Over 100 clinicians, allied health professionals, service providers, carers and family members attended a workshop on optimising participants with a brain injury’s experience of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), held at Sydney’s Royal Rehab on 20th November.

The workshop – led by an interdisciplinary team of Professor Barry Willer from the State University of New York at Buffalo, occupational therapist Libby Callaway, Associate Professor Natasha Lannin from La Trobe University, and Sue Sloan – an occupational therapist and clinical neuropsychologist – delivered the key information on the NDIS frameworks, preparation and planning processes and provided practical tools that can be used in pre-planning and planning work.

Download the workshop’s flyer here. Download the workshop’s program here.

Brain Injury Australia’s Executive Officer, Nick Rushworth, opened the workshop with: “…if the evidence from both international and local individualised funding initiatives is anything to go by, uptake of the NDIS by people with a brain injury will be both low and late. As at the 30th June, only 2,500 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s 90,000 approved plans were for people with a brain injury – 3,500, once you include stroke. If the recent backpedalling by the Agency on outreach efforts with so-called ‘hard to reach populations’ is anything to go by, social marketing for Scheme seems best summed up in simply; build it, and they will come.” Download Nick’s opening remarks here.

If you would like to access the background reading and other supporting materials from the workshop, please do not hesitate to contact Brain Injury Australia on 1-800 BRAIN1 (1-800 272 461) or via email; admin@braininjuryaustralia.org.au