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Speaking frankly...Mental Health Australia CEO Frank Quinlan is currently on leave and has invited colleagues to provide a guest blog each week. These blogs are the views of each guest blogger and not the opinions of Mental Health Australia. What's happening to our NDIS?As a carer of someone with a psychosocial disability, I have been a strong advocate for the inclusion of people with a psychosocial disability in NDIS and for their complex needs to be understood by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). Our son’s initial NDIS package has made a positive difference in his life and ours. He has never had so much ongoing relevant support. Being considered a “success story” I became involved in promoting the NDIS, presenting and advising in many forums. When his first annual plan review was due, we all prepared for the interview and attended with some trepidation. We were quietly confident current services and supports would continue, and were hopeful additional requests would be granted. It was then an immense shock, and very distressing, when we received the new plan. The funding was less than a quarter of the original plan. How were we going to pay for current services and support, let alone any new ones? In addition, and somewhat absurdly, the NDIA had granted a plan manager to employ other services. My advocacy work was now a very cruel ironic joke. The process highlighted to us that the NDIA seem to have very little understanding of psychosocial disability. What damage were they inflicting on people with psychosocial disability and their carers and families? Giving them funding, hope and a better quality of life one year and then taking it away the next. Reinforcing what has continually happened to them in the past. After an urgent plan review and ongoing negotiations, we clawed back a lot of the funding to produce a viable package to continue with current support services, along with a plan manager to manage the plan. This was not completely satisfactory, but at least an improvement, and I hate to think how people without the support of carers would navigate this process. So with that in mind, and to help other consumers and carers, here’s what we learnt about the planner and process;
In addition, there was a mistake made with manual input and we deduced that a different assessment tool was being used from when we did the original plan, and that NDIA were manually entering data into a computer generated assessment tool to produce the plan. The NDIA do not disclose what assessment tool they used. We also discovered from the second planner that unspent funding is used as a base line for a new plan, resulting in punishment for not using all funding. The planners did not ask us why all funding was not used, but this was reassessed when we provided the reasons. This is worrying as NDIA states that participants are not to be penalized for not using funding and there are many reasons why people do not use up funding, especially in a first plan, in the first year of a new scheme. Additionally, ‘reasonable and necessary’ does not allow for more innovative solutions outside of what is set down by the NDIA as ‘reasonable and necessary’ i.e. there must be research proving the benefits outweigh economic outlay, which provides no scope for a reasonable and necessary support for the individual such as a companion/therapy/mind dog. While the final plan did recognize our specialized psychosocial support workers, we asked in writing for clarification on why the NDIA do not pay for the higher quality Peer Support/Recovery focused service at the appropriate level i.e. "life transition planning, mentoring, peer support and individual skill development" (Price guide Reference 09_006_0106_6_3)? The line item the NDIA reference as "Capacity Building", developing individual skills and providing training (15_037_0117_1_3) is paid at less than Core supports. This is very concerning and hard for us to understand that NDIA do not consider these workers as ‘reasonable and necessary’. It is also very short-sighted. We have not received a response. Finally, in future we will employ a planner who is an expert in the NDIA processes, language and terminology, to prepare and attend the interview for the next plan. To help us all going forward, we have to ask that if these practices continue to undermine the whole concept of NDIS, is the NDIA in danger of becoming just another Centrelink? Janet Milford Parliamentary Committee report on NDIS services for people with psychosocial disabilityOn 15 August 2017 the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS reported on its inquiry the provision of services under the NDIS for people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition. We were very pleased to see recommendations which directly address our ongoing advocacy, submissions from the mental health sector and the evidence the Committee received at public hearings. The 24 recommendations relate to:
The report can be found here: MEDIA RELEASE: Marriage equality - think about mental healthMental Health Australia re-issued its Position Statement on marriage equality on Friday 11 August 2017. The Position Statement mirrors a statement that was released more than 300 days ago on 4 October 2016. The statement highlights the negative effects of ongoing discrimination on the mental health of LGBTIQ Australians and calls on the Parliament to pass laws to establish marriage equality. "LGBTIQ Australians experience routine discrimination, along with all its negative mental health effects. Marriage equality is squarely a mental health issue," said Mr Frank Quinlan CEO of Mental Health Australia. |
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Meet a Mental Health Australia MemberPsychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)The Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia is a national peak body for counsellors and psychotherapists and for professional associations in the counselling and psychotherapy field in Australia. Their mission is to represent the profession to communities and government, and to develop the evidence-base relating to the art and practice of counselling and psychotherapy. Latest Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia Edition 5 of PACJA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia), PACFA’s online research journal, is available on the PACJA website. PACJA is an international, open-source, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original papers of quality. The journal offers immediate access to practice, theory, and research articles, and is a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, educators and students. Become a Member of Mental Health AustraliaAs the peak body for the mental health sector in Australia, Mental Health Australia is uniquely placed to influence the national debate on mental health issues and achieve our vision of mentally healthy people and communities. Representing more than 100 organisations in the mental health sector, find out more about Membership at the link below. Parliamentary NewsImproving health and wellbeing support for principalsBetter mental health support will be the first priority in a plan to improve the health and wellbeing of Victoria’s more than 1,500 government school principals. On Monday 14 August 2017, Victorian Minister for Education James Merlino released a discussion paper to engage Victorian principals on a strategy to boost their health and wellbeing, which will support them to be greater school leaders. The strategy will include support mechanisms designed to suit the realities and unique circumstances of their role, and is backed by $4 million from the Andrews Labor Government. The funding will go towards early intervention strategies, specialist advice services for principals, professional learning to develop mental health awareness and literacy, and coaching panels of retired principals trained in psychological health.
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RemindersAustralian Marriage Law Postal SurveyThe Australian Bureau of Statistics is conducting the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. To participate in the survey you need to be correctly enrolled by 24 August 2017. You can check your enrolment, enrol or update your enrolment details. Garma 2017: Mental health in remote Indigenous communitiesMental health is a critical issue in many remote Indigenous communities, where suicide rates have reached epidemic levels. Interview with guests: Joan Djamalaka Dhamarrandji, Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation and Frank Quinlan, CEO, Mental Health Australia. Upcoming launch of critical literature reviewOn 1 September 2017 the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum (NMHCCF) will launch A Critical Literature Review of the Direct, Adverse Effects of Neuroleptics – Essential Information for Mental Health Consumers, Carers, Families, Supporters and Clinicians, and an accompanying booklet What you may not know about antipsychotics. The launch will take place as part of TheMHS Conference, at the Sydney Hilton Hotel. Those already registered to attend TheMHS Conference do not need to RSVP for the launch. If you are in Sydney and not registered to attend TheMHS Conference you can still attend the launch only by contacting Kathryn Sequoia, kathryn.sequoia@mhaustralia.org Following the launch, the documents will be available in hard copy and also on the NMHCCF website, www.nmhccf.org.au ACT Mental health Symposium: Evidence based practice in mental health -
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