How to get the best out of your NDIS plan

 

This  is a post that I have hesitated to write but it needs to be written as we see that many providers have there own take on this but there is very little written about when it comes to a  clients perspective.   So it is how to get the best out of your NDIS plan. So this is written entirely from a clients point of view.

The first thing is know what you will and won’t accept in regards from providers as many will talk about person centred care but from that first phone call, you will know how you are going to be treated so are they willing to return a phone call, this is the first indication of how they will treat you in an on going basis. This is the indication of their staffing levels and at the time of writing this is coming up to Christmas and yes it is important to see that people need to be aware of this and understand what is happening, but do they have enough staff to cover  intake enquires.

What is the service providers ethos, this should be clearly laid out in there service agreements, as what they expect of you as well, so this is for cancellations, and lays out what services you will receive and at what cost.

The second thing is to know that your  plan to providers is like a bank account and that they will all want a piece of the pie this is where I have found a plan manager to be great as they take a y  the stress of managing the fiscal side of things but can make things harder if you are buying assistive tech from places that aren’t Ndis registered, but this is a whole other issue around NDIS. But we then need to be aware that providers often will   charge different rates depending on what services you are using.  

Have copies of your plan and don’t give the whole amounts to any one organization unless they are your plan manager as your plan is the equliviant of  a bank account and we see that this can cause issues around budgets when you come to the end of your plan, as well keep physical copies of your plan and supporting documents due to the fact that people often “lose,” physical documents, and I have had this happen more than once, so by being able to bring all supporting documents to a plan meeting they have no option but to acknodlege and accept that they are reading it in black and white.   This I have found to be great as if forces some support providers to meet your needs where you are instead of diticating what you will receive as this is more based in the frame work of the medical model of disabliy not person centered care and we see that this is an issue that people need to be addressed sensitively as the laws do protect clients more than providers, but knowing what you as a person will and won’t accept is a massive issue.

 

Know what services are in your area and what type of capacity they have so they might be able to help you if they hathe ve capacity or they might not so be prepared and know what services you are going to need or want.

If this is your first plan consider what you all ready have placed ace such as support from family and friends, these are what NDISs informal supports and we see that support workers aren’t supposed to be a replacement for them and this is something that I would say is a major concern if they are actively isolating you from family and friends.  So know how they can complement it.

Know that there is places out there that will help you navigate the NDIS journey from gathering the evidence to the end of receiving a plan, but  be very clear about who they can help and what they expect after as well, so if they are willing to help all people who would qualify for the NDIS or if they are only going to help a section of the community and this section, might be people they would advocate and offer services for in the past such as neurospark, a great organization that has helped me in the past, then we have eleplisy Australia that would advocate for people with  eleplisy to receive a package but this is where things get tricky as is it considered a health condition or a disability and this is where the advocacy services come into play because they know the jargon that hits where people need support as it is a very technical language and this is where people trip up that people need to know the jargon to be able to  access services.

Understand that service providers at the end of the day are running a business, so they will need to have systems up in place to protect themselves from fraud, and know that sometimes they will have age limits and things like that in place so be prepared to ask difficult questions if you need more information around it, and know what you are signing up for when you sign a service agreement.

 

I will do a second post around implementing your plan and navigating the gap between what a service provider will offer vs what they are able to provide in reality as these might be very different things at times, and this is where knowing what to expect from someone is really important.