact socially and have relationships with their friends and the community, and you can have someone with the same diagnosis who cannot leave their house. So the person in that first example would not have a psychosocial disability, but the person in the second example certainly would
ALTERNATIVES? ILC…
People with a psychosocial disability, or mental health condition, who do not meet the access requirements may receive supports through the Information Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) component of the NDIS or the mainstream mental health system. The ILC will provides information, linkages and referrals to efficiently and effectively connect people with disability, their families and carers with appropriate disability, community and mainstream supports. ILC will work to establish and facilitate capacity building supports for people with disability, their families and carers that are not directly tied to a person though an individually funded package.
ILC will also promote collaboration and partnership with local communities and mainstream and universal services to ensure greater inclusivity and accessibility of people with disability.
To do this, ILC has five streams of activities. These are:
Information, linkages and referrals
Capacity building for mainstream services
Community awareness and capacity building
Individual capacity building; and
Local Area Coordination

5. Does permanent mean static?
Mental illness is most often not ‘permanent’ in the sense that its effects are not consistent over time, though the patterns of impairment and functioning can persist for many years.
ISSUES:
People not wanting to be labelled as being permanently ill
How will it influence changing diagnosis, treatment, needs?
QUESTIONS:
This has been a sticking point from the start when it was confirmed that mental illness would be included in the NDIS. There has been a great deal of work in this area, what are the understandings of the panel?
Sue – reiterate NDIA perspective – including background on how far this has come, the readjustments that have been made
Panel – what is the general understanding/experience of this? If there is mixed understanding, how do we make this clearer to people we talk to/interact with?
A typical review period might be every six or 12 months. The NDIS is a lifelong commitment. It has been created on the understanding that everyone goes through significant changes in life. Whatever your needs are now, rest assured you are not locked in for life once you set your first NDIS plan in motion.
The NDIA understands that many people’s experience of disability varies in intensity across time and in different circumstances. The responsiveness of access processes and plans is essential to address this. Participant’s plans aim to enable support to be accessed as needs vary in intensity. Where there are significant changes in circumstances, a participant may request a review of their plan.
The Operational Access Review for Psychosocial Disability identified a number of ways for the NDIA to account for variations in intensity (‘episodes’) by enhancing administrative arrangements of the NDIS.
This includes:
A suite of staff training to cover variations in intensity, and the often invisible, effects of psychosocial disability relevant to decisions about access. This includes understanding that:
Like the up and downs of life experienced by everyone, fluctuations in severity and chronicity of mental health are inherent to impairments of a psychosocial nature.

6. Personal choice
The first thing you've got to ask yourself is what do you want out of life, and what would make you heal the most and recover the most? What do really you want? And try to tailor your plan around those questions.
QUESTIONS:
Is it that easy? - personal perspectives
David – from your understanding of NDIS registered providers – what have the challenges been?
Sue and/or David - Plan meeting expectations?
Panel – this is a liberating statement…what are the challenges in someone experiencing this?
NOTES:
Opt-in – if a person needs to choose to register themselves for NDIS support. What about those people with severe psychosocial disability who don't choose to enrol but are desperately in need of NDIS supports?
When choosing a support worker you have to make sure you know what qualities you want them to have. Whether you want someone fun or someone motivating. There is someone out there for you.
There are a number of supports in my plan but the main ones are the supports that have been transferred from the old block funding to the new. I think they’re called flexible supports, which basically means I have just transferred my existing supports to being managed by the agency.

7. Recovery and the NDIS
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) understands that recovery from mental health issues, including psychosocial disability, is possible for everyone and is a deeply personal, non-linear journey. A culture of listen, learn, build and deliver is central to the NDIA’s approach to mental health.
The elephant in the room…how does this fit with permanent and lifelong?????
QUESTIONS:
Sue – how will NDIS making this a “living” reality? From your perspective what does this mean, what are the challenges in communicating this across the agency?
Panel
Does recovery contradict the principles of NDIS?
Does that actually matter? How do we communicate this to the broader community?
How important is language? What’s the impact or risk of losing the concept of recovery in a NDIS?
NOTES:
This quote is from a recent NDIA webinar