Providing a Safe Environment for NDIS Participants

Review of causes and contributors to deaths of people with disability

This alert is to advise you of current research being undertaken on behalf of the NDIS Commission to review the causes and contributors to deaths of people with disability, and to identify population mortality trends and risks concerning the deaths of people with disability.

Providing NDIS participants with quality supports and services in a safe and competent environment with care and skill is an important obligation for all NDIS providers, and is fundamental to the rights of people with disability.

In this context, it is especially important that both the NDIS Commission in its regulatory role, and NDIS providers delivering supports and services, address the causes and contributors to deaths of people with disability to prevent avoidable deaths.

Under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018 all registered NDIS providers are required to notify the NDIS Commission of reportable incidents. Reportable incidents include any death of a person with disability that occurred in connection with their services. As a result, the commencement of the NDIS Commission in each state and territory by 1 July 2020 establishes for the first time consistent national arrangements for reporting the deaths of people with disability who receive funded NDIS services across Australia.

To further inform our work in this area, we commissioned Professor Julian Trollor, Chair, Intellectual Disability Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry University of NSW to undertake a major research project to obtain an Australia-wide perspective on the prevalence of, and factors contributing to, the deaths of people with disability.

When completed, this research project will provide a comprehensive scoping review of the causes and contributors to deaths of people with disability. It will also provide a national baseline picture of death trends and related factors drawing on published state and territory level disability death review data.

We are now considering the project’s report and findings, and will publish the report in early 2020, along with a number of immediate actions we plan to undertake in response, including issuing Provider Practice Alerts and Practice Reviews.

We have also contracted the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to undertake a complementary project to identify population mortality trends and risks concerning the deaths of people with disability. This project will be informed by the work undertaken by Professor Trollor and is expected to be finished in early 2020.

We will use these two projects to commence a longer term program of work to further assist in responding to and mitigating systemic risks of harm to people with disability, and to prevent avoidable deaths. 

This program of work will include:

· Establishing a national baseline against which we can review the data we collect on the deaths of NDIS participants

· Improving measures for monitoring NDIS provider responses to risk factors contributing to preventable deaths

· Developing new strategies that support NDIS providers to prevent avoidable deaths.

We will also approach other regulatory bodies and sector representatives to work with them to develop appropriate guidance, procedures and tools to assist in preventing avoidable deaths. Further information will published next year on the NDIS Commission website at www.ndiscommission.gov.au.