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NDIS transforming disability care in SA

Nov 27, 2014
Novita's Glenn Rappensberg

Novita's Glenn Rappensberg

Australia’s disability sector is undergoing a once in a lifetime shift that ranks alongside Medicare and compulsory superannuation as a fundamental social reform.

Institutionalisation was the norm until the early 1990s. Children with disability were supported by a system focused on equipment, ignoring an individual child’s potential to grow their abilities and achieve their best developmental milestones.

Children with a mild disability were particularly impacted by this approach. Service providers limited the drain on their scarce resources by excluding these children from therapy, forced to ignore the fact that early intervention for those affected by a mild disability often leads to better personal and community outcomes. A child with cerebral palsy, for example, will benefit from regular and intensive physical therapy – improving their mobility, but also eliminating or deferring the need for more expensive equipment and therapy.

On the eve of International Day of People with Disability – sanctioned by the United Nations in 1992 and celebrated on 3 December each year – this remains an important issue.

Australia’s disability sector is quickly coming of age. Only three years ago, the Productivity Commission developed a 10-year policy framework that highlighted the need for change to improve the lives of people with disability, their families and their carers.

This is not just an argument about individual rights, or justice – it is a need to bring all Australians together for the benefit of the country, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The recommendations covered the need for inclusive communities with appropriate physical and electronic accessibility, the need for appropriate justice and an understanding of the need for economic security. Financial independence and social connections through paid employment provide more than a job, it was agreed: they boost national productivity and prosperity, while making a significant positive impact on the individual.

The Council of Australian Governments thankfully embraced this report and signed up to a combined direction for disability – the National Disability Strategy. A key outcome of this overarching strategy is the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

The NDIS is transforming the support given to people with disability and the way that service providers operate. The former institutionalised approach, governed with significant eligibility restrictions to control demand for services, has been replaced by individual solutions.

Parents and carers of children with a disability now work with NDIS-funded personalised support plans that target each child’s specific goals for functional skill development, community participation and individual care needs.

The NDIS is also having a fundamental shift on the business models employed by service providers. Individual funding allows carers to search for the best solution, meaning disability service providers such as Novita are now competing with their sector peers for the same resource – customers with funding packages under the NDIS – in a marketplace that will become more and more competitive.

South Australia is the NDIS trial site focused on children aged 0 – 14 years. Full roll-out is anticipated from July 2016. Original predictions suggested 5000 children with a disability up to 14 years of age were likely to be eligible for the scheme. More recent estimates indicate that this may exceed 7000. In its first year, the NDIS trialed support for children up to the age of five, expanding to 6-13 years of age from July of this year.

We are already seeing a significant increase in the number of children with disabilities accessing support, a sign – we believe – that the focus on individual needs is providing a greater level of support, but more importantly, better outcomes that will eventually help the 300,000 Australian children living with a disability.

That is why, as a direct response to a remarkable 150 per cent increase in demand for our paediatric allied health services during the past year, Novita this week opened its new Children’s Therapy Centre at our Regency Park headquarters.

Evidence shows that intense, timely therapies dramatically help children reach their full potential. This is not just an argument about individual rights, or justice – it is a need to bring all Australians together for the benefit of the country, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

And with an entire sector now undergoing fundamental change to meet that need, we believe it is a vital and worthy reform to be a part of.

Glenn Rappensberg is chief executive of Novita Childrens’ Services.

 

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