National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

Conditions and Injuries that Physiotherapists Treat under NDIS

Under the National Disability Insurance Scheme physiotherapists can treat various musculoskeletal conditions and sports injuries. Here are some examples: 

Intellectual disability diagnosed and assessed as moderate, severe or profound in accordance with current DSM criteria.

• Autism diagnosed by a specialist multi-disciplinary team, paediatrician, psychiatrist or clinical psychologist experienced in the assessment of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, and assessed using the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) diagnostic criteria as having severity of Level 2 (Requiring substantial support) or Level 3 (Requiring very substantial support).

•  Cerebral palsy diagnosed and assessed as severe (e.g. assessed as Level 3, 4 or 5 on the Gross Motor Function Classification System - GMFCS).

• Genetic conditions that consistently result in permanent and severe intellectual and physical impairments:

• Angelman syndrome

• Coffin-Lowry syndrome in males

• Cornelia de Lange syndrome

• Cri du Chat syndrome

• Edwards syndrome (Trisomy 18 – full form)

• Epidermolysis Bullosa (severe forms):

  • YR

  • Autosomal recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa

  • Hallopeau-Siemens type

  • Herlitz Junctional Epidermolysis Dystrophica

• Lesch-Nyhan syndrome

• Leigh syndrome

• Leukodystrophies:

  • Alexander disease (infantile and neonatal forms)

  • Canavan disease

  • Krabbe disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy) – Infantile form

  • Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (Connatal form)

• Lysosomal storage disorders resulting in severe intellectual and physical impairments:

  • Gaucher disease Types 2 and 3

  • Niemann-Pick disease (Types A and C)

  • Pompe disease

  • Sandhoff disease (infantile form)

  • Schindler disease (Type 1)

  • Tay-Sachs disease (infantile form)

• Mucopolysaccharidoses – the following forms:

  • MPS 1-H (Hurler syndrome)

  • MPS III (San Fillipo syndrome)

  • Osteogenesis Imperfecta (severe forms):

  • Type II - with two or more fractures per year and significant deformities severely limiting ability to perform activities of daily living

• Patau syndrome

• Rett syndrome

• Spinal Muscular Atrophies of the following types:

  • Werdnig-Hoffmann disease (SMA Type 1- Infantile form)

  • Dubowitz disease (SMA Type II – Intermediate form)

  • X-linked spinal muscular atrophy

• Spinal cord injury or brain injury resulting in paraplegia, quadriplegia or tetraplegia.

• Hemiplegia where there is severe or total loss of strength and movement in the affected limbs of the body.

• Permanent blindness in both eyes, diagnosed and assessed by an ophthalmologist as follows:

• Corrected visual acuity (extent to which an object can be brought into focus) on the Snellen Scale must be less than or equal to 6/60 in both eyes; or

• Constriction to within 10 degrees or less of arc of central fixation in the better eye, irrespective of corrected visual acuity (i.e. visual fields are reduced to a measured arc of 10 degrees or less); or

• A combination of visual defects resulting in the same degree of visual impairment as that occurring in the above points. (An optometrist report is not sufficient for NDIS purposes.)

• Permanent bilateral hearing loss > 90 decibels in the better ear (pure tone average of 500Hz, 1000Hz, 2000Hz and 4000Hz).

• Deafblindness confirmed by ophthalmologist and audiologist and assessed as resulting in permanent and severe to total impairment of visual function and hearing.

• Amputation or congenital absence of 2 limbs – for example, 2 legs, 2 arms, or a leg and an arm (not a leg and a hand, or an arm and a foot).

Conditions primarily resulting in intellectual or learning impairment

• Intellectual disability

• Pervasive developmental disorders not meeting severity criteria in List A or List C, such as autism

• Asperger syndrome

• Atypical autism

• Childhood autism.

Chromosomal abnormalities resulting in permanent impairment and not specified on List A

• Aicardi-Goutières syndrome

• CHARGE syndrome

• Cockayne syndrome Types I and Type II/Cerebro-oculo-faciao-skeletal (COFS) syndrome /Pena Shokeir syndrome Type II/Weber-Cockayne syndrome/Neill-Dingwall syndrome)

• Cohen syndrome

• Dandy-Walker syndrome

• DiGeorge syndrome /22q11.2 deletion syndrome/Velocardiofacial syndrome/ Shprintzen syndrome/Conotruncal anomaly face syndrome

• Down syndrome/Trisomy 21

• Fragile X syndrome

• Kabuki syndrome

• Menkes disease

• Prader-Willi syndrome

• Seckel syndrome /microcephalic primordial dwarfism/Harper’s syndrome/Virchow-Seckel dwarfism

• Smith-Lemli-Optiz syndrome

• Smith-Magenis syndrome

• Spinal muscular atrophy Types III and IV

• Sturge-Weber syndrome

• Trisomy 9

• Tuberous sclerosis

• Turner syndrome

• Williams syndrome

• Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.

Conditions primarily resulting in Neurological impairment

• Alzheimer’s dementia

• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

• HIV dementia

• Huntington’s disease

• Multi-infarct dementia

• Parkinson’s disease

• Post-polio syndrome

• Vascular dementia.

Systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system

• Abetalipoproteinaemia

• Adult-onset spinal muscular atrophy/late-onset SMA type III)

• Fazio-Londe disease/Progressive bulbar palsy of childhood

• Friedrich’s ataxia

• Hereditary spastic paraplegia/ Infantile-onset ascending hereditary spastic paralysis/ L1 syndrome/ spastic paraplegias types 2 and 11Huntington’s disease/Huntington’s chorea

• Louis-Bar syndrome/Ataxia-telangiectasia

• Motor neuron disease/Motor neurone disease/ Lou Gehrig’s disease /Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

• Primary lateral sclerosis

• Progressive bulbar palsy

• Spinal muscular atrophy – all types

• Spinocerebellar Ataxia – all types, including Machado-Joseph disease.

Extrapyramidal and movement disorders

• Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome /Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN)/neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation 1 (NBIA 1)

• Parkinson’s disease

• Shy-Drager syndrome /Multiple System Atrophy /Striatonigral degeneration (MSA-P)/ Sporadic olivopontocerebellar atrophy (MSA-C)

• Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome/Progressive supranuclear ophthalmoplegia

• Stiff-man syndrome /Stiff-person syndrome.

Other degenerative diseases of the nervous system

• Alzheimer’s disease

• Alpers disease/Grey-matter degeneration/Alpers syndrome/progressive sclerosing poliodystrophy/progressive infantile poliodystrophy

• Lewy body dementia

• Pick’s disease.

Demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system

• Adrenoleukodystrophy

• Multiple sclerosis

• Schilder’s disease /Diffuse myelinoclastic sclerosis – non-remitting.

Episodic and paroxysmal disorders

• Brain stem stroke syndrome

• Cerebellar stroke syndrome

• Motor and sensory lacunar syndromes

• Lennox syndrome /Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

• West’s syndrome.

Polyneuropathies and other disorders of the peripheral nervous system

• Adult Refsum disease

• Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease/Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy/ peroneal muscular atrophy

• Dejerine-Sottas disease /Dejerine-Sottas syndrome/Dejerine-Sottas neuropathy/progressive hypertrophic interstitial polyneuropathy of childhood/onion bulb neuropathy

• Infantile Refsum disease.

Other disorders of the nervous system

• Hydrocephalus

• Multiple system atrophy.

Conditions resulting in Physical impairment

• Amputation

• Congenital absence of limb or part thereof

• Epidermolysis bullosa

• Harlequin type icthyosis

• Juvenile arthritis / Stills Disease (excluding monocyclic/self-limited Adult Onset Stills disease)

• Rheumatoid arthritis.

Diseases of myoneural junction and muscle

• Andersen-Tawil syndrome/ Periodic paralysis /myoplegia paroxysmalis familiaris

• Becker muscular dystrophy

• Congenital muscular dystrophy

• Distal muscular dystrophy

• Duchenne muscular dystrophy

• Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

• Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy

• Mitochondrial myopathy

• Myotonic dystrophy /dystrophia myotonica

• Myotonic muscular dystrophy

• Myotubular myopathy

• Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy

• Paramyotonia Congenita

• Thomsens disease /Congenital myotonia/ Becker myotonia).

Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes not meeting severity criteria on List A

• Cerebral palsy

• Diplegia

• Hemiplegia

• Monoplegia

• Paraplegia

• Quadriplegia

• Tetraplegia.

Conditions resulting in multiple types of impairment

• Aceruloplasminemia

• Addison-Schilder disease /Adrenoleukodystrophy

• Albinism

• Arginosuccinic aciduria

• Aspartylglucosaminuria

• Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis /cerebral cholesterosis

• Congenital cytomegalovirus infection

• Congenital iodine-deficiency syndrome /cretinism

• Congenital rubella syndrome

• Glycine encephalopathy /non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia

• GM1 gangliosidosis

• Hartnup disease

• Homocystinuria

• Lowe syndrome/ Oculocerebrorenal syndrome

• Mannosidosis

• Menkes disease

• Mucolipidosis II /I-cell disease

• Mucolipidosis III /pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy

• Mucolipidosis IV

• Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL)/ Adult type (Kuf’s or Parry’s disease)/ Juvenile (Batten disease)/ Late infantile (Jansky-Bielschowsky)

• Niemann-Pick disease

• Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency

• Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency

• Sialidosis

• Sulfite oxidase deficiency.

The following mucopolysaccharidoses

• Scheie syndrome /MPS 1-H

• Hurler-Scheie syndrome /MPS 1 H-S

• Hunter syndrome /MPS II

• Morquio syndrome /MPS IVA

• Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome /MPS VI

• Sly syndrome /MPS VII.

Congenital conditions – cases where malformations cannot be corrected by surgery or other treatment and result in permanent impairment but with variable severity

• Arnold-Chiari Types 2 and 3/Chiari malformation

• Microcephaly

• Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

• Fetal hydantoin syndrome

• Spina bifida

• VATER syndrome /VACTERL association.

It's important to note that the specific treatment approach and interventions may vary depending on the severity of the condition, individual needs, and goals. Physiotherapists work closely with individuals under the NDIS to develop tailored treatment plans to address their musculoskeletal conditions and sports injuries effectively.