This joint submission from QAMH, Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Queensland (MHLEPQ) and ARAFMI (Queensland) welcomes the Australian Government’s commitment to strengthening safeguards for people with psychosocial disability, including those who move between NDIS and non-NDIS supports. Effective safeguarding must reflect the realities of psychosocial disability, including trauma, fluctuating needs, and reliance on trusted, community-based relationships.
Current approaches focus heavily on compliance and risk prevention but often overlook what people value most: relational safety, cultural security, continuity of support, and meaningful outcomes such as improved wellbeing and reduced crises. Accountability remains uneven across the system, with inconsistent oversight of registered and unregistered providers, and limited recognition of NDIA decision-making as a safeguarding issue when essential supports are withdrawn or denied.
The submission calls for a unified, rights-based framework that applies beyond health to housing, education and justice, strengthens proportionate oversight, avoids duplication for providers, and is backed by funding that reflects the true cost of delivering quality psychosocial support.
