SERVICE providers will travel to people in Far West NSW communities under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), reports an organiser of a forum under way in Dubbo.
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Ray Peckham said families in communities lacking services would not be abandoned by the NDIS, set to be introduced in Western NSW in July 2017.
On the first day of the two-day forum, called Building Kinnections Forum 2, he told of NDIS staff or "linkers" working out of some of the region's cities and towns.
"Linkers will go out and speak to clients and see if they are getting any services," Mr Peckham said.
"If they aren't getting services then the linkers will try and find a service provider to support them, to go to them."
At lunchtime on Wednesday Mr Peckham said a "lot of questions" had been asked at the forum by Wilcannia families who struggled to find transport to access services elsewhere.
"That's where the linkers come in and get the service providers to go to them," he said.
Mr Peckham is the Indigenous regional co-ordinator for National Disability Services (NDS), the peak body for non-government disability services, and a member of the Dubbo-based Disability Information Group (DIG) that organised this week's forum.
The forum, and its predecessor in late 2015, seeks to get Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients ready to access the fast-approaching NDIS.
About 600 people have taken part in the two forums, including people with a disability and their carers from across the region and service providers that have learned culturally-appropriate ways of supporting Aboriginal people.
DIG reports of high rates of disability within Aboriginal communities but their accessing of "very few services or supports".
Its chairman Max Hill, who works for Carers NSW in Dubbo, suggests 25,000 people in Dubbo and the Far West will become clients of the NDIS.
Mr Peckham said they would be people who had been "born with a disability" and needed care around the clock.
He said they would be assessed by a NDIS support planner before being able to use funding allocated by the scheme to access service providers of their choice.
For the sake of a smooth transition to NDIS, Mr Peckham is urging carers of people with disability to register them with Ageing, Disability and Home Care by calling 1300 134 450 or sending an email to western.iri@facs.nsw.gov.au.
DIG members represent the community, service providers and organisations such as NDS and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.