Why Mental Health Nurses Need Recognition in the NDIS Pricing Review
The NDIS Annual Pricing Review is now open, and this year’s consultation carries significant implications for the future of mental health care in Australia. One issue stands out as both urgent and long overdue:
Mental Health Nurses are still not recognised within the therapy pricing structure.
Despite providing highly skilled, complex, and often long-term therapeutic support, Mental Health Nurses continue to be categorised under “Other Support” — a classification that fails to reflect our expertise, training, or contribution to participant outcomes.
As someone working at the intersection of mental health, disability, and capacity-building every day, I see the real impact of this misalignment on participants, families, and the workforce.
What’s the Issue?
1. Mental Health Nurses are not recognised as a distinct therapeutic profession.
Within the NDIS pricing framework, we are placed in the broad “Other” category, despite delivering interventions equivalent to psychology, occupational therapy, and social work.
2. We provide core therapeutic and capacity-building supports.
Mental Health Nurses work across a wide scope of needs, including:
emotional regulation
communication and social participation
adjustment to disability
behavioural and sensory regulation
daily living and executive-function skill development
crisis planning and safety management
medication and health literacy
This work directly contributes to participant autonomy, wellbeing, and community engagement.
3. Our support spans all disability types, not only psychosocial.
We assist participants with intellectual disability, autism, neurological conditions, physical disability, chronic illness, and complex trauma.
Our lens is holistic, relational, and grounded in both clinical and functional skill building.
4. Current pricing undermines workforce viability.
Placing Mental Health Nurses in a non-specific “Other” category communicates:
a lack of professional recognition
unclear expectations of scope
lower pricing compared to equivalent therapeutic roles
reduced sustainability for providers
In a system already experiencing significant workforce shortages, this has serious long-term consequences.
5. A dedicated therapy line item is essential.
Formal recognition within the therapy pricing structure would ensure:
workforce retention and sustainability
clearer pathways for participants to access appropriate supports
improved quality and consistency of mental health interventions
alignment with the training and clinical expertise of Mental Health Nurses
This is not simply an administrative issue — it directly affects the care, autonomy, and outcomes of thousands of participants.
Why Your Voice Matters
Mental Health Nurses bring a unique combination of clinical training, therapeutic skill, disability literacy, and recovery-oriented practice.
Yet without accurate recognition within the NDIS, our contribution remains undervalued and often misunderstood.
The Annual Pricing Review is one of the few opportunities each year to influence how our work is categorised and funded.
If you are a Mental Health Nurse working in any NDIS setting — private practice, psychosocial teams, community mental health, or telehealth — your submission matters.
Even a short response helps demonstrate the scale and consistency of the issue.
👉 Have your say:
NDIS Annual Pricing Review Survey
https://lnkd.in/gCaDxxJu
Together, we can advocate for a pricing structure that reflects the real work we do — and ensures that participants continue to receive skilled, meaningful, therapeutic mental health support.
