Disability service fears grow in regional South Australia
Updated
There is a growing concern that people in regional South Australia will miss out on the support they need despite the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) across Australia.
Dignity Party MLC Kelly Vincent said the geographical isolation of those with a disability in regional and rural areas may mean they could be left without any options for assistance at all.
She said she was worried that while people may be eligible for services, there were not always appropriate service providers in regional towns to assist them.
"We know that at the moment, we only have about half the staff including support workers and other support like physiotherapists, speech pathologists and so on, that we will need under a fully rolled out NDIS," Ms Vincent said.
The concern was echoed by Uniting Care Wesley Country SA operations general manager Liz Malcolm, who said she had noticed an increase in people worried about not being able to find adequate service providers in regional areas.
"We're nowhere near the full rollout in our region yet, so we don't really know who's going to come into the region to provide services yet," Ms Malcolm said.
"But it certainly is something that a lot of our clients are anxious about."
Ms Malcom was worried about her clients who suffer from episodic type illnesses relating to mental health.
Under the new NDIS only those who with a disability that is or is likely to be permanent or those who need a lot of assistance to take part in activities, or perform tasks will be eligible for support services.
Episodic mental health issues not covered
Ms Malcom said the majority of the client base at Uniting Care Wesley Country SA suffered from episodic mental health problems that would not be captured by the NDIS, even though people may not be able to function without assistance from time to time.
"Some people with mental health illnesses experience very episodic nature of disability and at the moment would not be eligible for NDIS ... and at this point we are not aware of any other funding that will be available for these people," she said.
"If you look at our client group, there's probably around 80 per cent of our clients that are in that group that won't be eligible under the current scheme, and so that is a concern to our clients and to us as well."
An independent review by the Independent Advisory Council in 2014 found that ineligibility rates for applicants with a mental illness were significantly higher than those resulting from applications from people with physical, intellectual and sensory disabilities.
The report recommended the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) build ongoing capacity within the agency to develop its own evidence-based working definition and guidelines on severity, permanency and episodic nature of disabilities related to mental health issues.
"To be eligible for NDIS, you have to have a permanent disability. So you have to have substantially reduced functional capacity to undertake activities of daily living," Ms Malcolm said.
"We are very concerned about will be available for those people who are not eligible for NDIS but certainly need assistance in order to achieve their personal goals and have relationships in the community and their families."
The first stage of the NDIS began rolling out in South Australia on July 1, 2013 for children aged 14 years and under, with young people aged 15 to 17 starting this month and adults aged 18 to 64 to begin the transition onto the NDIS based on where they live.
By July 2018, the Federal Government has estimated that about 26,000 people will access the NDIS, including about 17,000 people from the existing South Australia specialist disability system.
Topics: disabilities, health, community-and-society, port-pirie-5540, kadina-5554, moonta-5558, sa
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