The National Disability Insurance Agency and the University of Melbourne have launched a research project to gather feedback from National Disability Insurance Scheme participants on initiatives introduced to support them during COVID-19 pandemic. From March 2020, the NDIA made a number of changes to the way the NDIS works to ensure participants could continue to access services and supports.
The NDIA wants to hear from participants, families and carers on their experiences with the following:
interacting with the NDIA;
using telehealth to access allied health services and;
accessing NDIS funded services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NDIA spokesperson Ms Shannon Rees encouraged NDIS participants to share their views by completing the online survey, which will be available on the NDIS website until August.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for all Australians," Ms Rees said. "This anonymous survey gives participants, their families and carers a chance to share participants' experience of interacting with the agency and the scheme during this period."
Chief researcher Professor Kim Bennell from Melbourne University's Department of Physiotherapy said the university would independently analyse the experience of participants regarding planning, monitoring and delivery of services.
"We hope the research will allow us to draw valuable insights from the NDIS community, on what worked well and what could have been done better during the COVID-19 pandemic," Professor Bennell said. The research is funded by the Melbourne Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne and the NDIA.
The research has ethical approval from the Central Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Melbourne. The survey is designed to capture the experience of NDIS participants however, family, carers, and support workers can fill in the survey on behalf of an NDIS participant.
The survey, which is expected to take 15 to 20 minutes to complete, is available here