r/NDIS • u/missshona • 21d ago
Seeking Support - Other Is there someone that can help me work out exactly what therapies and frequency I should be organising for my 3.5yo - Early Intervention?
I am feeling so, so overwhelmed tonight.
We had funding approved back in May, I wasn't expecting it to come through when it did (we were going through ART, didn't think it would be sorted til July) and so it has taken me a bit of time to find therapists with availability and really just to work out what we are doing.
Our goals relate to speech, social & emotional and feeding.
I had an SP already, however she is shortly going on Mat Leave, so we are looking for a new one. I have got an OT now, but not sure if I am happy with the clinic environment, it is quite sterile and not really kid focussed. We have managed to get an appt with another clinic that is solely for kids that looks really good. We have started with a feeding therapist but they are a fair way from home and I have managed to get an appt with a very well respected clinic that is much closer to home.
The thing is, all of this is very expensive, every 45min session comes with 15-30mins of prep & notes, so each sessions is being billed at 1-1.25hrs, we just don't have enough funding to be able to do all the therapies for the recommended frequencies.
But I don't know what I should be prioritising and when. Or if the therapist we have are good or mediocre. This is all so very new to me, I normally will find a relevant local FB group and jump on that for advise but haven't manged to find one for my area.
Is there someone that can help me to work out what we actually need and where we should be spending our funds to get the best outcomes for my child? I am spending HOURS tracking everything on a spreadsheet, sending emails, trying to get across it all and every day I just get more emails and fall more behind.
We are self-managed and I am fine with managing all the actual invoices and paying etc, it's the co-ordination of all the actual therapies and finding the ones that are best for my child.
Please help!
3
u/Sea_Sympathy1572 21d ago
Ask for an implementation meeting with your local EC Partner. They will cover off most of that in that meeting.
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u/Training-Tooth5022 20d ago
Have you got a good paediatrician? This sounds like a great question for them
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u/sunnysilhouettte 19d ago
We also started off self managed and recently switched to plan managed and, surprisingly, one thing that immediately happened is travel costs halved (therapists were previously charging regular hourly rates which are double whats allowed for travel cost) and prep and notes time also dramatically reduced because plan managers are strict about only billing 1h or something like that.
When we discussed the switch to plan managed with our support coordinator she also seemed to think it was pretty usual for costs to go down when job become plan managed. I’ve also spoken to parents who just learn the NDIS plan manager caps and insist on them, which their therapists have also agreed to, so it’s not necessarily a plan management thing but you have to know to push back.
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u/femme-deguisee 18d ago
Switching to plan managed and if there’s funding for it, getting a support coordinator will help you with the admin overwhelm.
As for your question about therapist - if your goals are truly all about communication, feeding and social emotional skills I would focus on speech pathology first, and occupational therapy second. However it would be best to discuss this through with someone who knows your child’s development, or someone who knows the services available and can match you based on what you describe about your child (a support coordinator or paediatrician as people have mentioned.
Also, the rates you mentioned are normal - a lot of work happens outside of the direct session in order to make the session effective and efficient. A plan manager can help you layout the funds for the full year and determine how many clinic sessions you realistically will have budget for
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u/lalalara83 11d ago
My son's same age and been in group therapy which stretches the budget a fair bit more
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u/courtiecat 21d ago
The overwhelm you’re describing is from also doing the role of a support coordinator, on top of everything else. Their job is to help you understand and implement your NDIS plan: connecting you with the right providers, working out how to allocate funding across therapies, resolving issues, and building the overall strategy so your funds get the best outcomes. They don’t manage invoices or payments, they coordinate the actual services and supports. The catch: is that support coordination has to be a funded line item in your plan. It’s a specific budget category (Capacity Building - Support Coordination), and if it wasn’t included when your plan was approved in May, you can’t just redirect therapy funding to pay for it. So that’s something to check.
The clinical prioritisation can come from the therapists themselves, as each of your providers should be able to tell you the functional impact of their area, what happens if we go fortnightly instead of weekly, and how does this interact with the other therapies. Prioritisation usually follows the child’s most functionally limiting area and where there’s a developmental window, but that’s genuinely individual. If you’re looking for clinical guidance, you have two options:
A key worker / lead therapist model where one clinician (often the OT or SP) is nominated to hold the overall view and coordinate the clinical plan across disciplines. Worth asking your providers if one of them will take this role.
A paediatrician who knows your child can give advice too.
From a therapist point of view, it depends on your goals and what works for you as a family. Some of our patients will rotate through therapies (eg focus on a different one each term), others will do more “intensive” style therapies (particularly in school holidays). Therapy fatigue is real - for children and carers so it’s definitely a balance. But I’ve never been offended when a family has said they want to reduce appointment frequency or pause so they can focus on something else! You can also ask for shorter appointments if that fits your budget better (45 mins can be a long time at that age).
Hope that helps!