Trelity Health
Your health, our priority
Accessing The NDIS
Helping You Access & Navigate The NDIS
Anyone with a permanent and significant disability that meets the eligibility requirements can apply for the NDIS. However, without the right documentation and assessments, applications are often rejected which is where the team at Trelity Health can step in to help.
The Stages of Accessing The NDIS
- Meeting with you to discuss your needs and disability requirements
- Submit Access Request Form & Supporting Evidence Form
- Follow up and modifications to the request if access is not met
- Planning meeting with a Local Area Coordinator (LAC) (if application approved)
- Implementation of the plan
Services Provided
Why Get Professional Help To Access The NDIS
Even with a doctor’s referral, some applications for the NDIS are rejected and our team specialise in helping clients access the NDIS and secure the funding they need.
Our team consists of Occupational Therapists and Allied Health professionals who have extensive experience in working with the NDIS system. We know and understand the application process and can help and advise you on capacity assessments, specialist medical reports, access request forms and supporting evidence forms to help you get accepted.
We’ll Take Care Of Everything
Our team will work with you to understand your needs and will take you through the whole process step by step. We’ll fill out all the paperwork and put together a strong and clear case for you with detailed functional capacity assessments to prove and validate your needs.
Assisting you to gain access to the NDIS and preparing for your first planning meeting is not covered by your NDIS funding so we require a nominal fee to cover these services.
Pre-Planning
Once your application has been accepted our Support Coordinators can help you prepare for your first or follow up planning meeting. Your planning meeting is usually conducted by a Local Area Coordinator (LAC), who is contracted by the NDIS.
The Importance of Pre-Planning
The planning meeting is crucial to preparing your NDIS plan and determines the amount of funding you will receive, so the more information you can provide for this meeting the better. We’ve created a detailed Pre-Planning Document that covers all the information your LAC will need to send to the NDIS to help get your funding approved.
Prepared & Ready
During the planning meeting, the LAC will ask you about what support you currently receive, what activities you undertake and what your goals are for the future to help determine the level of funding you require.
For clients who have just received a diagnosis and are still coming to terms with the news, it’s often hard to understand how a disease such as MND, MS or Parkinson’s will impact their life. This is where our extensive experience can help.
Helping You Define Your Goals & Needs Moving Forward
In your Pre-Planning meeting, we’ll discuss the services and supports you are likely to need to help with daily living, mobility, social inclusion and capacity building and help you define your goals moving forward.
We’ll also explain how Support Coordination and Plan Management services can make your NDIS journey a little easier. By the end of the pre-planning meeting, you will be fully prepared for the planning meeting and have a completed Pre-Planning document.
Trelity Health Pre-Planning Document
We’ll send our Pre-Planning document to the LAC before your planning meeting and provide you with a copy for reference. The Pre-Planning document will contain a budget detailing the type of supports you’ll need, how they relate to achieving your goals and the associated costs. This way the LAC is armed with everything they need to help get your NDIS funding approved.
The Planning Meeting
Our Support Coordinators are happy to attend the planning meeting with you to advocate for you. The LAC can’t approve your budget and NDIS plan, but they will submit a report to the NDIA to make the final decision. The clearer the goals and the better the information provided the easier it is to get the budget approved, which is why the Trelity Health Pre-Planning Document is so effective.
Implementation Of The Plan
Once your plan has been approved, if you have funding for Support Coordination services we’ll connect you with our vast support network so you can start to receive the care, support and equipment you need.
FAQ Accessing & Navigating The NDIS
Support Coordination
What is a Support Coordinator?
A Support Coordinator is like a ‘plan coach’. You usually use a Support Coordinator once your plan has been approved to help connect you up with the right care and service providers. Support Coordination services are funded through your NDIS plan and are private businesses separate from the NDIS. You can ask for different levels of Support Coordination at your planning meeting. Check out our Support Coordination page for more information.
What are the different types of Support Coordination?
Level 1: Support Connection
This is Support Coordination provided by a LAC, with no funding allocated for an external Support Coordinator on their Capacity Building Supports budget. This type of support is provided initially to assist new participants to the NDIS to Implement their plan. The LAC’s ongoing support is limited.
Level 2: Coordination of Supports
This is the most common type of Support Coordination found in NDIS plans. This support includes using a Support Coordinator to help you understand your plan, design the support approach and help you implement the plan by matching you with the relevant supports and service providers.
Level 3: Specialist Support Coordination
Specialist Support Coordination is quite rare and often accounts for a small proportion of the overall Support Coordination budget. Specialist Support Coordination is designed to be delivered within a specialist therapeutic framework and is used where high-level supports are required or where there are challenging and complex behaviours that may result in the risk of personal injury to the participant or their care providers.
Who can get funding for Support Coordination?
Not every participant is funded for Support Coordination, but everyone has the right to ask for it. We will discuss Support Coordination with you when preparing for the planning meeting.
How many hours of Support Coordination can I ask for?
Funding could be anywhere between 12 hours to 200 hours per year. The LAC will have an easier time approving a specific amount of support hours if participants come to the planning meeting with very clear goals for how they will use their funded supports.
Can I get Support Coordination funding every year?
Support Coordination is intended to be a time-limited, capacity building support. This means that over time it is hoped that participants will build up the necessary skills to understand how they want to spend their funding and will no longer need help with Support Coordination. Some people may only require Support Coordination in the first year and others will need it for several years. If you feel you need this service, it should be requested at each plan review meeting.
Local Area Coordinators LAC
What is the role of a Local Area Coordinator or NDIS Planner?
A Local Area Coordinator or a LAC (pronounced L. A. C.) is someone from an NDIS partnered organisation who helps you to implement your plan. In South Australia, the NDIS has partnered with three community organisations to deliver local area coordination for adults.
- Feros Care in the Northern Adelaide and Barossa, Light & Lower North Service Areas.
- BaptCare in the Western Adelaide, Eastern Adelaide and, Yorke and Mid North Service Areas.
- Mission Australia in the Limestone Coast, Murray and Mallee, Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island, Southern Adelaide and, Eyre Western and Far North Service Areas.
LACs are given contracts by the NDIA to handle all planning meetings. Their role includes linking you to the NDIS and to mainstream and community supports in your area. LACs are paid by the NDIA, not out of your plan money or out of your pocket.
What are Local Area Coordinators (LAC) responsible for?
Your LAC is responsible for understanding your current situation, supports, and goals to help develop your NDIS plan and get it approved. They will review your plan before it expires and can help get any changes to your plan approved.
If you do not have Support Coordination in your NDIS budget, your LAC can assist you to find the service providers so you can implement the plan.
LAC’s can be a great resource to explain how the NDIS works with other government services – supports like education, health, and transport.
Plan Management
What is a Plan Manager?
Plan Managers are essentially the accountants of the NDIS plan world – they handle all your bills and help answer questions on any specific funding items.
You can ask for Plan Management at your planning meeting, and the funding will come out of a separate Plan Management budget. If you don’t need Plan Management, you can decide to have the NDIA manage your funding or you can manage it yourself.
A Plan Manager must be a registered NDIS provider and they are responsible for –
- Claiming funds directly from NDIS to pay to pay your providers on your behalf.
- Paying your providers’ invoices.
- Helping you keep track of your funds (via reports or online portals or through an app).
- Taking care of financial reporting for you.
- Keeping detailed records for a minimum of 5 years, in case of an audit.
What is the difference between Self-Managed, Plan-Managed and NDIA Managed?
NDIS-Managed is where your service providers invoice the NDIS directly and someone from the NDIS (NDIA) will manage your funds and pay your invoices. When you are managed by the NDIA, you can only use service providers who are NDIS registered which may limit your options.
Self-Managed is where you take care of managing your NDIS funding. With this option, you will be required to pay service providers, claim any reimbursements from the NDIS, manage your budget and maintain accurate records for at least 5 years.
Plan Managed is where you choose a Plan Manager to manage your funds. This is the most flexible and easy option for managing your funds because you can access both registered and non-registered service providers. Plus, you don’t have to worry about paying your bills or any of the admin associated with your plan.