Lived Experience Forum

[Former-Member]

Hi @eth and everybody else.

I read your first post, and I'm just coming here to ask, and please excuse my ignorance for not knowing (I'm so sorry) but what's the NDIS please? Is it like the DSP for Centrelink, or? Because I applied for that for Mental Health since it's all I'm eligible for (because of my age & other things), & I got rejected. But people keep telling me to try again & getting my Psychiatrist to write up something new because they usually reject people the first time around & explain my situation to them? But at the same I don't see a point of me doing that?

Again please excuse my ignorance, I apologise for not knowing about it. But I see on your first post that they accepted you, so congrats to you and if anyone else has been accepted.

PS - I'm a new member so please excuse me randomly popping up in the forums. I hope that's alright.

@greenpea @-Liz- @Appleblossom @CheerBear

[eth]

Hi @Former-Member  and welcome to the forums.  It's perfectly fine to join in here.  I'll see if I can find a good explanation of NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) for you.  Basically it's quite different from the DSP (Disability Support Pension) through centrelink (which is to cover living expenses etc) and you can have both.  I do.  Having NDIS doesn't affect your pension at all.  NDIS funds supports (such as support workers) and adaptive technologies and sometimes transport for people with disabilities proven to be lifelong.  It's quite hard to get it for mental health, but it is possible.  (They call it psychosocial disability - they do have a bit of a language of their own, feel free to ask questions here if you get confused).

This might be useful :  https://www.ndis.gov.au/understanding/what-ndis  

but I encourage you to have a google search.  It's quite involved once you get into it, but really worth persevering with both NDIS and the DSP.  

If you want a much more detailed idea of what NDIS can cover you might want to glance at their pricelist - it's long but really helps to work out what you can get.  

https://www.ndis.gov.au/media/1673/download

Hope you find my reply helpful.   That's why this thread is here.

[Former-Member]

Oh okay, thanks for that @eth 

[WriterMelb]

I am about to start my second year with the NDIS. My diagnosis is Bipolar 2 and BPD.  When I first received my funding it was massively distressing for me. I thought this is how bad I've become. It's taken the full year to start to really start spending the money. Three  separate month stays in hospital complicated things. With my recent review it appears my funding will be increased. My support has been with EACH who are mental health specialists. There are others I have heard are good. Overall the NDIS has been a huge help. I think the first year is messy learning what the supports are and how you can use them. At the moment I don't do change well. This complicated things. I'm still working on using more and more of my plan. This is a slow step by step process for me.

hope this helps a bit. WriterMelb

[eth]

Thanks for sharing @WriterMelb   Hope that this year goes more smoothly for you with staying out of hospital as well as using your NDIS funds in ways that help you make some progress. 

I'm in my 2nd year and this time they gave me a 2 year plan.  I found they reworded and reduced my goals to a couple that are really general - improved health and wellbeing, and to be more independent and engaged in community participation.  They totally deleted improved relationships.  I decided not to do a request for review over that as they would have reviewed the whole plan, which is quite a good one in other ways.

[WriterMelb]

@eth 
My plan has been increased to 2 years also. Thanks for the encouragement.

Writer Melb

[WriterMelb]

This flyer is commonly available. I am including it here as the services promoted helped me a great deal. Much of the form filling I could not do as it was talking about my situation and deep issues. They assisted with this and spoke to my GP and Shrink about what approach to use on the forms. My shrink thought that the NDIS was for people who could not shwr and go to the toilet by themselves! 😟.

This is for the state of Victoria only. (Vic Gov are paying for it)

This may help someone. WriterMelb 

[Queenie]

Does anyone know what is happening with plan reviews in light of COVID-19? Do they do phone interviews instead of face to face? I heard via the NDIS Facebook page that some current plans are being extended for up to two years, does this mean we have to scrimp and save our current funding to stretch that far or are they allocating new funds? I tried to get on the portal on mygov, but due to all the new Centrelink customers, the site has crashed.

Bit worried... anybody know?

[Shaz51]

@eth , @WriterMelb , @greenpea 

[WriterMelb]

@Queenie 

Mine was renewed two days ago. All be it for less. 🤬

WriterMelb