If you can’t manage your dysphagia because of your disability, we may fund:
- a speech pathologist. They can help prepare a mealtime management plan, provide swallowing therapy, or train people to help support you
- low-cost assistive technology
- thickener products
- training for someone to help you eat or drink.
Under NDIS laws, there are things we can’t fund or provide. We don’t fund:
- supports that aren’t related to your disability support needs. For example, temporary dysphagia caused by a short-term illness or surgery, not your disability
- supports you get through the education system, like a teacher who supervises you to eat and drink safely while at school
- supports for dysphagia while you’re in hospital. The health system is responsible for providing these.
The health system is also responsible for any tests to diagnose dysphagia.
Learn more about Supports that are not NDIS supports.
What if you need a speech pathologist for your dysphagia support needs?
A qualified speech pathologist must provide some dysphagia supports.
You may be able to get short-term help from a speech pathologist through Medicare. We may fund a qualified speech pathologist if you need:
- a mealtime management plan to be prepared or reassessed for you
- swallowing therapy intervention
- a speech pathologist to train the people who support you, such as a support worker, family member or carer.
A speech pathologist can train the people who support you in places you usually go to. For example, your home, work, day program or school.
Learn more in What if you need someone to help you eat or drink?
Your speech pathologist may also recommend low-cost assistive technology or thickener products to help you eat and drink.
What if you need a mealtime management plan?
You may need a mealtime management plan to help manage your dysphagia due to your disability. This may also be called an oral eating and drinking care plan.
A mealtime management plan describes how you can safely eat and drink during mealtimes. This may include recommendations on how to sit and hold cutlery to improve how you eat. Or you may need extra support to make sure food is the right texture to reduce the risk of aspiration or choking. Aspiration happens when you breathe things into your airway, such as food or saliva.
A speech pathologist creates a mealtime management plan for you. They should assess you in the places where you usually eat. For example, your home, school, daycare, work, a family member, or carer’s house, or at a day program.
Your speech pathologist should recommend how long it will take to complete these assessments, create the plan, and write any reports you need. We’ll use this information to work out how much funding to include in your plan for the creation of a mealtime management plan.
Your mealtime management plan will need to be regularly reviewed and updated if your dysphagia support needs change. This will depend on how much your dysphagia affects you and if it’s likely to get better or worse over time. Your mealtime management plan will say how often it needs to be updated. For each review of your mealtime management plan, we can fund a speech pathologist to reassess and update your plan.
You may be at risk of not getting the nutrition you need due to your disability. In this case, you may also need a dietitian to contribute to your mealtime management plan. A dietitian can recommend the foods you need to keep you healthy. If your speech pathologist recommends a dietitian, we may be able to include funding for a dietitian to assess you. We may also include funding for them to write any plans and reports you need.
Learn more about dietitian supports in Our Guideline - Nutrition supports including meal preparation.
What if you need swallowing therapy?
A speech pathologist may recommend swallowing therapy to help you improve your ability to swallow. Swallowing therapy aims to help you chew food, move food to the back of the throat, and strengthen the swallowing muscles.
Your mealtime management plan should include your swallowing therapy. This will include:
- the specific swallowing strategies or therapy techniques you need to use during mealtimes
- how often you need to use the swallowing strategies or therapy techniques
- whether you need a support worker, carer, family member or friend to help you with the swallowing therapies.
Most people will be able to manage their dysphagia with a mealtime management plan. A speech pathologist will only recommend additional swallowing therapy for you if you need extra help.
You may need a swallowing therapy program when you’re gradually changing from enteral feeding to oral feeding. This is called a tube weaning program. The health system provides most tube weaning program supports.
To learn more about enteral feeding, go to What if you need thickener products?
You can also learn more in our Would we fund it – Enteral feeding