Submission NDIS Independent Assessments
Summary
I am a medical professional and the nominee of a 21 year old on the autism spectrum who is selectively mute when anxious although studying at uni. She can not currently conduct her own meetings. I strongly object to the use of these assessments and hope that you will note the current UK situation where unqualified users of such assessments are being sued as a result of poor outcomes.
No identifying information is to be made public from this submission because my daughter is looking for work in a highly competitive field and has already suffered considerable discrimination in the workplace from gossip in the community about her disability and how it might impact on her abilities.
a. The development, modelling, reasons and justifications for the introduction of independent assessments into the NDIS
I understand that there is a potential problem with therapists recommending sessions paid for by NDIS that bring them income. Although we are supposedly regulated and no one suggests drs give you operations just to make money so why would NDIS therapists see clients just to make money? The ongoing therapists should therefore have to justify their recommendations via outcome reporting but this in no way means an independent assessment is a good idea. The people NDIS want to employ to perform these assessments are not qualified to do them and often have no experience in the type of disability their client is presenting with. Most people on the autism spectrum will vastly underestimate the impact of their disabilities on their independent living skills (for example – via lack of insight) and only through a long relationship with a therapist can people get a grasp of what they can and cannot truly do.
b. The impact of similar policies in other jurisdictions and in the provision of other government services
https://www.pprproject.org/first-do-no-harm-health-regulatory-bodies-must-act-in-relation-to-pip-and-wca-assessors c. The human and financial resources needed to effectively implement independent assessments
PWDs. There is no point in paying unqualified people with zero relationship with the clients to do rush jobs on them as well. There is no such thing as making these assessments effective - we are already short of therapists, and if you transfer a large number of fully qualified people into
Independent Assessments
Submission 281
this work to do it properly (over many sessions) there will be no one left to treat our PWDs and work with them on their goals.
d. The independence, qualifications, training, expertise and quality assurance of assessors;
already covered. Note APHRA’s objections. The proposed assessors are not qualified to perform these assessment tools and make any decisions. Any information they gather will be very dubious – they have no knowledge of the PWD and how their disability affects them and they can not validate any answers that were given. The information collected is therefore rubbish. Rubbish in = rubbish out the other end.
e. The appropriateness of the assessment tools selected for use in independent assessments to determine plan funding:
These are tools that should be used by qualified staff only who have actual relationships with the PWDs and observe them under different situations and get to know them. Totally inappropriate use is proposed here.
f. The implications of independent assessments for access to and eligibility for the NDIS:
You propose overriding specialist assessments from people who have worked with our PWD for years in favour of a single totally unqualified person asking questions to which the answers may or may not be vaguely accurate. So it becomes a total lottery who gets in and who does not.
g. The implications of independent assessments for NDIS planning, including decisions related to funding reasonable and necessary supports:
See f) identical issues
h. Opportunities to review or challenge the outcomes of independent assessment:
The appeals process is way beyond many of our PWD and relies on a member of the family being able to fight for years on their behalf. What happens when we are dead? Our loved ones will be living and dying in squalor having been refused services thanks to them answering a pile of questions inaccurately and the person asking them not being qualified to judge the validity of their answers.
i. The appropriateness of independent assessments for particular cohorts of people with disability, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from regional, rural and remote areas, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds:
No different to everyone else – totally inappropriate to have unqualified people involved in this using tools they are not qualified to use and who have no relationship with the clients.
Independent Assessments
j. the appropriateness of independent assessments for people with particular disability types, including psychosocial disability see i) k. any other related matters