South Australia’s largest disability organisation for children has opened a new therapy centre to cope with the increasing demand for its services.
Novita Children’s Services said a 150 per cent growth in demand was largely due to the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le, opened the new centre at Regency Park in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
Novita’s chief executive Glenn Rappensberg said the new centre will better cater for the number of parents requiring treatment for their children.
“This means more services for more kids with disabilities,” Mr Rappensberg said.
“It will allow us to centralise some of our allied health services like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology and psychology.
“We’ve had about 215 children enter the NDIS and we’re now providing services in that age group to about 500, so we’re welcoming about 300 new families at this point in time.”
Mr Rappensberg said the organisation was now also able to provide services to children with a greater variety of needs.
“We’ve had about a 150 per cent growth in demand for our services and so this centre is about realising that demand and importantly ensuring that we don’t have waiting lists for parents wanting services,” he said.
“Historically Novita has provided services to kids with physical disability like cerebral palsy but today because of the NDIS there’s no eligibility criteria … so we’re providing services to kids with developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and down syndrome now.”
Mr Rappensberg said he was pleased the NDIS funding had made more services possible.
“It’s great to be able to provide the right services at the right time at the right intensity and in the right environment,” he said.
“[It is] something that we’ve wanted to do for a very long time but we’ve never had the funding to do it.
“Seeing kids develop their potential the best way they can that will make them more productive later in life, that’s a fantastic outcome for them, their families but also for Australia.”