The federal government has commissioned Bruce Bonyhady to advise how it can constrain rising costs to run the NDIS, which threaten to make the scheme unsustainable in the decade ahead.
The government's May budget revealed it was planning for 27,000 fewer people to join the NDIS over the next three years through its overhaul.
When asked about that forecast, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said no active participants would be forced out of the NDIS, but some people with psychosocial disabilities could be diverted from joining the scheme if the government was able to establish supports outside of it.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-24/ndis-psychosocial-disability-fear-27000-who-may-be-diverted/103000730
I couldn't believe the LibNat Gov had added psychosocial disorders, including mental health sufferers, to the NDIS way back in 2015. it made no sense to me as one who had worked in mental health.... then when I saw the supports they had enabled I thought well maybe it might be a useful addition?
since then I've seen supports ranging from helping people with autism to use public transport (an excellent service) to a provider taking 3 people with bipolar disorder on a holiday (7 days) to the Gold Coast (a dubious "service" than seemed to me to be a hellova rort).
with NDIS expanded enormously way beyond what I consider reasonable limits, i.e. providing necessary assistance to people with genuine disabilities that disable real life abilities, to include all manner of fanciful disabilities I get why some are outraged at the cost.
mental health has always been underfunded and rehabilitation, reintegration into mainstream community, learning actual living skills etc, has always been the most costly aspect and the second most difficult to attract adequate funding (preventive strategies being the most difficult to get funding). so for the Health Minister (Hunt) to palm off this cost to NDIS seemed dysfunctional at best.
so good on Shorten for wanting to remove mental health from th NDIS. I hope he succeeds.
