8 October 2021

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccines: Department of Health Disability Provider Alert (5 October 2021)

The Australian Government Department of Health (Department of Health) has issued a Disability Provider Alert with updated information for disability providers.

IMPORTANT CALL TO ACTION FOR ALL PROVIDERS

As vaccination rates increase across Australia and governments continue to make plans to ease community restrictions - it is vital that people with disability are supported, in whatever way they require, to access vaccinations.

 You have an important role to play!

There are a number of actions you can take today:

• Talk about vaccination to the people with disability that you support
• Offer assistance, where needed, to access information about vaccination from reliable and trusted sources, such as the person’s GP
• Provide active support to make an appointment and to attend vaccination appointments.

Please refer to the letter sent to CEOs by the Acting Commissioner on 21 September 2021. 

Further information is available on the Department of Health website, including Easy Read and Auslan resources.

Vaccinations can be booked by visiting the Vaccine Clinic Finder or by contacting the National Coronavirus and COVID-19 Vaccination Helpline on 1800 020 080. The Disability Gateway is now also assisting people with disability that might need help to book a COVID-19 vaccine.

Key Points

• The Department of Health has issued a new Disability Provider Alert. It contains information on current hubs offering vaccination services for people with disability and disability workers.
• All NDIS participants and disability workers are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Information and support to access COVID-19 vaccinations should be facilitated, to both NDIS participants and workers.

Department of Health provider alert (5 October 2021)

The Department of Health has issued a COVID-19 vaccination – Disability Provider Alert 5 October 2021.

The alert contains important information about the continued rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, including

• information on current hubs offering vaccination services. These hubs are set up to vaccinate people with disability and disability workers. The list will be updated regularly.
• an update on the Vaccine Clinic Finder.

We encourage you to read the provider alert for full details.

Promoting access to COVID-19 Vaccinations

Supporting NDIS participants to access COVID-19 vaccinations

All NDIS participants aged 12 years and over are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Providers should take all steps to assist participants that they support to access the vaccination where they need assistance to do so. Further information is available on the Department of Health website, including Easy Read and Auslan resources.

Our provider alert of 9 June 2021 contained resources to help you to support participants to understand the vaccination process and to provide informed consent.

Our fact sheet, called ‘COVID-19 Vaccines: Informed consent, preparing for the vaccine, and restrictive practices’, aims to assist NDIS providers to better understand their obligations when supporting people with disability to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccination advice and information for disability workers

All disability workers are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19, to protect their own health and the health of people with disability they support.

The Department of Health issued a Disability Provider Alert on 12 July 2021. This alert contained strong encouragement from National Cabinet for all disability workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19. We encourage you to read the full details in the alert.

The Department of Health has dedicated information pages for disability service providers about COVID-19 vaccines.

• Providers: The webpage for disability service providers contains information and resources to help you plan for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
• Disability workers: The webpage for disability workers contains information and resources about COVID-19 vaccines for disability workers.

The Department of Health will continue to update the information on these pages, so we strongly encourage you to visit these pages regularly.

NDIS Commission COVID-19 vaccine information and resources

The COVID-19 vaccine information webpage on our website contains links to updates about COVID-19 vaccines and resources for NDIS providers.

We also have a COVID-19 vaccine webpage containing information for people with disability.