What is NDIS Early Intervention?
The NDIS Early Intervention is a support programme by the NDIS that targets participants who have a permanent and significant disability and provide them with the necessary and reasonable resources, support, and resources at the earliest stages of their disabilities possible.
The NDIS Early Intervention helps NDIS participants to alleviate the challenges they face from their disabilities as early as possible as well as help them reduce any future challenges they might face from their disabilities. This will be done through an individualised NDIS plan where the basis of the funded resources, support, and services they will receive will be dependent on their unique needs from their disabilities and their future goals.
It is the goal of this support programme to lessen the future needs and support of their participants. The care given to participants during the earliest stage of their disability will reduce the chances for their disability to impact them negatively in the future and make living a normal life more possible for them.
What is the NDIS?
The NDIS, or National Disability Insurance Scheme, is a system that gives funding by the Australian Government. The NDIS provides support to people with disabilities, their family, and their carers. The participants of the NDIS are provided with access to resources, support, and services to help them better cope with their disabilities and live their lives as normally as possible.
The NDIS has been implemented all across Australia, except Western Australia, since 2016. All Australian citizens under the age of 65 with a permanent and significant disability are eligible to apply for the NDIS.
The participants will have the opportunity to create an individualised NDIS plan which contains details of the necessary and reasonable resources, support, and services they’ll receive according to their unique needs and individual goals.
Who manages the NDIS?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is managed and administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency or the NDIA. The NDIA was appointed by the Australian Government to oversee the management of the NDIS in 2016.
Who can apply to receive NDIS Early Intervention?
Both adults and children can apply for the NDIS Early Intervention given that they are between the ages of 7 and 65 years old, have NDIS available in their area, have a permanent and significant disability, and is an Australian citizen.
What are the requirements to get NDIS Early Intervention Support?
There is a list of requirements that applicants must meet before they are considered eligible for the NDIS Early Intervention Support.
One of the main ones that need to bet met before going further down the list is that the early intervention in the forms of resources, support, services they’ll receive will be a benefit to them in the long run. This is in terms of reducing the challenges they’ll face from their disabilities in the future by giving them early intervention.
For a person with a disability to be eligible to be a participant of the NDIS Early Intervention Support, they’ll need to be in at least one of the three situations listed below:
Having one or more impairments that are, or are likely to be, permanent. These impairments can be classified as physical, intellectual, cognitive, neurological, or sensory
Having one or more impairments that are, or are likely to be, permanent that is attributed to a psychiatric condition
Being a child with developmental delay
The National Disability Insurance Agency or the NDIA will also assess the prospective participant and will determine if that participant:
Will receive benefits from the NDIS Early Intervention Support by reducing their future needs for disability-related supports
The resources, support, and services the participant will receive through the NDIS Early Intervention support will benefit the participant in the following ways:
Mitigating or alleviating the negative impacts of the NDIS participant’s disability and improving their functional capacity in terms of communication, social interactions, learning, mobility, self-care, or self-management
The NDIS Early Intervention support will prevent or lessen the severity of the deterioration of the NDIS participant’s functional capacity listed above
The NDIS participant’s informal support system will be strengthened in terms of being a sustainable support system by building the capacity of the participant’s carers
The NDIS Early Intervention Support the participant receives is most appropriately funded or provided through the NDIS
It is important to note that people with a degenerative disorder can also meet the requirements and become eligible to become a participant in the NDIS Early Intervention Support.
Does the NDIS Early Intervention make exceptions?
Yes. In terms of age, children who are below 7 years old can become a participant of the NDIS Early Intervention given that they give proof of having permanent disabilities. These permanent disabilities include:
Conditions that primarily result in intellectual or learning impairments such as chromosomal abnormalities that result in permanent impairments
Conditions that primarily result from neurological impairments including:
Systematic atrophies that primarily affects the central nervous system
Certain muscular atrophies
Extrapyramidal and movement disorders
Episodic and paroxysmal disorders
Polyneuropathies and other disorders of the peripheral nervous system
Conditions that primarily result in physical impairments including:
Diseases of myoneural junction and muscle
Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes
Conditions that result in sensory and/or speech impairment
Conditions that result in multiple types of impairments including
Mucopolysaccharidoses
Lysosomal storage disorders
Any child under 7 years old with these certain impairments or disabilities will become an NDIS Early Intervention participant without needing to meet any further requirements.
Is NDIS Early Intervention different from Early Childhood Early Intervention?
Both of the programmes are the same in terms of providing funding for early intervention resources, support, and services for their participants, particularly for children for the ECEI. However, with the current rollout of the NDIS across Australia, programmes like the Early Childhood Early Intervention or ECEI is in the process of being overturned to the NDIS.
Families using ECEI services are encouraged to become NDIS members because of this new implementation of the scheme by the Australian Government. They’ll still have the opportunity to receive the same resources, support, and services for their children, only funded through the NDIS or the NDIS Early Intervention support.
For children who have not met the requirements to become a participant for NDIS Early Intervention, the NDIS has engaged Early Childhood Partners across Australia to deliver the ECEI approach and help connect the families with the NDIS.
If ever the family’s child becomes an NDIS participant, their Early Childhood Partners will also help them with developing their child’s individualised NDIS plan.
Read more about How Does NDIS Funding Work?