Independent Assessments
Submission 233
to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme,
We have significant concerns regarding the review of independent assessments and their\application in the context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
We are lodging this submission to outline our reasoning for this from the perspective of experienced allied health practitioners, support coordinators nursing staff who work with,\support and advocate for our NDIS participants.
As noted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities (2006),\individuals with a disability have the “right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of \health without discrimination”, subjecting some of our most vulnerable individuals to intrusive and invasive flawed assessments, with an overarching aim being; to limit, change or lessen the quality of the services which are so very necessary for that individual, is not only be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the individual, but would also be incomplete contradiction to the convention, as the NDIS would be purposefully seeking to reduce the standard of healthcare being provided, as well as by engaging in discriminatory behaviours,\by subjecting the participants to such intrusion, which typically developing Australian children and adults are not forced to endure to receive their needs met, by public hospitals,\Medicare or other like services.\n The individual needs, specific and often very subtle nuances to an individual’s disability,\health or needs, are absolutely not able to be properly assessed or evaluated by a “stranger”, no matter their skill level. It often takes many years of working closely with a participant and\their supports to understand their needs at a very rudimentary level. The formatively flawed proposal that an individual could be comprehensively evaluated, in a number of hours,\perhaps even by distance, at a specific moment in time, does not acknowledge the dynamic or complex nature of disability.
the proposal does not have any scope for intricacy or involvedness of individual needs, rather is attempting to ‘fit’ all disabilities into a mold. By conducting an indecorous independent assessment, the NDIA is knowingly going to leave some participants without \their very necessary supports as a direct implication of the poor assessments they are being subject to.
those independent assessments also devalue the core care team and professionals working with the participant along with their highly specialized clinical opinions and judgements, but far more catastrophically, they seek to remove the participant themselves from being an active decision maker in their planning. This is in complete contradiction to the very foundations of the NDIS.
the NDIS needs to completely reconsider the application, appropriateness and use of independent assessments in the contexts proposed, in favor of a person centered, professionally trusting review which seeks to support, encourage and seek participants flourish.