‘New’ mentally ill patients join NDIS

Half of the 4760 people with psychosocial disabilities who have accessed the trial NDIS are reportedly ‘new’ clients.

National Disability Insurance Agency strategic director Eddie Bartnik.

About half of the 4760 people with psychosocial disabilities who have accessed the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the trial sites are “new” clients and had not ­received any funded community support in the year before entry, the scheme’s expert says.

Former West Australian mental health commissioner Eddie Bartnik, brought on by the National Disability Insurance Agency as a strategic director, told a meeting in Adelaide last year about 50 per cent of clients in the trial sites were not known to the mental health system, casting a shadow over the quality of modelling.

The NDIS is expected to support 64,000 people with severe and “permanent” incapacities due to mental illness, but the figures have been criticised by mental health experts and the sector more broadly as being inadequate.

There are about 490,000 ­people with severe mental illnesses in Australia but given the episodic nature of conditions, the scheme requires people to demonstrate a permanent functional ­impairment to be eligible.

The Australian understands the agency uses a definition of “new” in its data collection, based on who accessed community mental health support in the year ­before applying for the NDIS, but it not does include those who received clinical psychiatric support.

The Mental Health Coalition of South Australia said Mr Bartnik’s comments at the forum were “not surprising”.

“This suggests the Productivity Commission’s target ... may be a significant underestimate of need,” it says in a discussion paper.

“If service options are ­decreased to fund the scheme and the scheme is unable to provide packages to these people, we will see increased crises and detrimental effects to peoples’ lives.”

The NDIS agency rejected the group’s interpretation of Mr Bartnik’s comments.

“The figures are not a strong ­indication of the number of individuals not having had prior access to the mental health system,” a spokeswoman for the scheme said.

“There is no evidence that the numbers of people entering the NDIS for psychosocial disability is above expected.

“To the contrary — the number of people entering the NDIS with a psychosocial disability is currently on track.

“It’s worth noting that both trial sites which included psychosocial disability during trial came in around the expected number of people entering the NDIS, under the psychosocial disability ­criteria.”

The $22bn disability scheme is caught in a pincer manoeuvre in relation to mental health, largely in relation to government ­decision-making outside its control. On one side, the sector has questioned its design and eligibility criteria with the nation’s top expert, Patrick McGorry, saying mental health and disability ought to be separate systems.

On the second front, a host of state and federal programs is being cut or phased out in order to pay for the NDIS as a result of ­negotiations between governments before its launch.