10th Sept 2020
The Honorable Kevin Andrews
Dear Minister,
My name is Linda Bruce and I am Director of Helpcentre Psychology, and the Autism Assessment & Therapy Unit, Canberra and Queanbeyan.
I have two significant concerns that I request the Standing committee consider.
- The inadequacy and invalidity of Independent assessors to gather an accurate picture of NDIS clients’ funding needs. In my experience, to be a valid measure of client’s needs, these assessments need to be done by professionals who know the clients.
I work with NDIS clients who have been diagnosed with many disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, anxiety, depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia.
Not only is the Vineland an inadequate measure, but a significant number of my clients and their carers, answer Vineland questions in ways that do not reflect the true situation. Many of the answers are yes, no, “it depends”, or they do not understand the question and give an inaccurate answer.
E.g. one client who can use power points safely when stable, but tries to electrocute himself when not.
Another clients 83 yo mother said he could shower, dress and use a knife and fork. Then after the Functional Analysis, I discovered that he had not had a shower or changed his clothes for at least three years, and ate everything with his hands. There was a huge discrepancy between what his career said and what he could actually do. There is also the fact that many carers’ will not relate a true picture when the client is in the same room listening. They hesitate to do this in case it exacerbates violence, or hurts the feelings of the person they are caring for.
I can provide many more examples. Therefore the assessment including Functional analysis ( Vineland or ABAS) needs to be done by professionals who know the client well, or at minimum these professionals opinion should be included, and they should be part of the review meeting, in order to verify the accuracy of the information. Many problems my NDIS clients suffer, are hereditary, and in my experience, often the carer on their own, is not capable of providing an accurate picture.
- that funding for organisations to run groups for NDis participants, funding that was cut on 1 st July 2020, be immediately increased to make it viable for these groups ( who have now been forced to close) to restart.
Especially for clients with ASD and intellectual Disability, social groups and groups to teach cooking, and communication skills, are vital to improving the clients capability to have less fear of social situations, and be able to live more independently.
When the NDIS funding changed on 1 st July 2020, so that a therapist was paid the same amount for one clients as for more than one, most of the groups my clients were depending on, have closed down. It is not viable for them to run the group. Having more than one client at a time takes more energy, more support people and more materials e.g. cooking/ art. I request that NDIS restore funding so groups are viable to be run. As a psychologist, I do not run groups, but before they
stopped, I used to refer clients to them as part of therapy - to help clients decrease anxiety and depression and gain independence by working with other people to practice skills gained in one to one therapy.
NDIS clients who relied on these groups to supply the only social outing of their week, are suffering due to this NDIS funding change.
Therefore, I request that NDIS restore funding so groups are viable to be run again.
Thank you for considering this submission
Kind regards
Linda Bruce Director Help Centre Psychology/ Autism Assessment & Therapy Centre Canberra and Queanbeyan.