When you first start engaging with the NDIS, the terminology will appear unfamiliar. You may even feel like you have stepped off a rocket and entered a new planet!
Trusted Care can help you to navigate some of the more common terms and anacronyms, so you will be speaking NDIS in no time at all!
- Participant – someone who has an NDIS plan and receives funding.
- Provider – an individual or an organisation that delivers support or a product.
- Supports – the things that help you do your day-to-day activities to be part of the community and reach your goals.
- Plan – the document that has your goals and what your funding and support is for.
- Respite – short-term accommodation.
- Access request – how you check if you are eligible for the NDIS.
- Local Area Coordinators – NDIA staff who help link you to information and support in the community and make sure it is more welcoming for people with a disability.
- Mainstream services – services that provide support to a range of people (not just people with a disability).
- Community engagement – the ways you are involved in your community.
- Formal supports – the kinds of support you pay for.
- Informal supports – the kinds of supports you do not pay for. For example, things that your family or friends might help you with.
- Multidisciplinary team – a team of people with different skills working together to support someone.
- Plan nominee – someone who can make decisions for a person that needs help but does not have a parent or guardian.
- Price guide – a really long list of what everything costs under the NDIS.
- Psychosocial disability – when a person’s mental health issues cause disability.
- The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) – the organisation that runs the NDIS.
- The sector – the businesses and organisations that give services to people with disability.
- Service agreement – a document that explains what supports you will receive from a provider and how much they will cost. It will also explain what you are responsible for, and what your provider is responsible for.
- Prospective participant – Someone who is waiting to hear whether they will be covered under the NDIS.
- Review of decisions – the process you go through if there is a decision in your plan that you think is wrong.
And the anacronyms:
NDIS: National Disability Insurance Scheme
NDIA: National Disability Insurance Agency
ECEI: Early Childhood Early Intervention
AAT: Administrative Appeals Tribunal
DSP: Disability Support Pension
DSS: Department of Social Services
LAC: Local Area Coordinators
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
ILC: Information, Linkages and Capacity Building services
NDS: the Australian peak body for non-government disability
