u/Tiffsuresque

Is it reasonable to not want to pay max NDIS rates to my support workers? I feel like $70 an hour to help me clean my apartment and support me when grocery shopping is so steep 🥲 And I really don't have enough hours to cover everything I actually need so I thought having a lower rate might mean I have more hours to use?

I used to do support work and I never charged max rates unless it was a high support needs client, for basic community participation I didn't think it was justifiable. But that's back when the daytime rate was $62.. not $70+ 🙃

Does anyone else not use max NDIS rates to help make their funding stretch or is it hard to find workers that are okay with it?

What rate would be acceptable? I don't want to shorthand anyone either, its a big help to have them!

Thank you

I am wondering what kinds of questions you ask a potential future provider for things like OT, Speech and Psych. How do you weed out the bad ones?

What should I be wanting to know about them? What information should I and should I not give them so I'm not being taken advantage of?

I know my support coordinator will help me find people, but I'm sure even they can't always tell if someone is a bad fit/just in it for the money.

I really don't have a lot of funding so I don't want to waste hours finding someone and then clicking with them and then by the time I'm ready to properly engage, the funding is all used up just from trying people.

Thank you

I have my NDIS planning meeting coming up very soon and the information I've been seeing about all the changes being made has me worried about it.

I've got level 2 autism, my documents include a robust diagnosis report and functional capacity assessment done by an OT.

Is there anything else I can or include in the meeting to ensure I get adequate funding to cover my support workers (in home and in community) and therapies (OT, Speech, Psych, AT) as per the FCA?

Also there any suggestions on how to find a good support coordinator to help me facilitate connecting with the therapies? What should I be looking for? What questions should I be asking them?

Thank you x

I've agreed to try an inpatient program, but they don't do tube feeds there it's all voluntary/self-lead. So basically you have to want it or its not going to work (which I do like)

My problem is I'm not 100% confident I do actually want it. I want things to change, I want to go back to work and study, which they're not letting me do right now.

But I don't know if that alone is going to be enough to keep me going when things get hard, because I know things will get hard and I'm currently not coping well in the community.

I'm after things that aren't necessarily common knowledge, but more abstract/random things you noticed got a lot better once you committed to recovery

And also what helped you with distress tolerance when gaining weight?

what helped you STAY recovered once you left inpatient/daily care services - my outpatient treatment isn't currently working hence needing the more supportive environment of an MH IPU with an ED focus.

Thank you x

I feel like I've been stuck in this ED quasi recovery -> relapse -> quasi etc for so long now and I've never had a healthy relationship with food so I've never learned what normal eating even looks like. A few years ago I was eating portions that were way too big/not balanced, and then in an attempt to lose the weight I gained after an operation that significantly affected my mobily it triggered a relapse in my AN, so I started restriction and has either very small but regular portions or 'save my calories' to have larger volumes across 1-2 meals. Either way I feel like my idea of what is actually healthy/balanced is so so skewed and it's extremely difficult to challenge as I've done it for years now?

I don't know what normal is. I don't know how to eat regular, balanced, standard/normally portioned meals.

I am working with a dietitian but I am struggling to follow the meal plan because of the above struggles.

Can anyone relate? Obviously I know in recovery you're supposed to follow 3 meals, 3 snacks, 2-3 hours apart. I just am really struggling with it because that feels like a lot of food (because I'm picturing really big portions).

There's also a really big fear that eating the meal plan is going to cause a loss of control and I'll just keep eating/I'm scared of eating that much and getting EH - but that's a separate issue

Words of advice, or if you've experienced something similar, or general encouragement appreciated! My ED is kicking my ass rn 🥲🫶