NDIS Participant Experience in Rural, Regional and Remote Australia

Submission 100

Outback Disability services

7 Balikpapan Ct, Johnston NT 0832.

Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance scheme

Dear committee,

Thank you for providing me on behalf of Outback Disability Services to stand before the committee on 16/4/24. Outback Disability Services is not yet operational, currently awaiting certification. I had not submitted a submission prior to the meeting. However, having worked with participants on NDIS I discussed the following matters before the committee;

 1.  NDIS have "non-restrictive close" that works very well with people with physical disability.
    This where participants were allowed to go anywhere they wanted with family or friends
   and carry out their business and were able to return to their accommodation. There is a big
   problem with this close since now mental illness is considered a disability. Participants with
   mental illness often wonder away from their accommodation and support workers and are
   unable to return to their homes and will end up in very dangerous places where they are
   exposed to various exploitation including drug use, sexual/financial exploitation. Can NDIS
    please review the "non-restrictive practice close" to allow some form of containment
     especially for participants with mental illness.
 2.  The process of applying for a client to go on NDIS is very long, for example; since November
    2022, I have trying to apply for NDIS for a client with Schizophrenia and acquired brain
     injury. This client has significant cognitive impairment. It took me about six months to get
    the family to complete the application forms and by the time I submitted the forms they
   were out of date. I had to restart the whole process with the new forms. The Local area
    coordinators work from the office in Fannie Bay and there is no allowance for them to go to
     participants homes for community engagement meeting. It will be ideal for the LACs to
    attend the homes of participants for the community engagement meetings or may be to use
      facilities in the local area for example the Palmerston library.
 3.   In most cases participants on NIDS are from remote communities and once they are
   approved for SIL, they move permanently to Darwin away from their families in the
   communities. These participants are often home sick and always trying to find a way to go
   back to their families. Can NDIS facilitate a plan where participants without special needs are
  managed by NDIS service providers in their communities with their families? I have examples
   where a participant from Tiwi Islands was in a SIL house in Darwin ran away from his support
   workers and got on a ferry and returned back to Tiwi Islands to be with his family. For people
    with major mental illness to be walking alone in Darwin puts them at very high risk as there
    are vulnerable due to their mental illness.
4.  Can an initiative like the SDA be available in the communities where houses are built and
   NDIS service providers can provide care and support to participants whilst they are in the
   communities with their family. I understand there some participants who need special
   treatments not available in the communities.

Thanks you,

Mandinyara Munamati Clinical Manager, Outback Disability Services.