The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has made changes to its funding policies, including psychology. Understanding these updates is crucial for participants, families, and providers.
What’s Not Funded?
Under the new guidelines, clinical therapeutic approaches will no longer be covered, including:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Schema Therapy
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
Narrative Therapy
These therapies are considered a state responsibility. Another key change is that people are considered solely in relation to their NDIS recognised disabilities. For this reason, it is generally helpful for reports to focus on NDIS registered disabilities, as supports and therapies regarding non NDIS registered disabilities are a state responsibility.
What Is Funded?
The NDIS will continue to support specific interventions:
For Autism
Funding is available for:
Time-Limited Psychology for Skill Building: Programs that help individuals understand autism, build social skills, and engage in unmasking. For example, the PEERs program. Feedback on the PEERs program from the autistic community has been mixed, with some reporting positive feedback (particularly for individually delivered PEERS programs) and others reporting it is not neuro affirming.
Training for Informal Supports: Resources to help family members, partners and friends to assist so that they can play more of a key role in support, in place of formal supports.
For Psychosocial Disabilities
The NDIS may fund psychology services aimed at:
Maintaining Day to Day Functional Capacity: Supporting participants to preserve their current day to day life capacity.
Increasing Functional Capacity: With increasing functional capacity, it’s important to be focused on outcomes. Interventions to increase functional capacity are generally anticipated to reduce formal support needs, and/or help sustain informal support.
Training for Informal Supports and/or support workers: Resources to help family members, partners and support workers to assist so that they can play more of a key role in support, in place of formal supports.
Moving Forward
As the NDIS landscape evolves, staying informed about funding options is key to good outcomes.
If you have an LAC or support coordinator, feel free to connect with them to find out more!