Giving NDIS a direction

Self-managing and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, understanding what self-directed support is and how to set and maintain clear boundaries is my topic for the week. Regular readers of my blog know I am a girl who knows what I want.  I have clear personal, professional and ndis goals.  A logical person would know that life would be better managed if all these goals sat together.

My personal goals are:-

• To maximised my health and fitness
• To live independently in my own home
• Enjoy time with family and friends
• Maintain high levels of independence

My business goals are:-

• To build my visual arts practise through exploring new markets and art galleries to house and sell my art work.
• To be an advocate for people with disabilities using visual arts as a platform to create discussion on diversity.
• Build the communities knowledge and awareness of the 'face of disability.
• Build a visual arts network that is inclusive of diversity.  

Gifted 2017 at Drawing Point Art Gallery

Ipswich Arttime Supplies 203 Brisbane St Ipswich

Opens Dec 2 and runs to 23rd Dec

Presented by local artists in Ipswich

A great place to do your Christmas Shopping.

Current NDIS Goals:

• To purchase mobility and assisted technology equipment to maximised my independence. 
• To use allied services such as physio and ot to keep independence.
• To access daily living support services to enable me to live independently and grow my visual art practise.
• To be supported one-on-one in the community to maintain community links and build business networks.

The ndis provides support to individuals and families to allow them to participate independently in the community.  To foster this the ndia looks at the participants goals.  That is the things they want to do and achieve as individuals and/or as a family unit.  The ndia talks about giving participants choices around their lifestyle (Education, training, employment, family life and hobbies and interests); how the want their support needs to be meet; (individual supports, group activities; center bases activities; respite services; mobility and assisted technologies, therapies to improve daily living and management of the packages).

On a daily living level this should mean individuals can now choose the services they wish to access, the times they would like to have their in-home and community support; their allied health services and he group supports they access.  Many participants also want a greater say in the personalities that support them.

Under the ndis participants can also choose how and who the want their funding packages to be managed.  These choices include: having the ndis managed your supports for you; choosing a host fund provider to manage your funding for you or self-management options.

As you know I have chosen to partially self-manage my ndis package through a Plan Manager. My plan manager does my bookings (in accordance to my service agreements) and pays my invoices.  This means my planner the enter all the information into the ndis portal for me.  

When I started 5 months ago, I chose to use a support service provider to provide my direct support needs and a service provider to provide my allied health needs, each of these send invoices to my planner for payment. Recently I have been using a small family business to support me with some of my personal and business goals. 

Into The Melting Pot

Drawing Point Gallery

203 Brisbane St Ipswich

Opening Night 9th February @ 6 pm 

Last week I booked my next solo art exhibition. One of the ways the family will be supporting me is to get my work finish for this exhibition.  I have been working on this exhibition for the last 14 months and now have 10 weeks to put it all together and market the exhibition.  I also have sort to extend my audience this year.  I have been involved in 3 pop-up exhibition in Brisbane and Springfield which support various charities.  I have become an active member of Aspire Gallery; as well as continuing to take part in collaborative art exhibitions with members of the Ipswich Arts Community.

In terms of coordinating my support I wanted to keep things pretty simple. I had been juggling supports from five different supports services for the last 4 years and I longed for one weekly roster and less support workers in my home and life.  This can be very invasive. This very much influenced my self-management model.

  

Now I sit hear frustrate as things have not gone as I have anticipated, communication with each provider has been difficult as each service struggles with new intakes and changes to payments and reporting system (ndis portals).  My direct service provider had not been able to filled my request support shifts and I have given them notice and I am now planning to engaged my own team,  I am waiting for a quote on recruitment costs and pay roll management fees after 2 weeks.  

My allied health services agreement ends Today and I feel I not achieved anything with them,  well hopefully the wheelchair assessment has been lodged.  So I booked a physio assessment with another provider to see what they recommend. I also exploring how to use some of my funding to build my management skills through access a mentor. 

My frustrations accumulate when I experience excellent customer service form the business sector, who aren't as equipped in dealing with those with disabilities. If these services an offer an understanding of my needs and provide a prompt service then why current a service provider who provides essential services. I feel both my bank and Telstra out performed my all my disability support providers this week.

The dis Ipswich Office didn't just open on June 1, 2017.  Many providers we engaged in the Everybody Counts Campaign. I personally was involve in the sharing of information on the ndis roll out with Peter and Linda Tully through Community Disability Awareness.

Many groups including Ipswich Disability Inter-agency; Queensland Disability Network (QDN); Commonwealth Resource Unit (CUR) and Able Australia have been involve in pre-planning NDIS workshops 2 years prior to its commencement. The Federal Government also invested in free information and ndis readiness workshops.  Many service providers were caught out by the announcement of  the early commencement of the ndis in Ipswich. 

While many potential participants didn't want to know about the ndis, support organisation should of been prepared to open their doors for business on the commencement date.  Services have still not changed from a NGO where income was guaranteed to a business that needed to excel in customer service.    

In the beginning I felt a sense of pressure and  urgency to get my act together and sign my service agreements, although organisations weren't real sure how the payment system worked and I experienced delays on my end. 

People with disabilities or their families had never had direct buying power for their support services before, so my experience is the sector has been sluggish to adjust to the changing environment. December 1 marks six months of operation under the ndis, I cannot help feeling cheat as I wait for providers to get their act together so I can receive the services I want.  

No wonder participants are feeling that nothing has change under the ndis. Service providers are certainly acting like the are calling the shots and participants are still experiencing delays in service provision. My only response is participants need to advocate for better service delivery.  Anything else is no longer acceptable.