Understand psychology supports

The following information relates to FOI request FOI 25/26-0805, Document 6.

A knowledge guidance article titled “Understand psychology supports” with version number 2 was published on March 9th, 2026 at approximately 7:

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Title

Understand psychology supports

Description

FOI 25/26-0805

This article provides guidance for all NDIS staff and partners to understand:

what are psychology supports
mainstream psychology supports
NDIS funded psychology supports.

Recent updates

3 September 2026 Clarified we can only fund psychology as a therapy support when it directly relates to the participant’s disability needs.

Before you start You have read and understood:

Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external) [https://ndis.gov.au/our-guidelines#:reasonable-and-necessary]
Our guideline - Mainstream and community supports (external) [https://ndis.gov.au/our-guidelines#:mainstream-and-community]
Our guideline – Therapy supports (external) [https://ndis.gov.au/our-guidelines#therapy).

What are psychology supports?

Psychology supports can help participants to: e build independence in their home, at work or in the community e improve or maintain their capacity e build skills and confidence to do their everyday living activities.

We can sometimes fund psychology as a therapy support if it will help to increase or maintain the participant’s functional capacity. The NDIS cannot fund psychology which is for assessment, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of mental health conditions.

There are other systems apart from the NDIS that provide psychology supports and services. We call these mainstream services, and they’re available to everyone in Australia. To learn more, go to section Mainstream psychology supports in this article.

Mainstream psychology supports

Mainstream psychology supports include supports that assess, diagnose, treat and monitor mental health conditions.

these are things like: · services for assessment, diagnosis, treatment or monitoring of mental health conditions such as schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder

Guidelines and anxiety disordoi 25/26-0805

For emergencies or crisis mental health situations. For example, suicide or self-harm interventions.

Mental health services provided in hospitals, metal health residential care, rehabilitation settings or mental healt outpatient clinics
Metal health services for parents or children to support family relationships & child development
Mental health services available through the education system. For example school mental health practitioners
Services for the treatment management or outport dependency or other addictions medication for mental heal conditions.

tearn more about mainstream psychology supports go to Our Guideline – Mainstream and community supports (external:(https://ndis.gov.au/our- guidelines/mainstream-and-community).

NDIS funded psychology supports

We can fund some psychology as therapy supports for participants. This includes supports that help participants:

improve or maintain their functional capacity
increase ther levels of independence to do everyday activities.

To learn more how we can provide psycholgy as a therapy support, go to our Guideline–Therapy supports(external: https://ndis.gov.au/our- guidelines#therapy). We may fund therapy with psychologist which is capcity building in nature. For exampke, we may find theraoy focused on:

developing organisational or motivational skills helping the participant develop strategies to manage emotions and adjust to life changes due to their disability developing social and communication skils. Was this article helpful? 👍 1 👎 0

Categories: No assigned categories are evidence based practice & reasonable and necessary support. Note: Some clinical therapies can be funded if they are for limited time and specifically used to build capacity related to the participant’s disabilty. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help the participant recognise there emotional and behaviour response to impact of their disability However, if CBT is need treat symptoms mental health condition, the participiant will not

Psychology supports

You need to access these support s via mainstream means instead.

Australian Government Department of Social Services Psychology supports are funded in the participant’s plan as therapy supports. Therapy supports are stated supports To learn more, go to section What happens when you get therapy supports in your plan? In Our Guideline – Therapy Supportsexternal.

We may also include funding for the psychologist to coordinate with other members of the participant’s support team. For example, their psychosocial recovery coach or occupational therapist. This would be included in the participant plan as part of their capacity building supports. Note: if the participant is already claiming sessions through another service, they can’t use NDIS funding to claim the same support. For example, they can’t use NDIS funding to cover gap payments for Medicare or private health-funded supports. If the participant claims psychology sessions in their NDIS plan, they need to be separate from any Medicare funded sessions. Planners should discuss this with the participant and include information about it in the plans comments. To learn more about mainstream psychology supports, go to_Our guideline - Mainstream and community supports [external](https://ndis.gov.au/our- guidelines#mainstream-and-community).

to learn more about NDIS funded therapy supports, go to_Our Guideline– Therapy supports[external]_ (https://ndis.gov.au/our-guidelines#therapy) . Next steps There are other NDIS supports related to mental health that may be appropriate for the participants plan. For example, psychosocial recovery coaching, art therapy, music therapy, counselling and occupationaI theraphy.

To learn more about psychological disability, go to article Understand Psychological Disability[https://india.my.salesforce.com/articles?Knowledge(19f373316).
To Learn how to add support coordination and psychosocial recovery coach funding to the participant’s plan, go to article understand Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Funding[https:// india. my . sales force . com / articles ? Knowledge( 19 f 37380 ).
to learn more about other types of therapy Supports including counseling occupational theray ,art therapy and music theraoy,go to Our Guidline –Therapy supports[ external]( https: // nd is . gov . au / our - guidlines #therap y)