Anyone started with the NDIS?

This part of discussion re funding of psych services is really important for my son. @CheerBear @eth

I will keep it in back of mind as we go forward. He only wanted support for medical services and is upset they wont fund that. I thought that was the case, so eventually we will see if we can expand his plan.

I still have not had my own planning meeting or even thought about what I would like.

@Former-Member glad you managed to find @eth on your own. I had a feeling you two would get along.

Hope some of the content here is helpful @Appleblossom . If you can prove that mainstream services (eg under mental health care plan) have been exhausted and are not enough you stand a better chance of getting NDIS to fund psychology.

I went through their pricelist (55 pages, on their website) with a fine tooth comb to see what I was eligible for. It helped me clarify what I wanted to ask for. Worth the time it took.

Sorry to hear this @CheerBear I'm afraid I can't provide any advice for how to rectify this issue, but you're not alone, this has happened to me also, albeit in a far larger degree, which is part of why the whole fact that most of my funding went towards the social, community and civic participation category makes me depressed.

The support worker organisation I have basically ate up almost 85% of the budget that was allocated towards that category before giving me any chance to perhaps collect myself, have a discussion with my coordinator and decide what other things in the category will actually be useful, I was thinking maybe a small life skills based group in the community because I believe I read that is part of this category. Now there is not enough funding to do so.

Also @eth I thought I'd ask, just because we are on this topic, do you know if it is allowed for an organisation/provider to bill in advance? The support worker organisation has done so, they have billed for the entire year of my plan. So this means that my funding has been drained by a service I do not even use or need. Sounds rather iffy to me, but coordinator says it is allowed when a participant is agency managed.

Support worker organisation also stole some of my daily living allocation by billing for self-care. They never provided such a thing. In fact, we never discussed it at all back when I hadn't withdrawn from them yet. This too was depressing to see when the admin who does all their billing sent me the schedule of bills, as I REALLY need actual help with that.

Yes, I've heard the same too @CheerBear but I struggle with not thinking that its just my luck to end up in a situation like this. Their lack of understanding towards psychosocial disabilities doesn't help any, either.

Hi @CheerBear @Former-Member

Sorry guys but I'm not able to answer questions about billing/inappropriate billing as I have a plan manager and it's working well with her for me. Some invoices are delayed and then come in a batch which is a problem with working out exactly what funds remain, but other than that this aspect of my plan has been going smoothly so far. I did have to sign a new service agreement with the org that does my Coordination of Supports and it does say 15 min increments for work done and 6 min increments for phone contact which sounds similar to what you are paying CheerBear.

That's OK @eth I was just wondering. Good that your plan is going smoothly with billing.