Dear Inquiry into Independent Assessments for the NDIS,

I am so glad that you are holding this inquiry into Independent Assessments; I think it is so important. These decisions were made regardless of what was put forward by individuals and the disability sector. I attended an NDIA meeting to discuss this and after a 3 hour meeting with people with disabilities (which was meant to go for 2) they declared it was a done deal and will be brought in in June 2021. I am someone who lives with a disability and also works as a consultant in the sector and I have felt very disturbed by what has, and keeps getting pushed through. I think allowing this to happen allows a precedence that the voice and lives of people with disabilities don’t matter, their wellbeing and mental health can be disregarded and that the government can do whatever they want (which is constantly quoted to me). I have lived with my physical disability & had an accident which compounded a degenerative condition and have struggled to get support for myself even though I was eligible, as the demand was too great and I “wasn’t in a wheelchair.” I have experienced both childhood trauma, left an abusive partner and experienced systemic abuse by the systems that were put in place to help me. Sadly, the NDIS that we have now operates very much like my perpetrates in its use of power and control, bullying, gaslighting, coercive control, victim blaming etc., and now with the addition of the Independent Assessment it has become a lot like Worker Compensation which is also a highly abusive and all about getting out of paying for supports in my experience. My understanding was that the NDIS was designed to ensure people like myself, who have struggled to get assistance tto be independent, would finally be able to access this in a person centred, client directed way. It was to ensure that people like myself have choice and flexibilityand helped us to have quality of life and engage in fulfilling life affirming work/hobbies etc. Sadly, it has become a cost cutting, punitive system with people having to beg for what they need,“prove” every tiny little thing; apparently only have 1 disability and be rejected if a word or form was not written perfectly. There is a whole different language that is not used by health professionals but this is used to discredit and reject people on technicalities. There is a whole different language that is not used by health professionals but this is used to discredit and reject people on technicalities. The Independent Assessments, I think, are dangerous to people’s wellbeing, mental health, physical health and undermines the whole premise of the NDIS in the first place. It will increase trauma, distress and probably discourage people from applying or continuing with the NDIS. I actually think this could even lead to deaths/suicides. it does not make things fairer as you have someone, who doesn’t know you, assessing a complex disability like mine and you cannot gain in one or a few sessions. disability health professionals journey with you and know better what your disability needs are and the impacts of that disability on your life. From all the feedback I’ve heard of the pilot, and I’ve engaged in a lot of forums, it is proving to be very invasive, unequally matched with Assessors and a person’s disability, inappropriate questions and having to explain, yet again, your dissibility to a foreign unknown entity. the assessments take 3-3 ½ hrs or 1,2 or 3 broken session. This is too much and you will still not get an accurate assessment; It will have too large a cost on people with disabilities, the system of already having do a review every year is taxing enough!

Submission 315

Most people with disabilities are strengths-based, resilient focused and this is also how the sector works so it’s not easy to remember all the impacts of your disability, if we do, it can pull us down and detrimentally impact us. People with disabilities are very adaptable. I find that I often forget what I cannot do because I’m focused on what I can and I’ve already readjusted unconsciously to achieve what I need to in different ways. People will ask “are you limping?” I used to say no, but I realised my leg wasn’t functioning properly so I automatically modified what I was doing to accommodate what was happening unconsciously. People who have been through trauma will be even further traumatised. People who have disabilities have been through trauma usually that’s how the disability was acquired; sometimes it could be brought about through a traumatic birth or after birth, or it could even be that after birth they experienced trauma because of their disability. With trauma being a significant feature of disabilities there needs to be safe people, who are trauma informed trained in the speciality disability that the person has, who understands the person and the way they respond to triggers and trauma inducing situations. They need to be able to help them feel safe, enable their voices to be heard and advocate for them when the trauma takes away their voice or body, or they are having a bad day with their disability. These relationships take a long time to build and it is over time that the full picture comes out. Therefore, only their practitioners can provide this not an Independent Assessor. The mismatch of a person’s disability and the Assessors training is causing huge problems. There is a disconnect with the understanding of the disability in front of them and the actual needs of the person and therefore can be used as a justification for further declining services. They currently already use legislation as a weapon in this regard and play mind games with whether they are going to give people what they need. It’s already hard enough when they disregard what your health professionals are saying and don’t ask for the extra information they require before rejecting you; now we won’t even be able to challenge the decisions made by the Independent Assessor. This is a very powerful control move! On the issue of challenging or asking for a review the system is designed to fatigue the person so they give up and don’t keep questioning or challenging the decisions. It takes so much personal resources to keep doing this and they know this. It is well known that most people who are seriously injured will give up because cost on them physically, emotionally and psychologically is too high. When things affect us personally and our quality of life threatened it has a much greater impact.

to make the system fairer we need to go back to choice for the person with a disability and their professionals. It should be about empowering not traumatising the person enabling them to feel the most comfortable with such an intrusive system. The person should be able to tell what is happening for them once, not numerous times. rather than changing the system provide the funds through the NDIS for those who can’t afford it to get reports from health professionals rather than forcing everyone to have an Independent Assessment with people they don’t know and don’t trust.

Having the NDIS

Having the NDis, when it works, has changed my life and freed up funds that went into “therapy” (we aren’t allowed to call them treatments as this is immediate rejection) to actually have some quality of life and engage in ways that are fulfilling and empowering for me. Sadly, the Ndis has become a cost-saving venture, punishing people who have spent their whole lives living without anything. It is now a Worker’s compensation system and sadly has gone away from its original design to empower and strengthen people with a disability. I’m really hoping the Inquiry will address this and help people like myself to go back to celebrating this life-affirming scheme that was put in place to help me do exactly what I’m doing now, but without further trauma. Kind Regards Talie