Submission to the NDIS Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme General Issues Inquiry

Each year, the Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) considers and reports on broad systemic issues relating to the NDIS as part of its ongoing General Issues Inquiry.

This year, the Australian Psychological Society’s submission to this Inquiry provided a positive reminder about the contribution of psychologists to the NDIS.  Our submission was reflected key findings from our recent survey of APS members about their experience and perceptions of the NDIS. 

The APS submission pointed to 5 ways in which psychologists’ work in the NDIS supports and strengthens not only the goals of participants, but also the sustainability and values of the Scheme itself.  In summary:

1. Psychologists provide a wide range of services in and around the NDIS.Psychologists work flexibility and with determination to ensure that NDIS participants and applicants have psychological services which are integrated with their needs, goals and other supports.
    
2. Psychologists’ work in the NDIS promotes the functional capacity and independence of participants.Through their expertise, training and the application of evidence-based assessments and interventions, psychologists work to promote participants’ full mental health and social and emotional wellbeing in terms of having a meaningful, fulfilling life with both independence and connection.
    
3. Psychologists’ expertise in case formulation allows them to understand NDIS participants and their needs and goals in their biopsychosocial context. This work includes integrating information from disparate sources and making sense of it together with their client, working within complex family systems, and supporting other professionals through supervision.
    
4. Psychologists help clients to develop the skills, capacity and relationships needed to engage with other NDIS supports, and the NDIS itself. Dealing with the NDIS can be a demanding experience with significant psychological impact on participants, both positive and negative. Psychological supports can also help participants to manage these experiences and to maximise the benefit of their other NDIS supports, consistent with their goals, values and needs.
    
5. Psychologists support NDIS participants from early childhood and throughout the lifespan.In the Early Childhood context, psychologists work with children, their parents and others in the child’s family system to promote their thinking, behaviour, relationships and participation. By taking a developmental approach, psychologists adapt their supports as participants grow and as their personal and relational context changes.

Of course, psychologists continue to hold concerns about the NDIS and the systemic factors which on one hand limit participants’ access to much needed psychological supports, and on the other hand, impose considerable barriers on psychologists themselves.  We have pointed to these concerns in recent submissions and will continue to do so in the future.  Nonetheless, the APS looks forward to psychologists being able to work effectively, without undue burdens, and to the full scope of their practice as we enter the second decade of the NDIS.

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