Many organisations have adjusted positively to the challenges presented by lock downs and the need to maintain physical distancing and increased hygiene. We’ve seen an expansion in the capacity of many service providers, and the NDIS, to deliver services remotely.
Service providers continue to surprise us with the innovative ways they’re providing safe and effective supports. Six months ago, the term “contactless delivery” did not exist. Now it is expected. To renew a prescription, we needed to visit a GP and then the chemist, now many GP’s offer telehealth and the local chemist will deliver to your door. We’ve also see Allied health providers working with in home support workers to deliver services via video. There’ve been positive changes and those changes are welcome.
The NDIS has also adapted and are conducting meetings with participants and their coordinators via conference call. Recently the NDIS started conducting meetings over video, further expanding their capability to support participants to communicate with them effectively.
The NDIS are continuing to allow greater flexibility in how a plan review is conducted. A participant can have a plan review meeting over the phone or video call in place of an in home or NDIS office meeting. Additionally, if the current plan is working well it can be repeated without a review, or if more time is needed to prepare for the review the plan can be extended.
The NDIS is also allowing participants to delegate the plan review to their MND NSW coordinator to conduct on their behalf. These changes have made it easier for participants to manage their plan reviews in a way that best meets their needs.
We’ve also seen updates in how monies from core support funding and other service lines can be spent to support our participants during lockdown.
For more information on these changes, make sure you speak to you MND NSW Coordinator of Supports or email us at
Regards
Reese Malcolm
NDIS COS Team Leader