Topic Tuesday// NDIS, Disability & Mental Health// Tues 31st January 2023 5:30-7:00PM

[chibam]

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@greenspace wrote:
@chibamoh, the psychosocial services you're describing in this "Previous material I've read lead me to believe that "psychosocial services" actually fix (or at least improve) their patients' real-life problems. i.e. They'll reassign a patient to a new home if their currant one is inappropriate; they'll give their unemployed patients a job; they'll stop a patient's bullying, ect." are provided by different agencies that you might be able to access through a case manager from NSW Health. As far as I know, there isn't one agency, department, or non-goverment organisation that would find you housing, and employment, and deal with bullying in the community, etc.
the HASI program helps with housing and general support for people with with mental illness and/or addiction, I think.

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Great. So now there are differant types of "psychosocial services" that do differant things, and are accessed in completely differant ways? Is it any wonder that we end up pulling our hair out trying to figure all this stuff out?

I'm not angry at you, @greenspace . 🙂 But seriously, how absurd is it that all this stuff has so many differant meanings?

Why can't the powers-that-be just call a spade a spade and ditch all the ambiguous, nonsensical words like "psychosocial"?

[MyLife_MyWay]

@Former-Member"I feel that the best advice i can give is to ensure that you are involve in the process of your application - access is quite basic, and once this is achieved funding can then be used to get a full functional capacity assessment, psychological assessment etc which will aid in gaining greater funding. "

[greenspace]

Hi @amber22 this is such a good question! I find it so hard dealing with a system that asks me to give evidence of my needs, which to me feels like proving how useless I am (I wouldn't see it that way about someone else with psychosocial disability), and if I make progress with my goals and with capacity building, the NDIA reduces my funding, which feels like I'm being punished 😞

[amber22]

Thank you for sharing how you feel @greenspace Dealing with the current system can be really hard, especially when you're having to 'prove' things to be eligible ❤️

[Former-Member]

@MyLife_MyWay 

An NDIS application is evidence based - that means you need to engage professionals. Applications can be rather clear that someone has a disability however if there is no proof of this then they can be rejected for not meeting the access criteria. As such, having a decent amount of evidence (i had my GP write out my entire history with him regarding mental health along with his opinion) can give you the best chance to get in, as rejection and needing more evidence can be a frustrating process especially if you believe you are eligible. 

[greenspace]

@chibam I don't think it was any better before the word "psychosocial" was used 😛

[Former-Member]

heya @chibam, hmm I can understand why some people might not want to use government funding, and thank you for sharing that about yourself. 

Using the NDIS or any form of government support is a right that we all have. I've had periods of my life where I was totally dependent on it! I'm so grateful that it was available to me then. And a lot of us are here to learn how we can actually utilise the NDIS for it's purpose - to help even the playing field for those of us who need some extra support. 

[chibam]

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@greenspace wrote:
@chibamI don't think it was any better before the word "psychosocial" was used 😛

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Nah, back then there wasn't any help at all, and we were all just spinning our wheels under useless therapists who, beknownst to them, but not to us, were never gonna help us.

Still, if the govt. were gonna invent improvements, it would've been way better if they could've given them a clearer name.

Oh well. Sailor V.

[MyLife_MyWay]

@Former-Memberoh I have evidence! 100s of documents - the NDIA summons all my medical practitioners over the past 10 years! My issue is not proving it - that is way easy for me. The hard part is getting an advocate or representation for the conference which is almost impossible given that none of them are taking in new clients or even waitlisting them anymore. I am at the AAT conference stage but cant attend the conference because I have no support, so I have had to reschedule the AAT conference 3 times now as I continue to try and get an advocate. I have called between 30-50 organisations about 3 times each since August and no one gets back to you or is willing to take you on. That right there is the issue.

[7cough9]

What support can those who are awaiting access to or ineligible for NDIS access?  

@Wazzlord 

1. A medicare-funded mental health care plan prepared by your GP can give you access to I think 10 appointments max in a years to visit a psychologist (Although in my experience the MH professionals who take on these patients were occasionally not top-notch.)

2. There are local support groups in many regions  run by members or by community services e.g GROW Australia, Emotions Anonymous.

3. There are remote / vid chat / audio call support services including e-GROW