We want you to be able to leave hospital as soon as possible.
We have health liaison officers and a hospital discharge team to support you to leave hospital.
If you are a participant, or if you might be eligible for the NDIS, our health liaison officers work with you and your health team during your hospital stay.
They will work together to make sure you have the supports you need to leave hospital when you are medically ready to leave.
NDIS health liaison officers work with hospital staff to support you and to understand what support you need when you leave hospital. The hospital will assign a dedicated contact person, called a health lead, to work with the NDIS health liaison officer.
What do Health Liaison Officers do?
NDIS Health liaison officers work with health leads on a case-by-case basis. With your consent, they’ll discuss:
- how long you’ve been in hospital
- why you went into hospital
- when you will be ready to leave hospital
- your health and disability support needs
- any changes to your disability support needs
- any further information we might need.
The health liaison officer can support you with applying to the NDIS and work with you and the health lead on your NDIS application. If you’re a participant, they can help organise a change to your plan, if needed.
What is the Health system responsible for?
The Health system will:
- tell us you’ve been admitted hospital
- provide us with a dedicated contact person at the hospital
- make a plan for you to leave hospital
- provide assessments and evidence of your support needs
- tell us when you are likely to be ready to leave hospital
- make sure it’s safe for you to leave hospital
What happens if you’re already a participant?
If you’re a participant, the hospital staff will contact us and let us know you’re in hospital. They’ll ask you for your consent to share information with us.
We’ll also ask for your consent to share information with the hospital if you haven’t already provided this. This is so we can talk to the hospital about planning for your discharge.
We’ll contact you (or your nominee or guardian) within 4 days of being told you’re in hospital. If you need a change to your support needs to support your discharge from hospital, the NDIS health liaison officer can arrange this.
Learn more about changing your plan.
If the NDIS health liaison officer needs additional information to support a change to your plan, they’ll ask your health lead for this information.
If you need a change to your plan so you can be discharged from hospital, a planner from the hospital discharge team will have a planning meeting with you (or your nominee or guardian).
In most situations, your new plan will be approved within 30 days from when we are told you’re in hospital.
Sometimes, because of your situation, and the gathering of reports and evidence about your support needs, it may take longer to approve the changes to your plan.
If the changes to your plan might take longer than 30 days to approve, your planner will talk about this with you.
The changes to your plan will focus on the supports you need to return home.
For example: personal care supports, additional support coordination, assistive technology and home and living supports.
Supports we fund in this plan must meet the NDIS funding criteria. If you need home and living supports added to your plan, the NDIS health liaison officer will support you to explore what home and living supports are right for you. They will also help you get the evidence we need to decide what home and living supports to include in your plan.
Sometimes Medium Term Accommodation can help you move out of hospital sooner and into your long term home.
For example, you might be medically ready to be discharged from hospital but are waiting for your home modifications to be completed. Or you might be waiting for your Specialist Disability Accommodation to become available. Learn more about Medium Term Accommodation following hospital discharge.
If your discharge date changes, your health lead will contact the NDIS health liaison officer to talk about any concerns.
What happens if you’re not a participant?
If you’re not a participant, and might be eligible for the NDIS, the hospital staff and the health liaison officer will help you apply to the NDIS.
Once you give us the information we need, we’ll decide if you are eligible for the NDIS within 7 days of receiving the information. If you are eligible for the NDIS, we will create your plan with you and make sure it is approved within 30 days.