Laurelle Mamontov

Des services and ndis should be linked together. It would enable the participant to build their capacity to gain employment . With ndis the participant will have access to mental health support workers to assist the paticipant at home with employment activities such as looking on the internet for jobs. The participant will also be able to have a support worker that can speak both english and another language to break down the language barrier to find eork. The ndis will enable the participant to havd access to counselling and psychology services, and if ang physical barriers access to an ot to reccomend at equipment to assist with looking for work, gaining work by managing mobility issues and also work out a routine for the participant to build their engagement with looking for work. The ndis can provide access to physiothetapy services to break doen the physical barriers to work. Ndis support coordinators can assist participants to access des services also and serve the purpose of ndis to assist participant to be economically viable in the community by gaining employment. The are both federal government systems it does not make sence that two disability services are separated when both systems work well together.
I previously was a des consultant for 10 years and left out of pure frustration that the system was flawed. Too much focus on getting people into jobs and star rated on job outcomes instead of judging the outcomes the service provided to the individual participant. Ndis system is focused on individual goals , the des program should also be star rated on reaching individual goals also.
The point is success is based on the individual and building the foundations such as support services discussed above to build the individuals capacity to succeed in employment. One thing i hated when being a des consultant was putting someone forward for a job and that person falling out of the job , not because i was not providing support however its because the participant did not have the capacity to retain the work due to lack of supports to assist the person to retain work ie psychology and mental health.
Ndis services and des can break this from happening.

I am a support coordinator and i work with des services and provide mutual support to my participant to help them build their capacity to gain and retain employment. I like being on this side of the fence. Its a shame i look back at all the jobseekers that dont have ndis. The des consultants should assist participant with accessing ndis and the des services should be funded to do it. There is no federal government service in the community which assists all participant access ndis services. Latrobe community health will answer questions however will not assist participant to complete the accesd form and gather evidence documents about their disabilty which they already have done with centerlink which will prove usefull as evidence for accessing ndis.

The federal government created ndis however they do not give people with disabilities any clear direction on how to access it. Some people in the community are sceptical that its done this way on purpose to save federal government funds???

We can do things better