These
are the private assessors that the Morrison
Government announced it has contracted eight companies to do
‘independent' assessments on people who are current participants or
applying to enter into the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Having
supplied little more than business names for these independent
assessors, this is the scant information I have collected since
reading The Guardian news article of 7 March 2021.
1.
Outlook Matters Psychology, Innovative Rehab, Pain NT
- business names for
Victorian for profit company Outlook Matters Pty Ltd
offering Therapeutic Supports and Early Intervention Supports for
Early Childhood (deafness & mental health).
2.
Konekt Limited – a
company listed on the stock exchange has
9 for profit subsidiaries. Provides organisational health and risk management solutions. Its
4 directors have backgrounds in banking, accounting,
marketing, financial services, health insurance and one
was formerly
a senior executive in Rupert
Murdoch’s infamous
London-based News International PLC
and currently chairs a data
centre company, NEXTDC Limited.
3.
Rehab Management (Aust) Pty Ltd – occupational rehabilitation and corporate health services provider. One of 5 for profit
subsidiaries belonging to Arriba Group Pty Ltd. It has offices
in all states and territories
4.
Access Care Network Australia Pty Ltd
– registered as a charity this WA
company provides advice,
support and referral to
enable people to remain living in their own homes.
5.
IPAR Rehabilitation – for
profit provider of injury prevention, occupational rehabilitation and
return to work services in Australia, with offices in every state and
territory.
6.
Advanced Personnel Management (APM) –
member of the multinational
APM Group, acts as a
for profit employment agency
for people with illness, injury or disability.
7.
HealthStrong Pty Ltd - a for
profit residential aged care and home care provider owned by
Australia’s second largest health insurance company Medicare
Private Limited.
8.
Allied Care Group – a subsidiary of Zenitas
Healthcare Ltd, a for profit home care provider
listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (formerly known as Zenitas
Healthcare Limited, BGD Corporation Ltd,
Boulder Steel Ltd, Boulder Group Nl, Boulder Gold N.L).
This
panel will be in place for three years, with the option for the
National Disability Agency (NDIA) to extend it for two more years.
BACKGROUND
The
Guardian, 7 March 2021:
The
Morrison government is facing growing backlash from the disability
community over a plan to introduce “independent assessments” to
the national disability insurance scheme by the middle of the year.
Under
the current process, applicants submit evidence from experts,
including their specialists, and these reports are evaluated by the
National Disability Insurance Agency.
From
mid-2021 they will undergo an “independent assessment” by an
allied health professional employed by one of eight contracted
providers paid by the government.
The
changes have sparked widespread backlash, including from a coalition
of 25 disability advocacy groups which this week called for the plan
to be scrapped.
They
said their clients had expressed “acute fears regarding the risks
to their health, wellbeing and access to reasonable and necessary
supports”.
Labor,
the Greens, and the Liberal MP Russell Broadbent have also suggested
the change is a cost-cutting exercise, a claim strongly denied by the
government.
The
government argues that people with disabilities and their families
are now forced to spend money collecting reports from experts. This
has meant outcomes have been inconsistent and too often based on
where a person lives or their access to health professionals.
This
week the NDIS minister, Stuart Robert, released data showing plans
were worth more on average in more affluent electorates in Adelaide,
compared with less wealthy areas.
The
government says the assessments – which will be free of charge and
last about three hours on average – will create an easier,
“streamlined” process.
Yet
some people who have already taken part in an independent assessment
have been highly critical of the plan.
Aaron
Carpenter, a 41-year-old who lives with autism and agreed to take
part in the pilot program, told the Guardian the experience had been
“dehumanising”.
When
he applied for the scheme, Carpenter’s own clinical psychologist
wrote a report outlining the functional impact of his disability.
He
questioned why his independent assessment was instead conducted by a
physiotherapist.
Carpenter
said he was asked many “yes or no” questions with “no context”
and was at one point asked to complete a “task”, which was to
make a cup of tea.
The
NDIA has told participants the assessments include questions “about
your life and what matters to you, and ask to see how you approach
some everyday tasks”, and will also include some “standardised
assessment tools”.
Carpenter
said: “There’s a level of trauma that comes with disability and
it’s through being made to be like a dancing monkey.
“We
almost have to tell our story every single time we see somebody. To
do that with a complete stranger, over the course of an hour or two,
cannot capture us at all.”
After
the assessment was finished, Carpenter applied to the NDIA for a copy
of the independent assessor’s report.
He
was dismayed when he saw a section titled “self-harm” was listed
as “not-applicable”.
“When
I have a bit of a sensory meltdown, it’s not nice,” he said. “I
will punch things, I’ll punch myself, I’ll pull my clothing off.
“Probably
my biggest impairment is being able to manage sensory input to the
point where I don’t have meltdowns.”
Nicole
Rogerson’s 25-year-old son, Jack, also lives with autism and took
part in the pilot.
Rogerson,
the chief executive of Autism Awareness Australia, told Guardian
Australia she had “open mind” and understood why the agency had
proposed the changes.
But
she was so dissatisfied by the process she cut her son’s assessment
short.
“It’s
just sort of, sit down, the laptop comes out, out comes a manual of
questions, and the testing begins,” she said.
“Some
of the questions were about his capability in certain areas. And he’d
be sitting there saying, ‘Oh, yeah, I can do a lot.’ It was, ‘Do
you do all your own cooking?’ and he’d be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I
can cook.’ There’s a big difference between whether you can cook
something and, ‘Can you live independently?’
“He
was answering incorrectly, not meaning to. And she’s noting all
this down. My concern was, how good are these assessors? Do they know
about autism, and/or intellectual disability? Are these answers going
to be considered ‘the answers’?”
Rogerson
said her son had been asked to take the garbage out during the
assessment and eventually she could see him “starting to feel
really low about himself”.
She
was worried about how the assessments might impact the mental health
of some participants.
“She’s
asking him, ‘How does your disability affect your job? And he’s
saying, ‘Oh, no, I’ve got a job. I’m fine.’
“And
he’s looking at me like, why is this woman asking him to rate his
own disability, of which he doesn’t really like talking about or
think he has one.”...
Critics
have compared the independent assessments to Abbott government
reforms introduced for the disability support pension, which helped
drive a large reduction in successful claims.
Jordon
Steele-John, a Greens senator who lives with cerebral palsy, claimed
the government was using the assessments as “a tool to reduce the
number of people on NDIS”.
“That
is their objective,” he told the Guardian. “They may dress it up
in whatever bureaucratic language they want, but they want to knock
people off the scheme.”
Labor’s
NDIS spokesman, Bill Shorten, told a rally last month the
government’s independent assessments plan was “nothing less than
a complete all-out assault to undermine the NDIS”.
A
spokesperson for Robert said the changes were based on the
Productivity Commission’s original design for the scheme and on
recommendations from the 2019 Tune review into the NDIS Act.
He
rejected suggestions there had been no consultation, adding that over
the past three months there had been “additional consultation to
support the rollout of independent assessments”.
“These
reforms, in addition to the already significant improvements to wait
times, deliver on this roadmap and will set up the NDIS for the
future – an NDIS that works for everyone,” he said.
All
new applicants will need to undergo a mandatory independent
assessment under the government’s plan, while the scheme’s
existing 440,400 participants will be subjected to an assessment when
their plan comes up for review.
The
government is expected to release draft legislation shortly, before a
bill is introduced to parliament that will allow the changes to come
into effect by mid-2021.
