ndis and new possibilities

The National Disability Insurance Scheme promised to deliver new opportunities to participants, including employment, more jobs in the disability sector and a participants focus support system. The ndis offered an opportunity to explore new ways to provide support to thousands of families living with disabilities. Prior to its roll out the 'support or care needs' of participants was determined by government departments and offer the assessment tools yielded no support or inappropriate supports.  The ndis recognizes that the bast people to shape a participants support system is the significant others in their lives; family members; unpaid carers; GP's; support workers and their natural supports network.  We are now moving away from a medical model of care, to a system that empowers families and individuals to be active in designing their own supports.

This involves an individual ndis plan for each participant, where they themselves determine what their daily lives will look like and for every participant that will be different.  ndis goals are the things participants want to do and the activities they choose to engage in. This may include things like school; sport; study; lifestyle; accommodation; work; community life; arts and craft; independent living skills or even politics.  The ndis encourages every opportunity to enjoy new experiences and try new things.  I know of providers in my local area have introduce many new opportunities to their programs and I encourage participants and their representatives to check them out. 

On a personal level the ndis has open many new opportunities and experiences. For the first time I am in the drivers seat of designing my own support network.  Under my ndis agreement I am self-managing my plan. This allows me to decide how I want to be supported. Do I want more direct support hours or do I want to invest in technology to improve my safety and independence? In my current support plan I am hoping for the latter.  In previous posts I have shared some of the payment structures issues.  Putting that aside the ndis has given me the opportunity to engage my own support workers and structure my team in the way that best meets my needs. 

Other opportunities I had under the ndis are to list my Small Business; extend my visual arts practice; exhibit my artwork in new places; and improve my independence through physio. I have tried a few times before to keep walking on my feet.  With regular physio visits and better treatment of my chronic health conditions, I am now successfully walking independently for short periods of time.  

The ndis has allowed me to set my own goals and determine how I wanted to achieve them.  For many years others determined how I would be supported and it wasn't always the appropriate. The ndis has given some participants the freedom to engage their own support staff. This is not a option for everyone nor is it a option everyone wants to undertake engaging their own staff.  However their are new services on the block that offer all participants the opportunity to engage support workers of their choosing. 

Online platforms such as Mable and Hire-up allow you to hire your own support team under the traditional banner of a support service. The are also disability support services that will assist you to self-direct your supports.  This is the type of new opportunities ndis hoped to deliver.  Traditional support services do not suit everyone and they can't offer the flexibility some who is studying, working full-time or running their own business needs.  Participants with fixed commitments or responsibilities for others can not rely on supports staff that are inconsistent or varied times of support.

Services such as hirer up recognize that supports work best when support workers and participants share a common interest. In my case that is arts and craft; gardening and fitness. So in self-directing I have sort staff with the same interest as me.  These online platforms allows works to communicate and meet-up before agreeing to work together.  Hirer-up also allows you to hire your own staff and have them register with them as the employee.  If you have your own team you can hide your profile and workers profiles from public view, so you can access their bookings; payments and invoices service. Participants also set up their own support plans for their workers to access on,  Hirer-up can be access by all participants regardless of how their plans are administrated.

I believe all providers can learn to create new opportunities for their participants using the traditional support service structure of governance.  We need to learn to give participants a chance to shine rather than over protecting them from the what ifs.' We can continue to offer duty of care and risk management through our policies and procedures.

Let's no let own fears deny others the opportunity to shine. Let's empower participants 'to have a go' because we never know just when we will discover a new shining star.  Let's give the key principles of the ndis a fair go!