Path to NDIS Participant: A practical walk through from application to support - Webinar Replay
In this webinar, we go through the updated NDIS access and eligibility requirements, and the process of applying to become an NDIS participant.
We take a look at some of the common challenges people come up against when trying to become an NDIS participant, and some things that you might be able to try to help overcome them. We also run through the next steps if and when you are accepted onto the NDIS.
Our goal at Kinora is to simplify the NDIS journey for everyone - here we share the important things you need to know about getting onto the NDIS, so that you can feel confident about going through the process yourself, and ultimately, have a better chance of being accepted.
-
NDIS - List A: Conditions that are likely to meet the disability requirements
NDIS - List B: Conditions that are likely to result in a permanent impairment
MPM - State your case: how to write impactful lived experience and carer statements
Access Request Form - direct download link
Evidence of psychosocial disability form - direct download link
NDIS - Participant Service Guarantee Timeframes
Kinora - NDIS Impairment Notices: How They Affect You and What to Do
Ask Izzy - Disability Advocacy Finder
Kinora - Set NDIS Goals with greater SCOPE to maximise funding flexibility
-
So hello everyone. Thanks for joining us today.
Welcome to our webinar Path to NDIS Participant, a practical walkthrough from application to support.
My name's Erin, and I'm part of the team here at Kinora, and I'm also joined by Yvette here.
She's going to be walking down this pathway with me.
Thanks, Yvette.
And we've also got Immy and Lisa from our team who will be manning the chat, and they'll be popping links in there that are helpful as we go and helping to answer questions if they can.
If you're a Kinora member, you might already know us as coaches within the community.
So today we're going to be talking about the NDIS access and eligibility requirements and the process of applying to become an NDIS participant.
So the NDIS is full of confusing words and acronyms, rules that can be really tricky to interpret sometimes, and often there's not too much help from the NDIS to guide you through it, unfortunately.
So our goal at Kinora is to try and help simplify the NDIS journey for everyone.
So today we really want to share the important things that you need to know about getting onto the NDIS to help you feel more confident with the process and ultimately, hopefully have a better chance of being accepted, putting forward a stronger application.
Totally.
I feel like we're Google Translate for the NDIS on a regular basis.
So yes, there's no silly questions.
If there's any questions through this process, pop them in the chat, we'll get to them.
No such thing as a silly question, no.
So if you're, if you're not already a member of Kinora, we are a safe and supportive online community where you can get support for your NDIS questions from us coaches and our community of thousands of other NDIS participants, their families, support coordinators, and there's lots of service providers on there as well who are experts in their field.
So it's a really good chance to sort of get in with people that you might not usually have the chance to ask questions of.
We've also got a bunch of free NDIS resources and tools for our members too.
So if you're not a member yet, please join us. We'd love to have you and it's totally free.
If you've been to one of our webinars before, you would know that we record these sessions so that we can share the video and links to any of the resources that we mentioned.
We pop them into the Kinora community.
If you're not a member though, don't worry, we will be sending it direct to your inbox as well.
If you need closed captioning today, you can turn that on by clicking more at the top of your screen, then select Language and Speech, and finally turn on Live captions.
Also at the top of the screen there is a chat button. So if you go ahead and click on that. Now this is where you can introduce yourself into your comments and ask any questions as we go along.
So Lisa and Immy will be monitoring the chat and we'll answer most of the questions.
At the end of the webinar, we will have a Q and A session, but they will be popping some links and stuff in there, like I said, to some helpful resources as we go.
And we'll also, oh, sorry, yes, I was going to say, Erin, if people have specific personal circumstances that they'd like their questions answered, we might not have the opportunity to answer those questions today, but we can give you as much general information as possible.
But then that would be a great reason to join the Kinora community where we can specifically answer your question within the community and provide you with all of the resources for that particular circumstance.
Yeah, just to give you a heads up.
Yeah, yeah, really good point there Yvette.
So yeah, join us and pop any more specific questions that we can't get to today in the community.
Now before we jump right into it, I'd just like to make an acknowledgement of country in the spirit of reconciliation.
Kinora acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to the Elders, past, present and future.
We acknowledge the culture, diversity, knowledge and experiences of First Nations people and celebrate their contributions, specifically those living with disability, their families, carers and individuals dedicating themselves to a career in supporting people with disability.
So in today's session, we're going to be going through sort of four important steps along the participant pathway.
So first, we're going to have a look at what the access and eligibility requirements are so that you can get a bit of a better understanding of, first of all, whether the NDIS is right for you.
And then we'll be looking at the application process itself and things like, you know, the evidence you might need to make your application really strong.
Then after that, we're going to look at some common challenges that people come up against when trying to get onto the NDIS and hopefully share some things that might help you be able to overcome them.
And then lastly, we're just going to take a quick look at the next steps if and when you are accepted onto the NDIS. Yes.
So again, thank you everyone for joining us here today and we'll get right into it.
Yeah, let's get to it.
Yes.
So I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.
What is the NDIS?
So NDIS stands for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and it's there to support Australians living with disability now.
It funds services that help to remove disability related barriers that stop people living life the way they want to and that aren't available through health mainstream or other types of services.
So that's kind of really important point there, Yvette, that, you know, the NDIS doesn't cover things that, you know, are like considered health conditions.
And that's a bit of a tricky, tricky line there.
Where's that line in the sand for sure, Yeah.
But it also, it also brings up the point that if you do go through this process and find that NDIS isn't appropriate for you, then more than likely will be another government fund source for that particular circumstance.
So yeah, I think Bill Shorten's quite famous for saying that the NDIS is not the only lifeboat in the ocean.
For sure.
Yes, that's right.
And probably along with that, it's a good idea to think about what services you need as well before you're applying.
So depending on what your condition is or what your impairments are, it's a good idea to make sure that the NDIS is going to actually cover things that are helpful for that.
Yeah. You know, treatment sort of things.
Yeah. So for sure.
Absolutely.
So it's helping you get on with your day to day life.
And it's really focused on helping people to build their independence, participate in their community work or study, and improving quality of life as well.
So there's this real idea of what the NDIS calls capacity building within the NDIS, which, yeah, is sort of about it really just means how you can do more with what you have.
Yeah, Yeah, that's it.
Yeah.
You might not be able to get rid of any, you know, barriers in your way, but you can sort of build a bridge and help help that gap be a little smaller to the things that you want to be able to do with your life.
And we've got work and study opportunities there.
Sorry, I just wanted to jump in that work and study opportunities I make like like if that's what you want to do in your life, amazing.
But it also doesn't fund those particular things.
It's just your access and ability to participate in those sorts of things.
So your ability to participate in life as you choose to.
Yes.
So yeah, sorry, just this morning.
Yep.
Yeah, no, good, good point there.
So it's more about the support that you need to be able to do those things, but it doesn't
Now some people might not realise that there is NDIA and there's NDIS and you know, I think sometimes people might think there's a bit of a typos, but yeah.
So just want to point out before we get, you know, too deep into the weeds that NDIA, if you see that written anywhere that is talking about the agency itself.
So the people, I guess you could say that work in that government scheme.
Yep, Yep.
And then the NDIS is the scheme itself.
So the insurance scheme that covers the funding and stuff like that.
So some people sort of use them interchangeably
I know I do, even though it's not 100%, but that's sort of the, the real definitions there.
Also before we go on, just wanted to mention as well one thing that we hear a bit about is people thinking that the getting onto the NDIS is means tested.
So just want to put it out there before we start that it's not means tested at all.
So it doesn't matter, you know, how much money you make or it's NDIS is there for everyone in Australia.
All right, so let's get on to access and eligibility now.
So if you've decided that applying for the NDIS is the right thing for you to do, then the next step is obviously to check yourself against that eligibility criteria.
So we've just got the real basic ones up there to start with.
These are all pretty simple, you know, are you aged between 9 and 65 children?
But there's a lot of, sorry, it sounds really simple, but like there's still a lot of mass confusion about the age of acceptance for sure.
Sorry to cut your.
Yeah, 100% continue.
I mean, children under 9 obviously can still get onto the NDIS, but it's a slightly different pathway for them.
So it's called the early childhood approach.
It's very similar, but there is some changes depending on things like, you know, if a child has a diagnosis or not or, you know, that kind of thing.
So it's a little bit different.
We're not going to get too much into that road today, but I do suggest if you're applying on behalf of your child that's under 9, probably just make your first starting point to reach out to your local NDIA office and they'll be able to help you through the process and and let you know there'll be some very slightly different criteria.
And also, sorry, in the other end of the spectrum when it comes to people who are getting towards the, the older end of that age bracket, that there's this obligation to have to apply to my aged care because you're heading towards an aged care bracket.
But obviously if you're under the age of 65 when you first apply for the NDIS, it is support for life.
So there is no obligation to then transition to My aged care.
But that is obviously a discussion to have with your Lac in your particular circumstances.
But just to, to be clear about that, other than you do the bracket as well.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So if you're, you know, 63 64 and you're thinking about applying for NDIS, I I would do that sooner rather than later because as soon as you hit 65, then unfortunately the NDIS is not going to be an option for you.
But if you're on it from under 65, then you're like you said, it's, it's for life.
So you're not going to get kicked off.
So the other basic eligibility criteria just need to be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or excuse me, protected special category visa holder, and you need to live in Australia.
So you do need to remain living in Australia while you're on the NDIS as well.
You can obviously leave the country for holidays and things like that, but you need to be living here to be getting NDIS support.
So if you can take off those basic criteria, then that's when things get maybe a little bit more trickier.
So there's two different pathways to becoming an NDIS participant, and you must meet all of the requirements under either or both the disability or early intervention requirements.
So we'll take a look at both of those in a bit more detail because they're sort of the, the real crux of getting on to the NDIS.
This is, you know, what it all comes down to really doesn't it Yvette.
Yes, most definitely.
There's only very subtle differences between the two.
Yes, yeah, for sure.
So we'll start with the disability requirements.
I would say this is the majority of people would be applying to the NDIS under this pathway.
So we're going to go through each of the criteria and just sort of explain what it means so you can understand whether or not you meet it.
And then we'll talk about how you might be able to show that you meet it as well using your evidence for sure.
So you have a disability caused by an impairment affecting how you function, and this basically means that there's been a loss or damage to a part of your body or how you think and learn, and that has reduced your ability to do certain things in life.
So when it comes to this reduced ability, there are specific life areas that the NDIS actually looks at.
So just to quickly run through them, because you would need to tick off at least one of these, that your disability impacts your ability in these areas.
There's intellectual, which is how you speak, listen, read and write, solve problem, solve problems and process and remember information.
That is cognitive, which is how you think, learn new things, use judgement to make decisions and to pay attention to things as well.
Neurological, which is how your body's nervous system functions, sensory, how you, you know, see or hear things, Physical, which is the obviously the ability to move different parts of your body and that type of thing.
And then lastly, there's psychosocial, which means that your mental health has reduced your capacity to do those life activities.
So like I said, you need to be able to link your disability to at least one of those impairment areas and then you can tick that off the list.
It is, unfortunately it is a bit of a tick box thing at the start of this and reducing your experience to a series of tick boxes is a bit dehumanising, but it's a government scheme after all.
So yes, that's true.
Sorry.
The next one, your impairment is likely to be permanent.
So basically, you know, in medical lingo that kind of means that there's, there's not really a cure for your impairment.
There's no, excuse me, no treatment out there that's going to really improve your condition on your impairments.
And that doesn't mean that your condition can't change over time, you know, go up and down, but it it needs to be likely that it's not ever going to stop impacting you completely.
I think you'll obviously go into this a little bit further in the evidence side of things, Erin.
But in terms of the permanence of your condition, that's something that would obviously be confirmed by your treating medical professionals.
So this is information that you would already have in your various visits with the people that you've you've interacted with on on a daily a regular basis for sure.
Yeah, totally.
So when we we do talk about the evidence, you you will see that a lot of it you probably have already just in what you've got through seeing doctors and specialists and things like that.
And they should hopefully be able to tick off these things for you.
So the next criteria is that your impairment substantially limits your ability in one or more life areas.
So again, you need to be able to tick off at least one specific life area that your impairment substantially limits your ability in.
So I'll go through these ones again.
It's a slightly different list, but it's sort of I guess meets up with the, you know, the other life areas.
Yeah, Yeah.
So it needs to substantially limit to your ability and how you communicate.
So obviously that's speaking, writing, using sign language, how well you understand people and how people understand you, socialising.
So how you make and keep friends, interact with the community.
The NDIS will look at your behaviour and how you cope with feelings and emotions in social situations as well as affect how you learn.
So understanding and remembering new things and practising and using new skills.
Mobility or moving around, which is how, Yeah, how easily you move around your home or the community and how you, you know, get in and out of bed or out of a chair.
And I'll consider about how you can use your arms and legs, that kind of thing, caring for yourself.
So, you know, just general personal care, hygiene, grooming, eating, drinking, that type of thing.
So they might look at, you know, can you get yourself dressed?
Can you give yourself a shower, go to the toilet, that type of thing.
Managing daily tasks.
This is for people that are older than six.
So obviously they're not going to expect a 5 year old to do these things.
But basically, I know, I wish, wish they could, but this is, you know, how you make decisions, how you make plans, look after yourself, day to day tasks, that kind of thing, how you solve problems or manage your money.
And that's specifically talking about your sort of mental or cognitive ability to manage your life, not necessarily the physical ability to do those tasks that would come under that, you know, possibly mobility, one that we talked about before.
Goodness, yeah.
So your impairment has to substantially limit your ability in one of those areas.
And when they say substantial, what they mean is that you need a high level of help to be able to do tasks in that particular area.
So you need to be able to look up at least one of those areas.
If you tick off more, that's that's fine.
But it needs to be at least one of those that you need a lot of help in because of your impairments.
Yeah, as we talked about at the start, you know, the NDIS is very much about independence and helping you, you know, get a job or study or something if that's what you want to do.
So one of the criteria is that your impairment effects how you can find and keep a job, contribute to your community or join social activities.
So yeah, the NDIS is all about building.
They call it social and economic participation.
Very, you know, NDIS speak way of putting it, but basically it's like living your best life in government speak.
Yeah, yes, totally.
So, yeah, they just need to know that your impairments will impact whether or not you can, you know, work or study or just get out into your community, volunteer, anything like that.
Have some purpose.
And then yeah, sorry.
What was that of it?
Sorry.
Having some purpose and direction in your life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
And the final one there is that you will likely need the services, items and equipment that can be funded by the NDIS, which are called NDIS supports for your lifetime.
So again, as we set up the top, you know, there's no point someone going through the process to get NDIS funding if they don't actually need the types of services that the NDIS can fund.
So, you know, to tick off this bit, they might look at whether your needs are better met by the health department, for example.
If they decide that they are, if they see it more as a health condition, that might be that you won't meet this criteria.
But again, you know, conditions can change over time.
So there might be periods where you need less support than others, and that's totally fine.
But the important part is that it's considered lifelong, that you will probably need support, some kind, some level of support throughout your whole life.
So now let's look at the other pathway because remember, there were the two separate pathways.
You need to meet all the criteria in either of these lists or both.
You might meet both.
So this is the early intervention requirements.
Now this can apply to both adults and children.
The 1st 2 are exactly the same as in the disability requirements.
So we won't go through those again.
But they do get a little bit different when it gets down more to the kind of support that you'll need.
So for early intervention, basically you would need to benefit from supports that help you to manage your impairment, prevent it from worsening, improve your abilities, or assist those who support you.
And they must be, you know, those NDIS support.
So that's the services, items, equipments that can be funded through the NDIS.
But the difference between early intervention and the disability requirements is that with early intervention, these supports, you'll you'll likely need fewer of them in the future.
The need will be lessened for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
So I guess for a bit of an example, this could be like an acquired disability through an accident or illness, let's say.
And it might be really important to get a whole bunch of support right when it first happened.
And then that's going to sort of help you improve on those impairments enough that you can manage them more easily later on, learning some adaptive skills from specialists and that sort of thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And it could be for kids as well, like I said before.
So early intervention, so maybe there's, you know, development delay or something like that.
Again, that childhood pathway into it is slightly different, but that would sort of cover, but that would be implementing some some routines and some resources that would potentially lessen the impact of the disability.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, 100%.
So I think a lot of the time this would come at least from an adult's side, you know, come off in a medical team.
So like acquired injuries and say like workplace or any other context really, but yes, resulting in a lifelong disability for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it might be your medical team that suggests this this pathway for you.
But yeah, So either way, whichever pathway is right for you, then you just need to tick off all of those criteria that we spoke about in either list.
And then you need to gather evidence to show that you do tick off those criteria because they're not just going to take your word for it, unfortunately.
So not all evidence is equal either.
There are some things that the NDIS views more highly than others.
So making sure your evidence covers those things will make for a stronger application when you do put your application in.
So we'll just go through a couple of things that make for for good evidence.
So the more recent the better.
Yeah.
But if you do have a long history, long, yes, long treatment history, sorry, have a long trip.
If you had a condition and you've been working through figuring out if it is permanent and it, it may be challenging to find recent medical records if it's just been something that you've been living with for a significant period of time.
So it's definitely, it requires a lot of proactivity to actually get back into this mentality of wanting to improve your life and build capacity.
So yeah, it's definitely a mindset shift for something that may have been part of your life for a significant period of time.
Yeah, yeah, 100%, yeah.
And especially if you've got a condition that goes up and down over that time, you know, having that whole history will sort of show that that's the case.
You know, it might be that when you're applying, you're at sort of a, you don't need as much support, but you know that come next year, that's probably going to go up again.
So yes, if you do have that kind of condition, then that's really good to show that progression as well.
Yeah, for sure.
So good evidence will come from the most appropriate medical professionals for your condition as well that you've been seeing for at least six months.
So you've sort of got that bit of relationship with them that does get a bit challenging as well if you've been through a few different medical professionals as well for say, ongoing or chronic conditions.
But yeah, having those relationships with the medical professionals would definitely assist in long term and good evidence from the NDIS perspective.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And the NDIS actually has a list of who they consider the most appropriate professionals for some specific conditions as well.
So you can check that out and you don't have to have evidence from them if they list someone, it's just that they're, they see them as sort of the most appropriate.
But really it's probably, you know, any kind of reputable, knowledgeable professional that you're seeing about your condition would be in a, in a good place to to talk about it obviously.
So the next thing is that it's very specific about the support you need.
So your evidence isn't just going to say you need help from a support worker, for example.
So it'll actually go into specific detail about exactly what daily life tasks the support worker helps with and how they do that.
So it's, yeah, instead of keeping it, keeping it broad about the supports that you need, it really, really dives into exactly how it can help you, which is a lot of the time where a functional capacity report comes into play because there's such significant documents and go through every, almost literally every facet of someone's life and how their disability is impacted by how their life is impacted by the disability.
Yeah.
So but we don't always need to go to that extent.
But with the treating professionals that you're working with, when they are more most specific about your disability's impact, that is the most helpful.
Yeah, absolutely.
So like we got up there, it needs to focus on those life domains that we talked about.
So it needs to really show the impact in those areas and that's going to help tick off that criteria.
So remember that was mobility, communication, social interaction, self management, learning and self care.
So yeah, going into detail about your functional capacity in those areas will be really, really helpful.
And Yvette, like you mentioned before, you know, it can be a bit of a challenge to kind of talk about all these, you know, bad things, you know, like all the things you can't do or your loved one can't do.
Like it, it can be really hard.
But it is important to make sure that it's covered in your evidence because that's what the NDIS is all about.
Yeah.
It also highlights where you actually need the support.
So they're the areas that you're highlighting will improve in your life with NDIS support.
Yeah.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And finally, just having good evidence means that it covers off all of the eligibility requirements.
So you could even go through that list, tick, you know, each one off 1 by 1 and just see if there's any gaps.
If there's anything that isn't quite, you know, laid out in your evidence, you might need to think about getting something extra to kind of just cover off that criteria to make sure that you're showing you you've ticked them all off.
So we'll have a look now at the different types of evidence that you can use.
We've got just the main ones up here for you.
Yeah, it's a long list.
You definitely don't need all of these.
You don't want to be providing, you know, mountains of evidence that might not all be really relevant, but it can be good to sort of get a few different types to show different perspectives and make sure that you're covering off those criteria.
So confirmation of your diagnosis, that's obviously an important thing to show.
Now there is a list of conditions known as List A.
We've got a link to them if Immy or Lisa could pop it up there.
So the NDIS basically accepts that if you have one of the conditions on this list that you're probably going to meet all the other criteria.
So it might be worth checking that first if your condition is on that list.
Really the only evidence you need is evidence of your diagnosis.
So it makes it a lot easier.
You won't really need to show those other, you know, other things.
It could be helpful as far as figuring out what supports they're going to give you.
But just to tick off the criteria here, if your condition's on list A, then you'd really just need to have evidence of your diagnosis.
Can I just say that that is literally the only situation where the NDIS relies on a diagnosis as a clear pathway?
Because these are conditions where it's nearly 99.9% likely that their disability significantly impacts their day to day life.
So anything other than on List A, there's a heavy de emphasis of diagnosis in terms of your acceptability onto the scheme.
Yeah, that's right.
Because, you know, one person with a diagnosis might have completely different impairments or different support needs than someone with the exact same diagnosis, right.
So it's not always the best or easiest to focus on that diagnosis.
It's kind of better to focus on, you know, those impairments and the help that you need.
Yeah, Obviously include any relevant assessment results or medical reports that you've got that would be helpful to show any treatment options that you've undergone and what the outcome was, as well as details about any future treatment options that your medical team has considered and whether or not they think they're appropriate or not.
So those last two will help to show the permanence of your condition and the extent to which you've dealt with the situation and it and I think there could be some hesitation to include details about possible future treatment options.
But it's also taken into consider like if treatment options are only available in Switzerland by one specific surgeon who's like, like, put that in there.
But like the likelihood of that being a a possibility for people like that is definitely taken into consideration in terms of like what is possible and what is considered reasonable and I guess necessary to use their own terminology.
So yeah, yeah.
Like, yeah, put it on the table.
On the table.
Yeah, I guess that's why they used the word appropriate, because that's not going to be appropriate for you.
Or it could even be something as simple as like there might be an option for surgery, but it's not appropriate for you because, you know, yeah, the risk of something happening in surgery or whatever it is.
So it's more about showing that you've tried everything that you can.
So, you know, you're at a stage where your condition, it's there's no treat.
You're not going to suddenly start taking medication and it's going to, you know, get a whole lot better.
Like you're, you're this is permanent.
So maybe this is another when they focus on diagnosis.
But the NDIS kind of accepts that if you have the condition that's listed on list B, you will most likely meet the permanency criteria already.
So again, check that list out before you worry too much about gathering a whole heap of evidence to show that your condition is permanent.
Because you know, like Yvette said with list A 99.9% of conditions on this list are known like as pen.
So you don't need I think the different, the, the minute difference between those two is the list A is a disability with 100% or close to impairment and then these are permanent impairments.
So the difference is like one bit.
But yes, it's in the detail.
Sure.
If if you have a condition on list B, you still need to show that you can take off all the other things.
You just don't need to worry so much about the permanency.
That's the difference there.
OK, Yeah, it's good to have any recommendations talking about NDIS supports that would benefit you.
So, because remember one of the criteria was that you need specific like NDIS funded supports for your lifetime.
So they need to know that, you know, the services that would benefit you have, you know are NDA supports.
So for example, if your GP has said you might benefit from some physio, for example, or you've been recommended a certain piece of equipment, just make sure you're you're giving them that evidence as well because that could really help when you say benefit from, it'd be your doctor has recommended physio would be beneficial for you to maintain your mobility for your lifetime.
So it's not like you're not going to improve on a short term and then it's going to stop.
It's like this, this will be part of your regular routine for the rest of your life.
Yeah, that's it.
So again, it's that fine line between sort of treatment and maintenance or something else.
So it's that physio in this example, that's not sort of treatment to make your condition go away or get better, but it helps you to deal with those impairments a lot easier.
I guess that's the difference there.
Yeah, for sure.
Again, yeah.
Any letters or anything from healthcare providers that detail specifically how your impairments affect your ability to undertake those daily activities that we talked about in the different areas of your life.
So yeah, mobility, communication, social self management, learning and self care.
So anything that specifically details those, you know, you could get a letter or something if you've got a bit of a gap around that, your doctor might be able to just write something out around that rather than a full on report.
Now, you can also use statements about the different supports you need from not just healthcare providers and you know, if you already have support like support workers or anything like that, but you could get statements from family and friends, you know, teachers, if it's for your child, coaches, anyone that sort of has a a relationship and I guess knowledge of your impairments and the type of help that you need to do, you know, different tasks and things like that.
So that could just give that sort of more colour, I guess bit of a wider perspective someone might argue in this particular situation, Erin.
Well, if you've already got support, why do you need these people to give you evidence to get NDIS funding for this school?
The answer is for sustainability because it's for the rest of your life.
So if one of the other, any of these people come in and out of your life, then you're left without that support.
So while they're providing this great support for you right now, we want to ensure that all the NDIS wants to ensure that you have that support level forever.
So that's why I'm making sure that that is taken into consideration.
And it's noted that that is what helps you do your day, get, yeah, get through your day.
So that is maintained the whole way through.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it is always something that you can sort of write yourself, so a lived experience or a care statement letter if you're, you know, caring for your child or something like that.
So again, that just sort of adds a bit more perspective on what daily life is like and the challenges, you know, maybe how it affects other people in the family.
So again, you know, what you're saying is that it's more about sustainability.
So they want to make sure that other family members are going to, you know, be able to keep caring for someone or yeah.
And that allows all of the like, say, if you do rely very heavily on informal supports, it's, it allows your parents or your siblings or your aunt or uncle to be your parents, sibling, aunt or uncle and not just your carer.
So it allows for those relationships to be fully realised and include things like respite and all that sort of real life stuff that's necessary for sustainability.
Yeah, absolutely.
And even things like, you know, for instance, a parent that's applying for their child so they could write a letter that mentions something, you know, along the lines that maybe caring for their child takes up so much of their time they're unable to work themselves.
So that's not something that's going to come up in any other, you know, medical reports or anything that is important for the NDIS to know that.
So that's a really good way of yeah, giving that.
And then of course, just to tick off that basic criteria we talked at the start, you will need to provide some ID, you know, citizenship, residency documentation.
So, you know, obviously that'll just be like driver's licence card, electricity bill, that kind of stuff, anything like that.
So now let's go through the application process itself.
Once you've got all that evidence together and you're feeling ready to apply, there's sort of two different ways, maybe a combination of the both that you can put your application through.
So you can use an access request form or you can meet with an NDIS representative or kind of a bit of both, you know, fill out the form and then take it to the meeting with you if you want to do it that way.
So if you're happy to apply using the form or sometimes you might not have a local office near you, so you have to use the form, you can download that from the NDIS website or you know, request that they send a copy out to you and that'll have all the questions you need or sort of guide you through exactly the information that you need to give them.
There is a section that needs to be filled out by your treating health professional as well.
And if you're applying for like, sorry, the access request form, because I remember going through, but I can't.
Is it is it a download PDF or Word document or is it online digital form?
It's a download.
Yeah, they should, should have both and I, yeah, I struggled to find it.
I think because they're trying to get more people to apply in meeting.
It's not so obviously found on the website.
I do have a direct link that email Lisa might be able to pop in or we'll send it to you at the end.
But you can also, yeah, just give them a call and request they email your copy or send it out or anything like that
There is another form as well.
If you're applying for a psychosocial disability, that's called the evidence of psychosocial disability form and that can be filled out by your psychiatrist, psychologist, you know, any sort of professional that you're seeing in regards to your mental health.
So once that's all done, you send it off with all your evidence and then the waiting game begins.
So like I said, they are trying to get more people to apply via a meeting with an NDIS representative.
So out in the community, the NDIS is sort of delivered to people through what they call partner organisations.
And specifically there are local area coordinators or Lacs and early childhood partners when it comes to kids.
So they're there to help you through that application stage as well.
So to apply this way, all you need to do is call your local office and make sure you request the type of meeting that's best for you as well.
You know, like face to face online, via the phone, whatever's going to work best for you.
And let them know if you want to bring a support person and if you have any accessibility needs as well.
Bring along all of that evidence and documents that you gathered together and the Lac will go through it all with you and answer any of your questions.
They'll also be able to let you know sort of if there is any gaps that you might not have noticed in that evidence and that you might need to get a bit more before you really submit your application.
If you did fill out the form already, the access form, they'll just sort of use that to put your details into their system.
But if you didn't, they'll just go into their system and do it, you know, at the same time.
So it's all all kind of the same thing.
They'll ask you some questions about your current situation, what you hope to get out of the NDIS, that kind of thing.
It is optional, but they might also ask to create a something called a community connections plan for you, which is basically where they'll be looking at the supports and services outside of the NDIS and sort of seeing if there's any other options for you.
That doesn't necessarily mean instead of NDIS, it might be in addition to, or perhaps if you're, if they, you know, you found not eligible for NDIS.
I think with, with member testimony within the community that it's been really encouraged to utilise supports outside the NDIS as part of the evidence that the NDIS is appropriate for you.
Because it shows that there's still a gap in the services that you require.
So it shows that you are fully utilising all of the the supports that are available to you out in the community, but you need that extra level of support.
Yeah, Yep.
Good point.
Yeah, absolutely.
So what happens next after your meeting or you've sent all your information in the NDIS should contact you within 21 days to let you know the decision.
Now we say should because it's like Franson, not exactly in line with what they say at the moment.
They have something called a participant service guarantee where they list all of the timeframes for how long they should be getting back to you for things.
And they're not quite meeting them at the moment.
Things are, but hopefully it won't take too long.
Yeah.
I mean, the NDIA is doing all sorts of initiatives in terms of recruiting people and training extra people so that they do get through this backlog that has been there for probably the last 18 months.
So it is even the process of improving.
They do quality report on their service levels and their expected timeframes for things.
So that potentially could be something for people to check out as well if they want to have a little bit more of a finger on the pulse in terms of how the NDIA is working through the backlog.
But yeah, like it's definitely something that they report on in terms of they're aware that things are running behind, but they're doing things to bridge that gap.
Yeah.
We can only hope it does improve from here.
Yes.
So when they do get back to you, they'll let you know one of kind of three outcomes.
So the first is that they might need more info.
They might, you know, decide that what you've given them doesn't exactly check off the criteria or doesn't have, you know the correct details or something in it.
So if they do that, you have 90 days to give them the information that they've requested.
And if they can't reach you in that time or if you don't supply the information in that time, they'll with withdraw your application.
So it's really in your best interest to try and get it to them by 90 days if you can, because otherwise you've got to start all over again.
And also, even if you're, even if the 90 day limit is challenging in terms of getting appointments or coordinating supports and that sort of thing, maintaining contact with the NDIA to make like let them know of the reasons that you can't meet those, those deadlines is 100% better than just letting it go.
Unspoken for sure.
Yes, absolutely.
And once you are able to give them that info, they should get back to you within 14 days after that with their final decision.
So the other outcome option might be that you're eligible yay.
So that means that you become an official NDIS participant from the date of that decision.
So it'd be the the date of the letter and you'll get a letter saying first of all, why they decided to let you on the NDIS.
So whether you met that disability or early intervention requirements or both, and it will also have something called a notice of impairments as part of that acceptance letter.
So that tells you the category of impairment that you've been approved for.
So there's six different categories, intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory, physical or psychosocial.
So we mentioned those at the start.
Yeah, now this is a relatively new process.
It sort of only started in January.
So basically it doesn't change too much.
It just will maybe affect the supports you access because what services you access through the NDA sort of must be in line with that category.
But that makes sense because you know, if you have, you know, a physical impairment, you're going to need supports for a physical impairment, you're not going to be accessing anything else anyway.
So shouldn't shouldn't matter too much.
But yeah, we've got an article all about them if you do want to read more on that.
We won't get too much more into that today, but then, yeah, the NDIS should contact you within another 21 days of that decision to set up your first planning meeting.
Yes.
Now, the third option for an outcome, it might be that they've found that you're not eligible for the NDIS.
So they'll they'll notify you and they'll tell you why.
If you feel like there's not enough information in their reasoning, you can always ask for more.
You know, ask for as much detail as you can.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because, you know, if you're going to ask for a review, you can use that information to strengthen your next application as well.
Like they'll tell you exactly you didn't meet these criteria.
So, you know, you need more evidence for that criteria.
So if you do disagree with their decision, you've got three months to request an internal review, which is where someone else at the NDIS will look at it and, you know, see if the right decision was made.
If you're still not happy with that outcome, then you can request an external review by the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Yeah.
And it does seem like there's a lot of acceptance going through the ART as a first entry point into the NDIA, excuse me, NDIS, but you do actually have to go through the process of applying and then internal review.
You can't just go straight to the ART.
So it is just Part 1 of the parts in the pathway.
Unfortunately, yes, yes, that makes it a bit longer as well.
But unfortunately that's just the way it goes.
Or you can reapply at any time.
You don't have to go through the review process.
You could just put in a new review, but you can't reapply if you're waiting for a review outcome.
So you kind of got to choose, you know, do I want to do the review pathway or do I want to just reapply?
Or you can, you know, go through the review and then if that's still not successful, you can still reapply.
So there's always going to be more chances to, yes, there is no limit to the number of applications or the number of times that you apply.
It's just the process by which you have to go.
Yeah, yes, yeah.
And look, it might just be that maybe the NDIS isn't the right, you know, type of support for you.
So in that case, you know, yeah, your local area coordinator can help you find those community supports outside of the NDIS, if that's an option for you.
So now let's get some of the common challenges that people come up against in this process and some ways that you might be able to overcome them.
Now, I'm conscious of time, so we might just quickly, quickly go, it's like there's lots to talk about.
I know.
All right, so one big thing is a lack of funds to get evidence.
So you know, we all know evidence can cost a lot of money and if you don't have money to pay for that evidence, you know you can't put forward maybe as strong an application as you could have.
I would like to argue that Australia's medical system is probably up there in terms of the best in the world.
So I would say that significant majority of the time if you've gone through mainstream medical system, you would have the appropriate evidence.
It may just be a fact, a factor of your treating professionals using NDIS specific language in the way that they present your case.
So it may actually just involve a little bit of back and forth with your your treating professionals that you are currently working with.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a really good point.
And as well as like medical professionals, there might be other free options out there as well, like community services, maybe, you know, something available through your child's school or something like that.
Like there's a few different YEAH options you could try.
And that sort of ties into difficulty accessing professionals as well.
So whether you're, you know, living remotely or if there's just a huge wait list where you are to get in to see someone that can really slow down a application as well.
So might be an option to try telehealth, you know, just use your support networks around you.
If you've got people that might be able to help you find different providers and things like that.
This is a real tricky one to solve.
But yeah, just trying to look at every Ave you can, I guess now we we talked a bit before about, you know, it's not so much the emphasis on diagnosis in your evidence.
So unless you've got that list A condition, but one problem that people do come up against is maybe, yeah, relying too much on the diagnosis, not being able to demonstrate the impact to their functional capacity.
So you have to try and remember that NDIS staff who are reading these are not medical professionals, you know, assume they know nothing about your condition.
Yeah.
And I just think, you know, if you, if you say you've got XYZ condition, that they'll know how that affects your day to day life because they probably don't.
So you need to really make sure the evidence is spelling out how it affects your life.
Yes, 100%.
Obviously one huge challenge is just, you know, how difficult the scheme can be to navigate, you know, and I guess that's why everyone's here today.
It's a tricky process to get onto, let alone, you know, once you're on there.
So just, you know, lean on family and friends, there's advocacy organisations out there that you can reach out to.
Don't think of your local area coordinator as a barrier to you getting on the NDIS you'd like, use them to help you.
They can tell you what more evidence you might need and that kind of thing.
And if you have gone through that review process, if you were, you know, found not eligible as part of that process, they do sort of go through your evidence with you and help show you a bit more where you don't meet it.
So you can kind of use that as a learning experience as well.
And as we said before, time frame blowouts, you know, I think you just said keeping in contact with them is a really important thing to do.
Yeah, I want to maybe just tie the maintaining contact and paper trail with things like advocates and LACS.
So obviously like there's a lot of anecdotal feedback that LACS aren't necessarily super commutative with individual cases, which to be fair, they're probably under resourced and overworked.
So their ability to respond to weekly emails is not really possible.
So finding supports at a level or like informal supports or say an online community where you can actually, it's just finding the places where the kinds of support that you need in the frequency that you need is possible and sustainable.
That is also really helpful.
That's why friends and family are amazing, but they may not necessarily have the technical capabilities to help you in those specific areas, but they can help you find the people that you can have those conversations with.
So it's just about, yeah, maybe, yeah, have a wide network of people that support you.
Yeah, Yep.
Good idea.
And if you've got medical professionals, you can ask them that maybe if they've got any further recommendations for, you know, support organisations and things like that, that they think might be able to help you, that might be one way.
Yep.
So if you are accepted onto the NDIS, then like I said before, they should touch base with you within 21 days to set up your first planning meeting.
And that will be with a planner who works for the NDIS.
So again, let them know if you want to bring a support person, request the meeting type that's best for you and let them know about any accessibility needs as well.
So if you applied via the meeting before, then they'll already have a lot of information on file about your situation and your goals and supports, everything like that.
But they'll get a lot more detailed here.
And then they'll use that information to create your NDIS plan, which is the document that sets, sets out exactly, you know, what funding you have and how you can use it.
It's a really good idea to prepare for this meeting if you can.
And NDIS actually has a really good booklet that you can use to help you prep.
It's just called Booklet 2.
I think we've got a link there to it.
But I'm just going to quickly run through these because I am conscious by getting getting close to time.
So yeah, think about the exact services and supports you want to access.
So if you've got any recommendations, quotes, anything, bring them along.
It's good idea to figure out some short, medium, and long term goals that you can align to the supports you want to access as well.
So one of the things they look at when deciding if you can access a particular type of service is will this help you meet a planned goal?
So a little bit of forward thinking here is a good idea.
You know, just just for example, if you want to learn how to drive, having a goal around, you know, I want to learn to drive to increase my independence, something like that.
You can very easily link that back to the kind of services that you will want to access.
To make that happen.
You need to think through what type of plan management would be best for you as well.
So we've got the three options there.
Plan managed, self managed or agency managed.
That basically just means who's paying the bills, who's paying your invoices to your service providers?
Plan managed a, a plan management company will sort of be the middle man and pay those invoices for you.
Self managed, you pay your providers directly and agency managed means the NDIA handles it all.
So there there's some differences and I would just maybe chat your Lac in the meeting about what might be best for you.
You know, self managed, you do need to be a bit more kind of, I guess keeping records and things like that, whereas plan managed, that's all done for you.
So you don't have to worry about it.
And if you're really worried about, you know, connecting with service providers and things like that and, and how to go about using your plan, you might want to ask for a support coordinator.
Or if you have a psychosocial disability, a similar role but more geared towards mental health is a psychosocial recovery coach.
So you need to ask for that funding in your plan if you think you might need that
Now we, we've kind of gone through this, like we said, you know, once you're on the NDIS and even before it, it can be a bit of a bumpy Rd.
So, you know, if you have any trouble, understand, yeah, yeah.
Reach out to people for help.
There's so many different organisations and everything that can help you.
You're not in this alone.
So just make sure you're asking those questions.
It's going to help you get through it.
So I'm sorry, we, we don't have much time left for questions, but we might see what's been happening in the chat.
Yeah.
And we'll, we'll answer it.
We'll drive us to answer as many as we can, but we might need to.
It's going to stop sharing because we don't need that anymore.
Carol, are you able to type your question in the chat?
Just not sure we have keep away.
Yeah, I'm just telling them now.
So I do do have another question from Carol though above.
I think in those sorts of situations, and that's definitely, as I think Lisa, you said, if they're paid, they do it, which is Yep, fair time is money for a lot of these medical professionals in that sort of circumstance.
The reports that the specialists would supply to say your GP like your liaising medical professional, a a letter of explanation pertaining to the specialist reports would probably be the best way to go.
And it's in a lot of circumstances potentially easier to get your GP to fill out those particular forms.
As long as it is a medical professional that you have a relationship with and has the evidence from specialists available to them, then I would say that would be a straightforward solution in that sort of circumstance.
Maybe.
But yes, it's it's definitely a bit of a roadblock when the people that are helping you are not willing to support that in your NDIS application for sure.
So Carol, Carol actually has another question.
I'm not sure if it's because it was a bit earlier, but there was also a she, she asked for evidence.
Is there criteria around how old it can be given chronic conditions take time to diagnose?
So I think what she means is if the evidence has been around for a little while, maybe, perhaps is there expiration?
No, no, there's not.
I mean, they do like to have recent evidence to sort of see what your condition is now.
But now, absolutely, if you've got a condition that's been going on for years, there's no sort of limit to how old it can be.
That's actually going to really show your progression really well using older evidence as well.
The only proviso I would put around chronic conditions is you'd still need to show the permanence and impact of the condition.
So chronic conditions are like horrific in the impact, but proving permanence of a condition can be challenging in those circumstances.
So it might be a different line of approach in going back to speak to your medical professionals about the fact that you're dealing with a chronic and permanent condition.
So that might just be something to take into consideration as well.
OK, I think that's that kind of covers it.
We've got your worksheet that I'm just going about to put up.
I'll let you talk about that.
Thank you.
Yeah, Thanks, Lisa.
So yeah, we've just got a little checklist that Lisa put the link into now that'll help you sort of remember those criteria that we went through and the different types of evidence.
But yeah, that's it.
So we've made it to the end of the webinar now, but you know, as we said at the top, the conversation doesn't have to end here.
If there were any questions about what was spoken about today or if you're watching this later and you know, you weren't able to join us live, then just pop into the Kanora community and, you know, post your questions in there.
We'll get back to you or other community members will get back to you with information and advice and that type of thing.
Or, you know, share your experiences as well.
So thank you everybody for being here with us today.
We really appreciate you joining us all for watching us later.
If you're watching this video at a later date, we'll send out an email to everyone here today with a link to the video later this week.
And of course, we'll pop the video and any links that the team has put in the chat into the Kanora community as well.
So I'm Erin, this is Yvette and we've had Immy and Lisa helping out in the chat as well.
And everybody, you've got this.
We're sending all of our support and strength your way getting through this process because it's not an easy one, but you can do it.
And we hope that, you know, just being here today helps you get that little bit more confident with the process and put forward that little bit of a stronger application.
So thank you again everyone and we hope to see you in the Kinora community soon.
Want extra support along your NDIS journey?
