Lived Experience Forum

[janedoe2]

Hi
I've become aware there is a thing called NDIS. I'm not 100% sure what it is. I currently see a psychologist through medicare funding my visits.
I was told by NDIS I will be able to get funding to get more visits once the medicare visits are finished.
Has anyone had any experience with this?
Please advise.

[CherryBomb]

Hi @janedoe2,

There's a bit of reshuffling with how services are delivered and received. The NDIS - the National Disability Insurance Scheme -  is suppose to allocate you budget for services. The aim of this is to give you more choice in choosing services.  

There's a lot confusion out there about how it works. Thankfully, a few members have started discussion on this, which you might want to check out. 

In this discussion @eth wrote a post, which describes the process she took to arrange a NDIS plan. And @Kateeg84 wrote a fantastic post about some of their observations and research on the NDIS. Feel free to join in on those conversation. Or perhaps Kateeg84 and eth can offer some tips. 

SANE Australia also ran a webinar on the NDIS. You can get the details for it here.

[Kateeg84]

Hey sorry for late response I haven't been 100% so have stayed off social media for a bit. From what I understand we should be able to get psychologist appointments on there. I am not quite sure how much but. I am still going through the application myself (witch has not been fun) and a lot of people won't say exactly what they got in their NDIS plans so it's hard to know what they will and won't fund. It's suppose to be on a case by case situation. If I end up getting approved I'll let you know what if any psychologist appointments I get 🙂

I did put a long post up about what I know so far. So much is still unknown about the NDIS and I am struggling to give out advice about it at the moment about it as I as well as many others have hit so many unecessary brick walls

[JasJac]

Hey @janedoe2

yes you should be able to get extra psychology sessions through your NDIS plan. it may or not be the same psychologist as your medicare sessions as the psychologist needs to be a NDIS provider and be willing to accept people for more sessions than medicare. for example I think services like Like Mind provide bulk billing sessions with a psychologist however at this stage you can't get more sessions and pay for it through a NDIS plan or privately as it doesn't work with their service model. 

the NDIS will cover supports that medicare doesn't cover. any health supports, should go through the health system first and if you need more support then the NDIS will cover it, if it is related to your disability, reasonable and necessary. 

[janedoe2]

I'll have to check if my current psychologist is with NDIS. I see her specifically for her specialty. It took a while to find her. Hope she is relevant via NDIS.

[janedoe2]

Hello @JasJac. Phoned my psychologist's office and asked if they are registered with NDIS. Apparently they will not be registering. No sure what to do.

[mrkotter]

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@janedoe2 wrote:
Hello @JasJac. Phoned my psychologist's office and asked if they are registered with NDIS. Apparently they will not be registering. No sure what to do.

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@janedoe2 if you are keen to continue with your current psychologist I would write to the director of the clinic requesting that they do register stating that it would be of great benefit to you and their other patients. If you like I would happy to draft something for you to use. 

[JasJac]

Hey @janedoe2,

wish your psychologists service would make it easier for you to fund seeing her. it sounds like you would rather stay seeing this psychologist rather than moving on.  You do have the option of self managing some of your plan to pay suppliers whether they are registered or not registered. so you can see your psychologist and pay with your plan. self managing means you pay the supplier rather than the NDIA making the payments and it still comes from your plan. Check with your psychologist whether she would be happy to provide you with more sessions after Medicare sessions runout. 🙂

https://www.ndis.gov.au/participant/self-managing-budgets:

"Self-managing gives you the opportunity to purchase supports from suppliers that have not registered with the NDIA. This can include any type of support provided if these supports have been incorporated in your NDIS Plan"

hope that offers a way around it. keep us in the loop of how you go 🙂

[janedoe2]

Thanks @JasJac! Great information you've provided. I appreciate you telling me that. Good to know I still have options. I'll let you know how it goes. 😊