What a nutrition and dysphagia assistive technology support assessment is
This assessment collects information from you and your health professional. It describes your situation.
It also explains why your plan needs to include these type of products and supports to help you manage:
- food preparation
- food substitutes such as oral nutritional supplements
- equipment
The assessment should include information about your condition and treatment. It should also include any functional limitations related to your disability that mean you might need some help to manage your condition.
The assessment should also tell us:
- about any assistive technology or products you might have tested
- whether they have been beneficial
- how they are helping you work towards your NDIS goals.
Your health professional and assistive technology assessor should also tell us about the supports they recommend. They should tell us why and provide evidence to support their suggestions.
Tip: Who provide evidence for the assessment?
Your evidence can come from different professionals, depending on the NDIS supports you need. For example for:
- assistive technology, we need evidence from an assistive technology assessor
- dysphagia supports, we need evidence from a speech pathologist
- nutrition supports, we need evidence from your doctor or accredited practising dietitian.
What a nutrition and dysphagia assistive technology support assessment is for
Our rules say we can’t fund supports to treat health conditions. The Australian health system provides health services to everyone for illnesses or chronic health conditions. This includes nutrition and dysphagia.
If you need help to manage your nutrition and eating because of your disability, we may fund disability-related health supports to help you. The assessment helps us decide if we can include these supports in your plan. When you ask us for these items, we need information that shows they are:
- related to your disability
- a regular part of your daily life
- suggested with evidence from a health professional
- an NDIS support our rules say we can pay for.
What the assessment looks like
We have a template to help guide the assessment and the information we need.
You don’t have to use the assessment template if you don’t want to. The evidence you provide must include all the information described in the template.