Orygen Executive Director Professor Patrick McGorry says the NDIS needs to massively rethink its mental care model as only a limited number of people with “serious disabling mental illness” are allowed into the NDIS plan.
“There are 5 million Australians every year with mental health, there are about 700-800 thousand Australians with serious disabling mental illness, and only 50 thousand of them are allowed into the NDIS,” Professor Patrick told Sky News Australia.
“And even if they get in the sort of things the NDIS funds are not really fit for purpose, it doesn’t meet their main needs.
“It disenfranchises young people who bear the main burden of mental illness because you have to show and prove you’ve got a fixed and permanent disability which young people do not necessarily have at that stage of the illness,” he said.
