NDIS HELP FOR PARENTS- LETS GET YOU SUPPORTED
There IS help for the struggling parent. Read on...

Are you confused about what you can get on your current plan?
The NDIS is very confusing. They use a totally different language to us humans! And then they keep changing the goal posts. One minute they say you can have something, the next you cant. Its no surprise that I see lots of parents with special needs kids in absolute overwhelm.
This is my story. I had no support. No family nearby to help out or take a break from caring.I needed help at home. to clean, to cook, to keep things running. As it was my 2 kiddos kept me running around all day and worn out by 5 pm. And getting the kids to their therapies were extra demands on one very stressed out mamma. During the early years , having 2 very emotionally dysregulated young kids without a break burnt me out. There were tears upon tears for every allied health professional I encountered during my kids therapies. All they had to ask was "Hi . How are you today?" and I'd be a blubbering mess.
I dont even remember how i got through those years to be honest. i was just on autopilot. But I got through.... Just.
Once I had recovered from the burnout I went through, I kept on asking myself, where was all the help for parents or sole carers? I'd lost count the times i had phoned carers NSW or parentline, and still no support, no break, no help in the home. Yes they did give me counselling, but even that sometimes felt way off the mark when it was delivered by a male 20 year old with no life experience of being a parent, let alone a parent of a special needs child.
And no referral was ever made by these "lifelines" to get commonwealth assistance because it was very hard to get. Of course when you're in that predicament you don't have the time or energy to look for respite options. Even searching for a babysitter was stressful as we knew how volatile our kids behaviours could be.
But life has moved on for us now. The kids are that little bit older that Im able to leave them safely for 2 to 3 hrs. And Im back to coaching parents to stay healthy.
But Im still annoyed when I see parents coming to me stressed beyond belief saying theyve called carer gateway 3 times and nothing has happened. The system has failed us again.

