Short answer: The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a scheme of the Australian Government that funds costs associated with disability.
Long answer:
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an initiative implemented by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). It assists eligible Australians who were born with or have acquired a significant and permanent disability to live their life with supports and services to achieve everyday life goals.
All Australian state governments have committed to a national approach to supporting people with disability to maximise their potential and participate as equal citizens in Australian society. From this commitment, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) began its Australia-wide rollout throughout Australia in July 2016.
The NDIS funds what they deem to be reasonable, appropriate and necessary support in light of an individual’s disability. In conjunction with partners and organisations in the community, NDIS helps people navigate support services within their local area. There are two types of NDIS partners in the community – Local Area Coordinator Partners and Early Childhood Partners.
If a patient is aged between 7 and 64 years old, their Local Area Coordinator Partner is the first point of contact, with details and locations available via the NDIS Website.
For parents and families of children under 7 years old who have a developmental delay or a disability, their best contact is an Early Childhood Partner to help them access appropriate support and services for their child. It is not widely known that Early Childhood Partners also assist and support non-NDIS families who can seek assistance from them in relation to their child as well.
Both Local Area Coordinators and Early Childhood Partners are well versed in navigating the broader disability sector. They can find and connect people with mainstream and community service providers in their local area, even if they’re not an NDIS participant.
If you are an eligible NDIS participant, your funding will be allocated to work toward specific goals identified in your NDIS plan tailored to you. Goals can include improving speech and communication through therapy, assistance for activities of daily living, getting a job, or assistance to become more independent to socialise and make new friends and connections. Depending on your plan, NDIS can also assist with home modifications and assistive technology.
With an individual plan, you would work with your chosen service providers who provide specific services (e.g. physiotherapy, dietetics, psychology, occupational therapy, speech pathology, etc) and collaborate with you to achieve your personal health goals. WLC Medical is proud to be a registered NDIS service provider, enabling us to provide a quality individualised service to NDIS participants through all 3 tiers of participants (self-managed, plan managed and NDIA managed).
With WLC Medical working with an increasingly broad range of people within the local and wider community, WLC now stands for ‘Where Lives Change’. Whether it be for physiotherapy, dietetics or psychology, our practitioners are 100% committed to improving our patients’ health and wellbeing. We offer in-clinic or home consultations in line with the needs of our NDIS participants.
If you have a disability but are not eligible for NDIS funding, you can still utilise community partners and NDIS to access information to connect you with available supports in your local area.