What types of diabetes management supports do we fund?

If you can’t manage your diabetes because of your disability, we may fund:

•  a nurse to create a disability-related diabetes management plan which explains the support you need to follow your Diabetes Care Plan
• training for support workers in your diabetes management needs
• a support worker to monitor your glucose levels and give you insulin or other diabetes medication
•  a nurse to monitor your glucose levels and give you insulin if you have unstable diabetes and complex disability needs
• assistive technology to help manage your diabetes which you can’t get through the health care system.

Do you need a disability-related diabetes management plan?

If you can’t manage your diabetes on your own because of your disability, and it meets the NDIS funding criteria, we may fund a nurse to make a disability-related diabetes management plan for you.
This may include funding for:

• an initial consultation
• a nurse to write the plan
• a nurse to review the plan and make any changes you need.

Your disability-related diabetes management plan will describe the extra support you need to manage your diabetes. Your nurse will review the plan once a year, or when your diabetes needs change. 

What if you need someone to carry out your Diabetes Care Plan?

Your Diabetes Care Plan created by your doctor or diabetes nurse will describe how to manage your diabetes. This could be things like measuring your blood glucose levels or having insulin injections.
If you can’t carry out the plan yourself because of your disability, we may fund someone to help you with this.

Learn more about having someone else deliver the support you need.

What is delegated care?

For some diabetes management supports, a registered nurse may be able to train and delegate key tasks to a support worker or enrolled nurse. This support worker would directly provide you with the support they are trained for.

This is called ‘delegation and supervision of care’. It allows a registered nurse to delegate nursing tasks to an appropriately trained person.

Some disability-related health support tasks can be delegated by a registered nurse to another worker. This means that a trained person, such as a support worker or enrolled nurse will complete the task for you, instead of a registered nurse.

If your family or carers can’t complete the tasks, we will fund a support worker or enrolled nurse to support you to follow your disability-related diabetes management plan.

For example, to give you insulin injections. If you already have funding for a support worker, we can also fund a nurse to train your support workers in carrying out your disability-related diabetes management plan.

Each visit by a nurse or support worker to test your blood glucose level and give you insulin should take around 15 minutes. We’ll include enough funding for each visit depending on the number of insulin injections you need each day.

When would we fund training for a support worker?

If a support worker can help you with your disability-related diabetes management plan, we’ll fund their training so they can help you. We may also fund yearly refresher training if they need it.

The training for the support worker should:

• be given by the health treatment team or registered nurse who wrote your care plan
• explain how to carry out your specific Diabetes Care Plan
• teach the support worker how to provide day-to-day maintenance and care.

What if you need a nurse for your disability-related diabetes support needs?

If your diabetes is unstable and you have complex disability support needs, we may fund a nurse to provide supports. We may fund a nurse instead of a support worker if:

• your diabetes is unstable and needs monitoring and changes to your medications
• you need a nurse to work out the right amount of insulin you need, and the amount can often change
• you’re waiting for your support worker to be trained in your diabetes support needs.

If you need a nurse to provide supports, you’ll need to give us evidence from a doctor or endocrinologist. An endocrinologist is a medical specialist who treats people with diabetes and other hormone conditions.

The evidence should explain:

• how the functional impact of your disability means you can’t self-manage your diabetes
• why you need a nurse to provide the support
• why it can’t be delegated to a support worker.

We’ll make sure there is funding included in your plan to cover your nursing support needs.

What if you need assistive technology to manage your diabetes?

Most people will be able to get the diabetes management supports they need through the National Diabetes Services Scheme or the healthcare system.

Learn more about what diabetes management support can you get through the healthcare system or another provider.

We might be able to include funding in your plan for assistive technology. For example, for a continuous glucose monitoring device and insulin pump.

We only fund these things if you can give us evidence that:

•  the assistive technology will reduce your need for other supports, such as a support worker or nurse
• you’ll be more independent
• other mainstream health care services don’t fund the device or pump and you need this device to manage your diabetes because of your disability.
• You’ll need to give us evidence and it must meet the NDIS funding criteria.
• Learn more about Assistive technology.