SDA or Specialist Disability Accommodation is a range of housing designed for NDIS participants with extreme functional impairments or very high support needs.
As Occupational Therapists we receive a lot of requests for NDIS participants wanting to access SDA, however, due to the limited number of SDA’s available nationally, it makes it extremely competitive to get approval for an SDA in a participant’s NDIS plan.
New key data released by the NDIS, now categorizes SDA’s available nationally by the primary disability of the participants who were accepted for an SDA.
The new data shows the breakdown of NDIS participants by their primary diagnosis, and this can assist providers and therapists understand the percentage of participant demand across the 4 design categories. See below:
As per the data above, the top five disabilities with the highest number of participants in an SDA include the following:
- Intellectual disability (48%)
- Cerebral palsy (12%)
- Autism (11%)
- Down syndrome (8%)
- Acquired brain injury (7%)
This data provides some insight into what NDIS considers to be disabilities which represent ‘Extreme Functional Impairment’ or ‘Very High Support Needs’. This assists both providers and therapists to consider this information when discussing the need for an SDA with their clients. Knowing this information gives providers and therapists more clarity around what disabilities and client presentations would qualify as eligible for an SDA.
Further information and more specific breakdown of participants in SDA’s can be found in the SDA Quarterly Report, which can be found here.
At National 360, we have a range of OTs who have experience in assessments for SDA and other Housing options such as Supported Independent Living (SIL) and Individualised Living Options (ILO). If you would like to know more about our services in this space, please contact National 360 on 1800 824 299.
