Candidate Liz Dearn presented preliminary findings from research on ‘the experience of choice and control for residents with psychosocial disability living in SRS – the first 12 months of the NDIS‘. The presentation illustrated some of the limitations on choice and control in everyday life for residents living in supported residential services (SRS) and how this might play out in NDIS decision-making. The conference session was a special session with a focus on people living in congregate care facilities, which Liz convened with a group of stakeholders working on this issue nationally.
Presenting on preliminary findings from PhD at the NDIS national conference with OPA, NDIA, EACH and Salvocare @FutureSocialAU #ndismentalhealth pic.twitter.com/Jy7cl8lE52
— liz dearn (@lizdearn) November 1, 2018

FSSI’s inaugural PhD scholar Elizabeth Hudson presented aspects of her Gateways and Gatekeepers thesis, which explores issues facing people with episodic mental illness in the transition to the NDIS. Elizabeth co-presented with lived experience members of her research advisory panel, highlighting emerging themes and showcasing how the voices of people with lived experience inform her research and her research design.
With a research focus on mental health carers’ experience of the NDIS and impacts on their own lives, this presentation, titled A Carer’s ordinary life? Sustaining Mental Health Carers in the NDIS, presented preliminary findings and generated new contacts from across Victoria for the PhD research.