Where the form fits in your application
To apply for the NDIS you make an access request, usually using the access request form. The NDIA then needs evidence of your disability. Your treating professional can provide it in several ways:
- Completing the treating professional section of the access request form
- Completing the separate supporting evidence form
- Completing the evidence of psychosocial disability form, for mental health conditions
- Sending existing reports, assessments or letters that already cover the same information
Who should complete it
The NDIA asks for evidence from the treating professional most appropriate to your main disability. It should be someone registered to practise in Australia or New Zealand who has treated you for at least 6 months and has seen you recently.
That could be your GP, paediatrician, psychiatrist, neurologist, psychologist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist or physiotherapist. You can include evidence from more than one professional, and it often helps when your needs cross several areas.
What the professional needs to describe
The evidence has to line up with the NDIS access criteria. A strong form covers:
- Your diagnosis and the impairment it causes
- Whether the impairment is permanent or likely to be permanent
- Treatments you have tried, how long for, and the outcome
- Whether further treatment is likely to remedy the impairment
- How the impairment affects communication, social interaction, learning, mobility, self care and self management, with specific examples
- The help you need, how often, and what happens without it
Tips to make your evidence count
- Book a long appointment so there is time to talk it through
- Bring notes about your hard days, not just your average ones
- Ask the professional to use specific examples rather than general words like moderate or some difficulty
- Include results of any standardised assessments, such as WHODAS 2.0, Vineland-3 or PEDI-CAT
- If your condition is on List A, make sure the form confirms the diagnosis and its level, for example the autism level or GMFCS level
- Read it before it is sent and check nothing important is missing
Sending it and what happens next
You can send the form with your access request, or after it. The NDIA may ask for more information. If it does, you generally have 90 days to provide it, or longer if the request says so, otherwise your access request can be treated as withdrawn.
A support coordinator, local area coordinator or early childhood partner can help you put the request and evidence together.
Evidence and the 2028 changes
From 1 January 2028 NDIS access will be based on a standardised assessment of functional capacity. Evidence from your treating professionals, particularly your diagnosis and treatment history, will still matter, because permanence will consider whether appropriate treatment has been tried. Until then, the current forms and rules apply.