NDIS Cairns
For people living with a permanent and significant disability, the NDIS or National Disability Insurance Scheme is providing the services necessary to obtain help that they need and be able to live a better quality of life. The NDIS has been rolling out and making their services available through the Cairns region since July 1, 2018.
People with disabilities living in Cairns can join the other NDIS Cairns participants numbering over 68,000 getting benefits for their disabilities in the state of Queensland alone. The current data also shows that of those thousands of people with disabilities getting benefits from NDIS in Queensland, over 28,000 participants have reported receiving such support for the time.
Since 2018, Cairns citizens with disabilities can also apply to become participants to the NDIS and receive the same types of benefits as thousands of other NDIS participants. They will be allowed to receive the support, services, and support of their choosing to help deal with their permanent and significant disability.
The NDIS values the input of their participants and empowers them by giving them control of their plans with the NDIS. Cairns residents are eligible to become NDIS Cairns participants and can expect an individualised treatment plan developed with their unique needs and personal goals playing a huge factor.
What is NDIS?
The NDIS or simply known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme is a scheme by the Australian Government to give much-needed support for the people with a significant and permanent disability living in Australia. The NDIS is administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency or simply known as the NDIA and has been rolling out throughout all the states and territories of Australia since 2013.
Since the complete rollout and implementation of the NDIS throughout Australia, there are an estimated 500,000 Australian citizens and/or residents who have a permanent and significant disability supported by the NDIS. The support that the NDIS gives to their participants helps alleviate the challenges and roadblocks they face that are brought on by their disabilities. Among these hundreds of thousands of participants, many of them have received support for their disability needs for the first time.
The NDIS gives this support to eligible participants by funding the costs that are associated with the disability. This is to ensure that Australian citizens and/or residents can achieve an improved quality of life which they may not have experienced if their needs due to their disabilities were not supported.
The NDIS gives support to people with disabilities which includes eligible people with intellectual, sensory, cognitive, physical, and psychosocial disabilities that hinder the normalcy of their daily lives. With the NDIS’s support, eligible people with these types of disabilities can have their unique needs met, personal goals achieved, and live their lives as normally as possible.
NDIS Cairns participants will lay out their needs and goals in their meetings with NDIS officers and they will be given the freedom to develop their treatment plan called the NDIS plan. They can develop their NDIS plan independently or with assistance but participants will always have customised plans that are meant to address their specific needs and personal goals.
In the NDIS plan, participants can pick and choose different support, services, and resources that the NDIS Cairns can fund to help them with their disability. The NDIS plan is meant to help participants mitigate the challenges that their disability brings so they can live life as normally as possible.
In the long run, the NDIS has goals for its NDIS Cairns participants to build skills to develop independence, participate in the community, and even join the workforce.
A NDIS Cairns participant’s NDIS Plans can only be accomplished with the help of registered NDIS Providers, organisations, or individuals that the NDIS has curated to provide the necessary support, services, and resources to its participants.
How to know if you are eligible to get support from the NDIS Cairns:
The NDIS's goal is to support people with disabilities by taking on the financial aspects that their disabilities may bring to live life as normally as possible. But not everyone with a disability can become an NDIS Cairns participant and receive such support. The NDIS is specifically focusing on people who have a permanent and significant disability should also meet the requirements listed down below:
Must be between the 7 to 65 years old;
Must be an Australian Citizen or be a Permanent Visa holder or Protected Special Category Visa holder living in Australia;
Need support from another person because of permanent and significant disability;
Need special equipment because of a permanent and significant disability; and
Need current support to reduce the need for future support.
NDIS Cairns applicants must meet the first two requirements of the criteria above and one of the last three requirements to become an NDIS participant. If an applicant did not meet the criteria, there are other Government support programmes that they can access, including an Early Support Early Intervention or ECEI for children under seven years old.
What are the Different Support Budgets of NDIS?
Once a person with a disability becomes an NDIS participant, they need to develop their NDIS Plan. They can tailor the contents of the NDIS specifically to their disability needs as long as the support, services, and resources they include are reasonable and necessary to help them live day to day with their disability.
Three types of support budgets may be funded in the NDIS Plan and it all depends on the needs of the NDIS participants.
Core Support Budget
In the Core Support Budget, support is focused on the participant’s daily living situation. This type of support budget is considered the most flexible out of the three were participants can use their funding across all four categories in the budget listed below:
Assistance with daily life;
Consumables;
Assistance with community & social participation; and
Transport.
Capacity Building Budget
The Capacity Building Budget focuses on meeting the participant's long term needs and goals by helping them build their skills and independence. For this support budget, funding can only be used on approved support that falls within a chosen category. The Capacity Building Budget have nine categories:
Support coordination;
Improved living arrangements;
Increased social and community participation;
Finding and keeping a job;
Improved relationships;
Improved health & wellbeing;
Improved learning;
Improved life choices; and
Improved daily living.
Capital Support Budget
The Capital Support Budget is used for one-off higher-cost support that the participants might need which can include modifications in their home, transportation, or equipment. There are two categories for this support budget, which are listed below:
Assistive Technology; and
Home modifications.
If you are someone with a significant and permanent disability living in Cairns and are looking to get support from the NDIS, you can apply by calling the NDIA office at 1800 800 110 and make an Access Request.