NDIS and Emergency / Disaster Management
The intersection of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and emergency management is crucial in ensuring that individuals with disabilities are adequately supported during emergencies such as natural disasters, health crises, or other critical events. Below is an overview of how the two intersect.
NDIS Overview
The NDIS provides funding and support to Australians with significant and permanent disabilities to help them achieve independence, access services, and participate in their communities. Key features include.
- Individualised funding for participants.
- Support for daily living, transportation, housing modifications, and assistive technologies.
- Collaboration with other systems (e.g., health and emergency services)
Emergency Management for People with Disabilities
Emergencies can disproportionately affect people with disabilities due to barriers such as mobility issues, access to information, and communication needs. Emergency management includes planning, preparation, response, and recovery phases to mitigate these impacts. For NDIS participants, specific considerations include
- Preparedness
- Development of personalised emergency plans including a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP).
- Support for acquiring emergency supplies or assistive devices.
- Training in emergency response tailored to individual needs.
- Ensuring consultation occurs with the individual, their family and their support networks.
- Response
- Accessible emergency communication, including visual, auditory, and simplified language options.
- Provision of transportation for evacuation.
- Access to disability-specific support services at evacuation centres (e.g., carers, mobility aids).
- Recovery
- Rebuilding or repairing disability-specific infrastructure.
- Addressing mental health impacts caused by the emergency.
- Ensuring continuity of NDIS supports disrupted during the emergency.
NDIS Role in Emergency Management
- Funding for Emergency Preparedness
- Participants may request funding for supports like emergency plans, assistive technologies, or training.
- Supports for families and carers to prepare for emergencies.
- Coordination with Emergency Services
- Collaboration between the NDIS providers, local governments, and emergency responders to address the unique needs of people with disabilities.
- Sharing participant information (with consent) to prioritise support during emergencies. This should be documented in their PEEP.
- Policy and Guidelines
- The NDIS works with emergency management bodies to develop inclusive policies.
- Ongoing improvement of accessibility in emergency communications and services.
- Crisis Support Services
- Emergency replacement carers or short-term accommodation for those displaced by disasters.
- Person specific planning in the PEEP for individuals with critical needs (e.g., life-sustaining medical equipment). The NDIS Provider should also consider ensuring that suppliers are also aware of a facility’s critical needs.
Challenges
- Accessibility Gaps Some emergency services and evacuation centres may not fully accommodate disabilities. This is why it is crucial to ensure that steps are taken whilst you write the PEEP to identify some of these potential barriers, so that they can be avoided or eliminated at the time of an emergency evacuation.
- Communication Barriers Complex emergency information may not be accessible to all participants. Consultation with individuals by their provider is critical to ensure that the information is appropriate to the needs of the individual.
- Funding Limitations NDIS funding may not cover all emergency preparedness needs, especially for non-participants.
- Coordination Challenges Seamless integration between NDIS services and emergency management systems remains a work in progress. Ensuring a workable PEEP and EM Plan is the first step that providers can take to address this challenge.
Opportunities and considerations of specific planning
- Increase awareness for emergency services on the needs of people with disabilities. Invite the service to your evacuation drills etc. as they can then provide advice on what could be done to harmonise the providers processes with the emergency services.
- Ensure all evacuation centres are fully accessible or that accessibility issues are clearly identified so that PEEP’s can reflect the potential challenges.
- Strengthen partnerships between the NDIS Providers, all level of governments, and community organisations.
- Develop individual-specific emergency plans (PEEP’s) for NDIS participants in high-risk areas.
- Expand funding for emergency preparedness initiatives under the NDIS.
Conclusion
All NDIS providers have a responsibility to ensure that their clients have access to continued service. Whilst this is a simple and sensible proposition, the ranging requirements of client’s needs can make this an extremely difficult task. The problem with “out of the box” Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans is that they seldom take individual specific challenges into account. This can result in an operational gap and potential failure when it comes time to activate the PEEP.