NDIS coverage is unclear, says agency

THE number of people with severe and episodic mental health problems who could be captured by the NDIS remains unknown.

THE number of people with ­severe and episodic mental health problems who could be captured by the National Disability Insurance Scheme remains unknown as the agency responsible for its design plots a course to include psychosocial disabilities.

Speaking for the first time about the work being done internally, the agency’s strategic adviser and mental health expert Eddie Bartnik told The Australian the modelling had “largely” been done using the numbers of persistently mentally ill people.

“One of the tricky bits is around people with episodic needs,” he said. “Some people have continuous requirements, where other people have periods of relative wellbeing and then being unwell every so often.

“The modelling is done largely on people with serious and persistent long-term continuous needs, so we have a bit more teasing out about the numbers of people with episodic needs.”

Mr Bartnik said general surveys estimated there were between 200,000 and 300,000 people with episodic mental illness in Australia but “not all of these would be eligible for the NDIS”.

The $22 billion scheme will eventually support more than 400,000 people with disabilities based on a needs-only assessment and 56,000 of those will be people with persistent psychosocial disabilities.

Mr Bartnik said the figure was an estimate drawn from the Productivity Commission’s discussions with state and territory governments.

“I think that’s the firmest figure we have got,” he said. “What we need to know now is: who are they?

“In any one year, if you think about all the people with serious mental illness, it’s about 48,000. The estimate of the number of people that would be eligible for the NDIS is about 6000. That’s one in eight people.”

Mr Bartnik would not be drawn on the connection between the Disability Support Pension and the NDIS. People with psychosocial disabilities are the fastest-growing cohort on the pension and already the largest single group, representing one-third of more than 800,000 people.

“I would say the scheme is all about increasing the social and economic participation of people with disabilities,” he said.

He warned that the NDIS would not serve an early intervention role on mental health and that its support functions would be undermined without wholesale reform of the nation’s treatment services.

“The critical thing is that we need a fully functioning mental health system to be built at the same time. The NDIS is only for a small proportion of people in the mental health system,” he said.

“It’s not right to suggest the scheme will replace mainstream services.”

Mr Bartnik was optimistic that the design of the scheme, which would include local area co-ordinators as a first point of contact, would be revolutionary.