NDIS support FAQs

Why would the NDIS be helpful for my family member?
What can the support assist with?
What can that purchase, in practical terms?
How does that help me, as a carer or family member?
Gaps in support or services
Can I access respite?
‘Reasonable and necessary’ test
Resources

Why would the NDIS be helpful for my family member?

The NDIS is focussed on providing your family member the support needed to live their life to the fullest. More than ever, the NDIS puts consumers and families in control of community and home supports. Your family member may be eligible for more support under the NDIS than they currently receive.

There is specialist support in the NDIS for people with mental health issues, including those with early intervention needs. To be eligible for support, individuals must have an impairment or condition which is likely to be permanent (i.e. It is likely to be managed across their lifetime) reducing their ability to undertake certain activities or perform certain tasks unless they have:

assistance from other people, assistive technology or equipment; or
they can’t participate effectively even with the assistance; and
their impairment affects their social and economic participation in life; and
they are likely to require support under the NDIS for their lifetime.

An impairment which varies in intensity, for example because it is episodic (on and off) may still be considered ‘permanent’ by the NDIS despite variation in support needs, because it will need to be managed over a long period.

What can the support assist with?

To assist with the challenges of managing life with disability, the NDIS focuses on eight areas of life. These areas are:

Daily living. Assistance with daily life, improved life skills.
Home. Improved living arrangements.
Health and wellbeing. Improved physical and mental wellbeing.
Learning. Improved learning throughout life.
Work. Finding and keeping a job.
Social and community participation. Assistance with increased social and community participation.
Relationships. Improved relationships.
Choice and control. Improved life choices, coordination of supports.

For each of these areas, consider with the person you support what life is like now, what they would like support with, and whether and how they would like things to change. If a person lacks insight into their challenges or what might make a difference, you may be able to share ideas on their behalf, perhaps based on your past conversations with them where they have shared what is important to them.

What can that purchase, in practical terms?

Examples of supports individuals may receive within the NDIS include, but are not limited to:

Assistance with planning or decision making and household tasks.
Transport assistance to medical or social activities (eg. music or cultural event, or a sporting game).
A companion to assist with grocery shopping.
Assistance to build capacity in maintaining a budget and managing their tenancy.
Camps and group activities, to reduce social isolation (may have a co-payment eg. for food).
Therapy such as occupational therapy, or psychology.
In-home cleaning or gardening assistance.
Meal preparation or laundry assistance.

Listen to others living with mental health conditions discuss what their life was like before and after they received NDIS support.

How does that help me, as a carer or family member?

These supports are funded for the person with the mental health issues, however they may also be used to reduce the impact of a caring role on a family.

Example

Your family member is an adult with mental health issues. They live independently but stay with family on occasion.

It may be considered reasonable to have a cleaner both in their home, and also in your home. This may reduce strain on your relationship and improve your overall experience.

We can tell the planner that this is a reasonable support, because a family member of their age would under usual circumstances be able to assist in upkeep of the home during their visit. This would require less work from you. With mental health issues however, it can be more difficult for a person to manage these things themselves. Also, sometimes difficult aspects of mental health issues may create the need for extra cleaning.

It is helpful when speaking to a planner, to explain some of the work you do so that they understand why support is necessary, or how life has been difficult to manage up until now.

Anything expected of family that has an impact on their own opportunities such as work, community or social activities, might be putting your family in additional stress. As families we often want to help, but we would also appreciate if there was additional support available to make life easier for all of us. By telling our family story, the NDIS plan can include support to reduce the family workload.

Gaps in support or services

If we can’t find that help in the community, we call this gaps in support or services. When we use these words, a planner understands something has been missing, that could be helpful to put in place in future.

Often the gaps in supports and services are what family are expected to manage when they provide support to a family member. Families are not asked whether this is how they would like to live their life. In the NDIS, there are ways we can say that this doesn’t work for us. This could include needing support to organise multiple services, or schedule workers, or to find services that work for our family member. We can say we aren’t managing the current workload or that we would like to live our life differently by saying it is not sustainable.

Can I access respite?

Direct respite is not a feature of the NDIS, however it is possible to ask for ‘short term accommodation’. It is also possible to ask for camps, or support for your family member to go on a holiday. The holiday may not be paid for, but the cost of the workers may be covered to assist them.

You may be able to arrange local support workers to assist your family member when you go on holidays, if they go with you. Or, you may be able to arrange support workers to attend your home and assist them when you go out of town or are away from home for any reason.

‘Reasonable and necessary’ test

The support needs to be considered reasonable and necessary to assist a person to live an ordinary life. This can be described as reasonable for the individual, and also reasonable in terms of what is expected of families to assist with, over long periods of time.

Examples of factors which might make additional support more reasonable include:

A caring role supporting two or more family members.
The age of carers, eg. young carers, or ageing carers and / or length of the caring role.
Risks to the sustainability of the caring role, eg. the carers own health.
Isolation of the family due to the caring role, and limited family support, including if the carer is a single parent.
Risks to other family members, particularly young people under the age of 18.
Risk of harm to the individual or to others, including family or the general public if supports are not in place adequately.
The complexity of the caring situation. Does your family member have multiple health and disability specific and / or mental health needs? Increased coordination requirements may warrant consideration in the new Complex Needs pathway, currently beginning in Western Melbourne region. This pathway will be rolled out across Victoria over time.