Living with a disability could be quite rough, especially with having to fit into society. Given this fact, it is crucial to find ways to make life easier for people with disabilities. How can persons with disabilities get to spend time doing the things they love, have access to quality healthcare, skills, and jobs, and live an improved quality of life notwithstanding their disability? Is this even possible?
Of course. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done. For starters, there is a wide gap in access of people with disabilities to basic needs for health and well-being, economic and social security, learning and developing skills, and living in their communities. In fact, the World Health Organization reports that Persons with disabilities have six times more difficult access to health facilities but twice the risk of developing conditions such as depression, asthma, diabetes, stroke, obesity, or poor oral health. This is just a fraction of so many other challenges.
In view of all these, and as a way of support and assistance, the NDIS aims to reach out to people with disabilities in Australia and help them live their goals of a better life. This implies providing funding and connections to people with disabilities across Australia to help them live improved lives. But, what disabilities does the NDIS cover? We will get to that in a bit. First, let’s look into what the NDIS is all about.
What is the NDIS?
Can I ask you an important question? What goals do you most wish for as a person with a disability? A wild guess: Learning new skills or getting and keeping a job? Becoming more independent or making friends and connections? Getting help for normal your daily activities or equipment to help you at home or in your community? Now, no matter what goal, imagine you can achieve all of them despite your disability. This is what the NDIS is all about.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a scheme of the Australian Government that provides funding to people with a disability and their families and caretakers. The National Disability Insurance Agency, NDIA oversees the scheme.
The NDIS is for eligible Australians who are either born with or develop a permanent and significant disability. Essentially, this scheme gives people choice and control over the support they need, including the ability to manage their own funding. It’s transforming the way people with disabilities receive support.
With this, people with disabilities can get proper support and assistance like healthcare as well as information and connections to services in their communities, such as doctors, supporting clubs, support groups, libraries, and schools as well as information about what support is provided by each state and territory government.
What disabilities does the NDIS cover?
There are about 4.3 million Australians who have a disability. But to be eligible for NDIS funding, your disease or medical condition must cause permanent impairment (physical, intellectual, cognitive, neurological, visual, hearing, or psychosocial), resulting in significant disability.
By NDIS standards, a permanent disability is a person’s disability that is likely to be lifelong. A significant disability means a disability with a large impact on a person’s ability to complete everyday activities.
To qualify for the NDIS, a participant needs to meet one of the following criteria:
- Have a permanent or significant disability that affects your daily activities
- Be a permanent citizen of Australia
- Aged below 65 years
- Live in the NDIS specified area
Okay, you meet all the above criteria. So, what disabilities does the NDIS cover? They include the following, regardless of whether your disability came about through birth, disease, injury, or accident:
- Intellectual disability
- Autism
- Cerebral palsy
- Genetic conditions which result in permanent and severe intellectual and physical impairments
- Spinal Muscular Atrophies
- Spinal cord or brain injuries resulting in paraplegia, quadriplegia or tetraplegia, or hemiplegia.
- Permanent blindness
- Permanent bilateral hearing loss
- Deaf blindness
- Amputation
See List A Medical conditions for more of the disabilities covered by the NDIS.
There are some other conditions that may require further assessment, these include
- Some types of intellectual disabilities
- Chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, Prader- Willi and Charge Syndrome to name a few
- Neurological impairment such as Alzheimer’s dementia or Parkinson’s disease
- Physical impairment like amputation, congenital absence of limbs and some forms of arthritis.
- Speech or hearing impairments
- A combination of the above
You can check out List B medical conditions for more details, to see if your disability falls under this category.
The three categories of supports and services
The three types of supports that the NDIS may fund for participants include
1. Core Supports budget
This type of support assists you with your daily living tasks, your current disability-related needs, and working towards your goals. Your Core Supports budget is the most flexible, and in most cases, you can use your funding across any of the following four support categories.
- Assistance with Daily Life: This helps you with daily activities like assistance with everyday needs, household cleaning, and/or yard maintenance.
- Consumables: This category of funding provides you with everyday items you may need, such as continence products or low-cost assistive technology and equipment to improve your independence and/or mobility.
- Assistance with Social & Community Participation: This takes care of your social, community, and civic participation. For instance, a support worker to assist you to participate in social and community activities.
- Transport: This funding support helps you travel to work or other places that will help you pursue the goals in your plan. Transport funding is different for every participant and is less flexible than the other categories.
2. Capacity Building Supports budget
This helps participants build your independence and skills to help you pursue their goals. The NDIS through this assists persons with disabilities to purchase approved individual supports that fall within the Capacity Building category such as support coordination and improved living arrangements. Your Capacity Building Supports budget cannot be moved from one support category to another.
3. Capital Supports budget
With their NDIS fund, a participant can purchase higher-cost pieces of assistive technology, equipment, and home or vehicle modifications, and funding for one-off purchases you may need such as Specialist Disability Accommodation. The Capital Supports budget can only be used for its intended purpose. There are two categories of support:
- Assistive Technology: These are items that assist with mobility, personal care, communication, or recreational inclusion such as wheelchairs or vehicle modifications.
- Home Modifications: This involves home improvements such as the installation of a handrail in a bathroom, or Specialist Disability Accommodation for participants who require special housing because of their disability.
Easy Exercising: NDIS-friendly (and safe) exercise
A very good way to utilise your NDIS support is through exercising. Regular exercise has been proven to have a positive impact on mental health conditions, chronic health conditions, and disabilities. This is the reason NDIA encourages participants to improve their health and well-being, engage in social or community participation and take steps to live a healthy lifestyle.
The good news is that Easy Exercising, through its partnership with the NDIS is helping participants enjoy the benefits of exercising. Everyone who has an NDIS self-managed or plan-managed approach can begin their journey with Easy Exercising. We have 4 Easy Exercising clinics across Australia: Morayfield, Kallangur, Wellington Point, and Sunnybank Hills. NDIS participants can register at any of these clinics and start receiving benefits right away.
To get support for disability assistance, all you need to do is check your eligibility and apply for assistance. Easy Exercising offers health and social support for people with disabilities in Australia.
Even if you are not an NDIS participant yet, you can still sign up for a free trial session anytime.
To find out more, simply visit the Easy Exercising clinic near you or fill out this easy form, and our experts will get back to you.
Sign Up for a Free Trial Session at Easy Exercising
Interested in trying out our power-assisted machines for yourself so you can regain the mobility you had in your prime? Want to learn more about our incredible clinics across Brisbane? Or just want to step into a welcoming, fun community that gives you a purpose, a place to be, and helps you feel supported every step of the way?
Leave your query below and one of our lovely team will be in touch to help!
"I had a very good hour doing Easy Exercising which isn’t hard on your joints. I think it’s good for any over fifties to try as they will find it so good for their different problems or just to have some general exercise. There is a qualified person supervising you on each machine & its a very sociable environment." - Margaret
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