When the NDIS funds epilepsy support
The NDIS supports list includes disability related health supports, which explicitly cover supports, services and assistive products to manage seizures. The NDIS funds them when they relate to your disability, for example when an intellectual disability, brain injury or other impairment means you cannot recognise, monitor or respond to your own seizures.
If epilepsy is your only condition and you can manage it with treatment, your support usually comes from the health system rather than the NDIS.
What the NDIS may fund
- Training for support workers to follow your Epilepsy Management Plan (EMP)
- Training for workers to follow your Emergency Medication Management Plan (EMMP), if you need emergency medication during a seizure
- A support worker to monitor your seizures and respond when they happen
- A nurse to monitor seizures if you have complex health and disability needs
- Assistive technology such as a seizure monitor alarm, a bed seizure mat or an oximeter
- Support coordination in some circumstances
Getting seizure equipment funded
The NDIS only funds epilepsy assistive technology when your evidence shows it will reduce your need for other supports or help you be more independent, that mainstream health services do not fund it, and that you need it because of your disability.
For example, a bed sensor that alerts someone during a night seizure may be cheaper and less intrusive than a worker sitting up all night. Ask your neurologist, epilepsy nurse or occupational therapist to explain this in their report.
What the health system covers
Diagnosis, specialist neurology, tests such as EEGs, hospital care and medicines are health system responsibilities. Your Epilepsy Management Plan is usually prepared with your doctor or epilepsy nurse. The NDIS funds the disability supports that put that plan into action in everyday life.
Training and standards for workers
The NDIS Commission publishes an epilepsy and seizure support skills descriptor as extra guidance for providers. Epilepsy support is not one of the eight formal high intensity daily personal activities, but the descriptor sets similar expectations.
Workers should understand your seizure types, patterns and triggers, the signs before and after a seizure, how to record seizures, how to give emergency medication if your plan requires it, and how to use any seizure monitors. Training should come from a health practitioner with epilepsy expertise or a person who meets the descriptor. The Commission recommends reviewing worker skills every year, and before supporting you again after more than three months away or a change to your plan.
Cost and the high intensity price
The high intensity support worker price applies when a worker needs the skills in the Commission's high intensity module. For 2026/27 that is $79.60 an hour for weekday daytime self care, compared with $73.58 at the standard level, in most of Australia. Because epilepsy support is not one of the eight high intensity activities on its own, ask your provider which price level they will charge and why.
Disability related health supports are protected from the October 2026 funding reset, so the 50% and 10% reductions do not apply to them.
Questions to ask a provider
- Will every worker read and be trained on my Epilepsy Management Plan before they start?
- Who delivers the training, and is it specific to me?
- Are your workers trained to give my emergency medication?
- How do you record seizures and share that with my doctor?
- Who covers overnight if I need monitoring while I sleep?