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‘Everything would have gone a lot better if someone had listened to me’: A nationwide study of emergency department contact by people with a psychosocial disability and a National Disability Insurance Scheme plan

Overview

This Australian study examined emergency department (ED) experiences of 24 people with psychosocial disabilities and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plans, finding poor communication between services, clinician misunderstanding of NDIS provisions, and inadequate service integration causing participant distress.

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Individual authors

  • Heather McIntyre
  • Mark Loughhead
  • Laura Hayes
  • Caroline Allen
  • Dean Barton-Smith
  • Brooke Bickley
  • Louis Vega
  • Jewels Smith
  • Ursula Wharton
  • Nicholas Procter

Key insights

Key Insights:

  1. NDIS application process causes unnecessary distress for participants

  2. ED clinicians misunderstand what NDIS actually provides patients

  3. Blame game exists between ED staff and NDIS systems

  4. Communication pathways between ED and NDIS are fragmented

  5. Participants advised not declaring NDIS plans to avoid pullback

  6. Support workers improve ED experiences when present with patients

  7. NDIS designed poorly for fluctuating psychosocial disability conditions

  8. Service integration requires overlapping care and improved communication protocols

Did this resource draw on transformative evidence?

<p>This study&nbsp;was heavily based on experiential expertise. It interviewed 24 people with lived experience of psychosocial disability and NDIS plans, included researchers with lived experience, and used a Lived Experience Advisory Group to co-design the study, analyse themes, and validate findings. The methodology explicitly positioned participants as experts on their own conditions and service needs.</p>
<p>The document has limited direct practice wisdom. While it captures some practitioner perspectives through participant accounts of ED clinician behaviors and NDIS worker interactions, it doesn&#39;t systematically gather practice wisdom from healthcare professionals themselves. The study notes a "nationwide survey of ED clinicians was conducted in 2023" but will be "reported elsewhere." The research primarily focuses on service user experiences rather than professional practice insights.</p>
<p>This study is extensively based on research and evaluation insights. It conducts a systematic qualitative study using established research methodologies (thematic analysis, COREQ standards), extensively references prior research on NDIS and ED integration challenges, and situates findings within broader literature. The study follows rigorous research protocols including ethics approval, reflexive analysis, and trustworthiness criteria to evaluate service integration gaps.</p>

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