Speak Out June 2019

Top turnout for NDIS information evening

South Australia

For its first meeting of the year the South Australian Branch held a very successful evening for members that provided an update on the NDIS. The night started with socialising and finger food that was followed by two speakers. The first speaker was Ros McAuley, Community Education and Capacity Building Team Manager for KUDOS Services, who gave an update on the NDIS Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) Services. KUDOS Services commenced on 1 October 2018 as an employee mutual and is statewide. KUDOS Services is the ECEI partner for the NDIS in South Australia for children under 7 years of age with early developmental delays. Ros mentioned there are different NDIS partners for those aged 7 years and older. Kudos Services helps families to access community and mainstream services that already exist. Ros is mapping what is available. Kudos Services also supports families to access information and links families with plans to therapists. In addition they have Information, Linkages and Capacity Building grants for all people with disability and their carers. These grants are for collaboration between mainstream services and disability sectors to support inclusion. The priority at the moment is supporting families who are on the waiting list for NDIS plans. Being the NDIS partner for ECEI KUDOS Services does not provide therapy services for children under 7 years, however, it does provide therapy for those aged 7 years and older. The second speaker for the night was Cathy Olsson, the SPA Senior Advisor Disability. Cathy provided an update on advocacy with the NDIA undertaken by the association on behalf of members. One outcome of this work has been the interim arrangement for NDIS funding for meal time assessments in order to develop oral eating and drinking plans. Cathy spoke about member concerns regarding auditing and regulation. The association has also been advocating for access to funding for children with Developmental Language Disorder. Cathy highlighted the support that is available to members via the member resources page on the website and SPA webinars and private practice workshops. The presentations finished with a question and answer session with both speakers responding to numerous questions. It was emphasised that as planners decide what is “reasonable and necessary” it’s important that rationales and evidence are clear, such as the benefits from a trial of an approach to AAC. It was also advised to draw a relationship between the speech pathology goals and the client’s plan. The two speakers were surrounded by members who had even more questions during the socialising at the end of the night. The Branch thanks Ros and Cathy for making the time to attend. The good turnout of approximately 50 members highlighted the need for more information as we all navigate the NDIS system.

SA 717 members as at April 2019

35

June 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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