The multidisciplinary team at the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service (BIRS) at Metro South Health (MSH) provides person-centred care every day for patients with varied abilities and individual goals.

As the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rolls out across the Metro South region, social workers such as Dr Annerley Bates are helping patients and their families in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU) to access the scheme and achieve these goals.

“Patients in BIRU are often hospitalised after life-changing injuries. While families and patients are adjusting to a new diagnosis and potential life-long disability, the multidisciplinary team become the interface between the NDIS, the patients and their families.”

“The team commences a dialogue with patients and families during their admission about the types of supports the NDIS can provide.  Dependent on the patient’s length of stay, an access request, planning discussions and plan implementation may occur. This is handed over to the community team to continue to review and work with patients and families as they transition home.”

The NDIS allows people with disability to have choice and control over how, when and where their supports are provided.

The multidisciplinary team across BIRS provides patients with ongoing assessment to determine the types of supports they will need to achieve their personal goals and helps patients to access these supports through the NDIS.

“One current patient has received life-changing injuries. We are slowly supporting his family to come to terms with the lifestyle adjustment, helping them understand the kind of equipment he will need when he returns home and how the NDIS can help the patient and his family.”

An NDIS project team has been working within the Division of Rehabilitation (DoR) for some time, ensuring Metro South Health staff can support patients to access the scheme.

Annerley has recently started in a new role within DoR as the BIRS NDIS Project Officer, dividing her time between her clinical role at BIRU, her new organisational role and her role developing research capacity for PAH Social Workers. 

“The NDIS has been a learning curve for our team and our approach is continuing to evolve. I’m very excited to be able to put this experience into practice and help streamline processes across the entire service.”

“We’re delivering a patient and family-centred service, so no two cases will be the same. We can however, develop systems that optimise patient opportunities and provide consistent messages about the NDIS to families and patients right across the continuum of the BIRS.”

From 1 January 2018, people with disability in the Metro South region can submit an application to access the NDIS. Eligible participants in these areas will then transition to the Scheme from 1 July 2018.

Social Work has been appointed by Metro South Health to lead the way for the NDIS rollout. If you would like further information about accessing the NDIS visit www.ndis.gov.au.