Your NDIS plan is there to meet your needs and empower you to live a better life. So, it’s important you know what steps you can take to ensure it’s working for you. From knowing what to do if you’re running out of funding to understanding how to inform the NDIS if your circumstances change mid-plan, in this webinar, Fighting Chance’s Senior Support Coordinator, Alex Browne shares tips and knowledge to make sure you maximise your NDIS plan, including:

• How to use a plan appropriately
• What to do when your plan comes back and it doesn’t meet your needs
• What do ‘choice and control’ and ‘plan flexibility’ really mean?
• What represents a ‘change in situation’ and how to submit it
• What to do if you run out of funding while waiting for a change of situation decision

Additional resources from the NDIS website: 

• Reasonable and necessary supports information 
• Change in circumstances
• How to request an internal review of a decision

In this webinar, Fighting Chance’s Senior Support Coordinator, Alex Browne, deep dives into the new NDIS access process. 

Alex covers the following:

• Why do people access the NDIS? 
• NDIS eligibility criteria
• What changes were implemented in 2023 and why? 
• What does the new process look like? 
• How to prepare for the access meeting 

Additional resources:

• NDIS website: applying to access the NDIS
• NDIS website: booklets and factsheets about applying for access (including Easy Read)
• Blog: Applying to the NDIS for the first time: the Fighting Chance NDIS access checklist
• Blog: How to write broad, outcome-focused goal statements to negotiate the NDIS plan that’s right for you
• Find your local NDIS community partner office here
• Webinar: Evidence and the NDIA; clinical reports and NDIS language
• Word doc of prompts to help prepare for your first access meeting

In this webinar, Fighting Chance’s Senior Support Coordinator, Alex Browne, deep dives into psychosocial disability, a term used to describe a disability that may arise from a mental health issue. Alex guides attendees through everything from NDIS eligibility criteria, to what can be funded and how a psychosocial recovery coach can support participants with psychosocial disabilities to live a full and contributing life.

Alex covers the following:

• What is a psychosocial disability within the NDIS?
• What are the eligibility criteria for psychosocial disability?
• What do I do if I am on the NDIS for a different disability, but I want to add psychosocial disability as an access met diagnosis?
• What can I be funded for with a psychosocial disability?
• Does health still play a role as part of my support?
• What is a psychosocial recovery coach?

Additional resources:

• Supporting people with psychosocial disability – a guide to our Framework. Easy read version.

Mental Health Access Snapshot Series

• Snapshot 1 – General information about how the NDIS can support your mental health
• Snapshot 2 – Impairment and Mental Health in the NDIS
• Snapshot 3 – Recovery and the NDIS
• Snapshot 4 – Functional capacity and mental health issues
• Snapshot 5 – NDIS and other services supporting your mental health 
• Snapshot 6 – Providing evidence for NDIS eligibility 

Access

• NDIS mental health access
• NDIS prompts for Clinician Report / Part F of the NDIS Access Request Form
• Evidence of psychosocial disability form 
• NDIS access process for people with psychosocial disability 
• Accessing the NDIS – a guide for mental health professionals

Psychosocial recovery coach information 

• Psychosocial recovery coach information – 2 pages
• Psychosocial recovery coach information – 14  pages

In this webinar, Fighting Chance’s Senior Support Coordinator, Alex Browne, explores the different types of guardianship, the financial management considerations, and the process to apply for guardianship within the context of the NDIS.

– Different types of guardianship
– Financial management considerations
– When is it important to think about guardianship, and what needs to be considered?
– What is the process to apply for guardianship?

Additional resources:

Child representatives

• NDIS fact sheet: Child representatives
• NDIS easy read fact sheet: Child representatives

Nominees

• Appointing a nominee (NDIS website)
• NDIS fact sheet: Nominees
• NDIS: Appointing a nominee
• NDIS fact sheet: Being an NDIS nominee
• NDIS easy read fact sheet: Information about nominees

Guardianship

• NCAT fact sheet: Making an application about yourself
• NCAT fact sheet: Who can help you with your application? 
• NCAT fact sheet: Ending or changing your financial management order
• NCAT fact sheet: Ending or changing your guardianship order
• NCAT fact sheet: Information for applicants – appointment of a financial manager and/or guardian
• NCAT fact sheet: Information for applicants – request to review a guardianship order
• NCAT fact sheet: Information for applicants – review or revoke a financial management order
• NCAT form: Guardianship application
• NCAT form: Appointed guardian statement
• NCAT form: Financial management application
• NCAT form: Health professional report form
• NCAT form: Request to review a guardianship order
• NCAT form: Application for review of an enduring guardianship appointment
• NCAT form: Application for review of an enduring power of attorney
• NCAT form: Application to review revocation of enduring power of attorney
• NCAT form: Application to review or revoke a financial management order

Watch this webinar to explore the value of Positive Behaviour Support and how it impacts the need for regulated restrictive practices.

– What is a restrictive practice (RP) under the NDIS rules.
– What does it mean when a RP is recommended as part of your behaviour support plan.
– What is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), and what role do Behaviour Support Practitioners play?
– How does PBS reduce the need for restrictive practices
– What is the difference between PBS & Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
– Where can I find more information about Restrictive Practices and Positive Behaviour Support

This webinar is for all parents, carers and support persons of an individual who displays behaviours of concern. This webinar may help you better understand if a person you support requires positive behaviour support services and what you can expect from such services.

Additional resources:

• NDIS – Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support Rules 2018
• Regulated Restrictive Practices Guide, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, version 1.1, October 2020
• Evidence Matters: Developing Quality Behaviour Support Plans
• Autism Spectrum Australia: Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)
• 3 ways that Positive Behaviour Support is different from ABA, Autism360

In this webinar, Fighting Chance’s Senior Support Coordinator, Alex Browne, deep dives into the equipment, technology and devices (assistive technology) that help you, or your person, do things you can’t do because of your disability. She covers the following:

– What does the NDIS mean by assistive technology

– What assistive technology is funded by the NDIS & the difference between low, mid and high cost assistive technology

– What are the steps to get assistive technology in your plan

Additional resources:

• NDIS Access request form
• NDIS guide – assistive technology (equipment, technology and devices)
• NDIS factsheet – assistive technology: guide for low cost support funding
• Assistive technology – guide for minor trial and rental form

Are you an adult or a teenager applying to the NDIS for the first time?

NDIS funding for the supports you need to live your life with choice and control and achieve your goals can be life-changing. However, accessing the NDIS can be a lengthy process. If you choose to go ahead and apply, it pays to gather as much information as you can, check your eligibility and give your application the best chance the first time. 

Whilst resources such as the NDIS website and guides take you through the steps, the devil is in the detail to filling out the NDIS Access Request form.

When the NDIS says – “you must demonstrate evidence of your diagnosis from a treating professional” – what kind of evidence do they need? Your disability or impairment must lead to a significant reduction in your functional capacity, but what does functional capacity mean? Your treating professional(s) must provide an assessment and a report, but what should they include? What language should they use?

This blog will take you through the Fighting Chance NDIS Access Checklist and build on the points included. You may also want to watch:

• Alex Browne’s webinar, “Applying to the NDIS as a teen or an adult”
• Lisa Duffy’s webinar, “Practical guidance on accessing the NDIS”

The NDIS access checklist

The first three eligibility questions are nice and straightforward.

1. Are you under the age of 65?
2. Are you an Australian Citizen, Permanent Resident or do you have another special, protected category of visa?
3. Do you reside in Australia?

Congratulations, you’re 3/7 of the way through the checklist.

These questions correspond with Section 1 (the section you fill in for yourself or for your person) of the NDIS Access Request Form, Part A (your personal information).

Next:

4. Do you have a diagnosed disability that is lifelong and permanent?
5. Do you have evidence of this diagnosis from a treating professional?

Include details in Section 1, Part E of the NDIS Access Request Form (overview of your disability).

For certain disabilities, a diagnosis is likely to meet requirements to gain access to the NDIS. You can find the full list here.

If you already have good evidence of a diagnosis from the list of conditions above, or another condition/impairment which results in your disability, you can attach this. According to the NDIS, good evidence should:

• be recent
• be completed by a treating health professional who is relevant to your primary disability
• confirm your primary disability
• confirm the impacts of your disability on the different areas of your life
• describe previous treatments and outcomes
• describe future treatment options and expected outcomes of those treatments.

Finally, and most importantly:
6. Does your disability have a significant impact on your functional capacity in different areas of your life?
7. Do you have an assessment and a report from your treating professional(s) detailing this impact, and what supports you are likely to need?

Functional capacity refers to your capacity across six core areas of daily life, known as domains. If your disability has an impact on your functional capacity, it means that, due to your disability, you are less able to enjoy the “ordinary life”, that should be the right of all Australians across these domains. You must demonstrate impact on at least one of these domains to be eligible for the NDIS:

• Mobility
• Communication
• Social interaction
• Learning
• Self care
• Self management

For example, if you are a wheelchair user, or you have severe anxiety which prevents you from leaving the house, there is a functional impact on your mobility. You might not be able to access public transport, and therefore the variety of places you can travel is limited, or you might not be able to get to the shops to buy essentials.

The language you, and your treating professionals use to communicate functional impact is important. Clinicians often write in medical language about symptoms, but the NDIS is interested in how these symptoms affect your life or stop you from achieving the standard of living you want for yourself.

You can empower your treating professional to understand and use functional impact language with the following resources:

• Alex Browne’s webinar “Evidence and the NDIA, clinical reports and NDIS language”
• Prompts for clinicians: Connecting NDIS functional domains, symptoms, functional impact & support
• The NDIS’ Supporting Evidence Form. This form takes the clinician through the areas of functional impact one by one.

You have now reached the end of the checklist. If you’re confident you are eligible, and have all the information at hand, you are ready to apply to the NDIS. Complete the NDIS Access Request Form to apply. You can find a copy of the form, and instructions on how to submit, on the NDIS website.

Once you’ve submitted it, you should hear back within 21 days. If your application is successful, the NDIS will contact you to arrange a planning meeting to discuss your support and funding needs.

Good luck!