The abilityNEWS Daily
The Big Story
Nepean Hospital
The case of an autistic man in Nepean Hospital shows the NDIS crisis is not just bed block. It is boundary failure. He’s stuck because nobody owns the crisis. It’s the brutal gap between health, police, child protection, mental health and the NDIS.
Craig’s son has autism and is in severe distress. He’s not safe at home. Police have come and gone. According to Craig the hospital says the problem is disability but the NDIS, he says, has no place for his child. The issue is safety.
So his son remains. Not because hospital is the right place but because nobody is responsible.
This is the story behind many NDIS cases. People with disability experiencing severe mental distress, violent behaviour, trauma, and family collapse have nowhere to go. Again.
They don’t fall through the cracks - they fall through a gaping hole.
Hospitals can assess and stabilise, but are not disability crisis centres. Police can respond, but they are not a care system. Child protection can intervene, but it does not deal with disability support. Mental health services may step in if there is a diagnosable psychiatric crisis, but many autistic people in distress do not fit neatly into that frame. The NDIS can fund supports, but it does not run emergency crisis accommodation or deploy a specialist workforce on demand.
Health Minister Mark Butler was asked about Craig’s case on ABC Sydney. He said he did not know the details, but it sounded “incredibly complex” and “extraordinarily distressing”.
He was right.
But this is not Butler’s problem. He’s Federal Health Minister. It is not the hospital’s problem. It is not the police’s problem. It is not even, in the critical, immediate sense, a problem for the NDIS.
And this is precisely the failure. Nobody is tasked with owning cases like Craig’s until they’re solved.
The NDIA says hospitals should notify it when a participant is admitted. It says it will respond within four days, can connect the person with a hospital liaison officer, and may adjust a plan to support discharge.
That process may work for many people.
Craig’s son does not just need a process. He just needs a safe place to go.
[continued on abilityNEWS’ website]
Gov Info
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