Topic Tuesday// NDIS, Disability & Mental Health// Tues 31st January 2023 5:30-7:00PM

@Former-Member"I feel that the best advice i can give is to ensure that you are involve in the process of your application - access is quite basic, and once this is achieved funding can then be used to get a full functional capacity assessment, psychological assessment etc which will aid in gaining greater funding. "

Thank you for sharing how you feel @greenspace Dealing with the current system can be really hard, especially when you're having to 'prove' things to be eligible ❤️

@MyLife_MyWay

An NDIS application is evidence based - that means you need to engage professionals. Applications can be rather clear that someone has a disability however if there is no proof of this then they can be rejected for not meeting the access criteria. As such, having a decent amount of evidence (i had my GP write out my entire history with him regarding mental health along with his opinion) can give you the best chance to get in, as rejection and needing more evidence can be a frustrating process especially if you believe you are eligible.

heya @chibam, hmm I can understand why some people might not want to use government funding, and thank you for sharing that about yourself.

Using the NDIS or any form of government support is a right that we all have. I've had periods of my life where I was totally dependent on it! I'm so grateful that it was available to me then. And a lot of us are here to learn how we can actually utilise the NDIS for it's purpose - to help even the playing field for those of us who need some extra support.

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@greenspace wrote:
@chibamI don't think it was any better before the word "psychosocial" was used 😛

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Nah, back then there wasn't any help at all, and we were all just spinning our wheels under useless therapists who, beknownst to them, but not to us, were never gonna help us.

Still, if the govt. were gonna invent improvements, it would've been way better if they could've given them a clearer name.

Oh well. Sailor V.

@Former-Memberoh I have evidence! 100s of documents - the NDIA summons all my medical practitioners over the past 10 years! My issue is not proving it - that is way easy for me. The hard part is getting an advocate or representation for the conference which is almost impossible given that none of them are taking in new clients or even waitlisting them anymore. I am at the AAT conference stage but cant attend the conference because I have no support, so I have had to reschedule the AAT conference 3 times now as I continue to try and get an advocate. I have called between 30-50 organisations about 3 times each since August and no one gets back to you or is willing to take you on. That right there is the issue.

What support can those who are awaiting access to or ineligible for NDIS access?

@Wazzlord

1. A medicare-funded mental health care plan prepared by your GP can give you access to I think 10 appointments max in a years to visit a psychologist (Although in my experience the MH professionals who take on these patients were occasionally not top-notch.)

2. There are local support groups in many regions run by members or by community services e.g GROW Australia, Emotions Anonymous.

3. There are remote / vid chat / audio call support services including e-GROW