1 September 2021

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccines: Australian Government Department of Health Disability Provider Alert (31 August 2021)

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

Key points

• The Department of Health has issued a new Disability Provider Alert. 
• 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 (31 August 2021)

The Department of Health has issued a COVID-19 vaccination – Disability Provider Alert 31 August 2021.

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

• information on current hubs offering vaccination services
• Eligibility Checker updates
• a statement from Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI)  about vaccination for the 12 to 15 year age group
• NSW Health Orders regarding vaccination requirements for authorised workers
• a reminder about the webinar for people with intellectual disability
• information about clinics and hubs, by state and territory.

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

Promoting access to COVID-19 Vaccinations

Information about access to COVID-19 vaccinations should be promoted, to both the NDIS participants you support and your workers.

Vaccinations can be booked by visiting the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility Checker or contacting the National Coronavirus and COVID-19 Vaccination Helpline on 1800 020 080.

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.

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.

The Australian Government Department of Health (Department of Health) has published an information page on their website for people with disability about COVID-19 vaccines. This page contains important information for providers and participants about COVID-19 vaccines, and will be updated regularly. A range of Easy Read and Auslan resources about the COVID-19 vaccines are also available. We strongly encourage you to visit these resources and share them with the people with disability that you support.

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 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.

Contact us

Call: 1800 035 544 (free call from landlines). Our contact centre is open 9.00am to 5.00pm (9.00am to 4.30pm in the NT), Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.

Email: contactcentre@ndiscommission.gov.au

Website: www.ndiscommission.gov.au