The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the National Disability Insurance Agency have developed new resources to help GP patients with disability navigate the NDIS.
RACGP spokesperson, Dr Lara Roeske said the new resources are a positive step forward to improve the experience for patients.
“We welcome this opportunity to engage with the NDIS,” she said. “GPs play an important role in helping patients navigate the scheme and a GP is often the first place people turn to for healthcare and is also a key entry point for patients to the NDIS.
“GPs are often involved in the crucial early stages of working through a patient’s potential scheme eligibility. We assist patients with information gathering, providing relevant documents and supports, and remain caring for our patients throughout their NDIS journey.”
As a mother and carer of a son living with disability, Roeske said that navigating the NDIS can be challenging. “GPs have also found it difficult and we recognised there was great scope to improve the involvement of general practitioners, and in turn, the experience for patients.”
NDIA spokesperson, Shannon Rees said the NDIA was grateful to the RACGP for its feedback and support to ensure these new resources informed GPs about NDIS criteria, the process of eligibility and accessing the scheme.
“It was important that we developed resources that were practical, informative and useful. These resources have been co-designed with GPs, for GPs – so they can more easily support their patients who might want to apply for the NDIS.”
The new GP resources include a suite of practical training videos, a checklist guide to considering a patient’s NDIS eligibility and a brochure with information on how other stakeholders, including NDIS partners, allied health professionals and practice nurses, can support patients to navigate the NDIS.
The introduction of independent assessments, which will remove existing barriers to accessing the NDIS in addition to these resources, supports a more streamlined process for patients seeking NDIS access.
The resources are available online here.