The provision of services under the NDIS for people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition Submission 105
Thank you for the opportunity to provide a late submission. I am a psychiatrist working in a Community Care Unit providing mental health rehabilitation services to people with chronic mental illness. Three things in particular have been very disturbing to the patients with whom I and my team work:
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Patients have been extremely disturbed at being asked about their ‘disabilities’. They have felt that they are being classified as ‘disabled’ though they themselves do not classify themselves as such. They have been concerned that this will lead to their freedom to pursue their own life being taken away.
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I work with people who are cognitively impaired, in this case through chronic mental illness. Communications that would seem clear or that could be understood by you or I are too difficult to be understood by them.
a. Hence, in my first point, these people do not understand that the point of the scheme is to assist rather than to pigeon hole.
b. They don’t understand the letters that are sent to them. My case managers can not even talk to anyone (no one answers the phone)to ask that copies of the letters be sent to them.
c. Case Managers are not even notified that letters are being sent so that distressed patients are simply filing the letters away rather than talking to their case managers about them.
d. The level of literacy, of cognitive ability, and of general administrative understanding required to read and understand letters is too difficult.
- My patients have been informed that their service providers are changing to a model of multiple caregivers, each one with a special focus of care. I work with people who take a long time to develop enough of a trusting relationship to work with anyone, let alone multiple people. Such a scheme will result in my patients not availing themselves of any care simply because they are unable to manage relationships with a number of different people. Thank you for your time and efforts to understand and improve the care system.