Your NDIS Psychology Funding has been Reduced — Here's the Work-Around.
Find an occupational therapist who specialises in mental health.
If your psychology sessions are running out faster than they used to, you're not imagining it. Nobody announced a psychology cut. It's happening quietly, through a price rise and a rule planners are leaning on harder than ever. Together they take a real chunk out of the hours your plan has for psychology.
There's a legitimate way to get most of those hours back: a mental health occupational therapist.
What actually changed
On 1 July 2026 the NDIS price limit for psychology rose from $232.99 to $252.99 an hour. Occupational therapy stayed at $193.99.
Why OT fits the NDIS rules better
The NDIS doesn't pay for psychology to treat mental health. Assessment, diagnosis, monitoring and therapy aimed at reducing symptoms are the health system's job: state and territory public mental health services, plus Medicare through Better Access. NDIS psychology is only meant to build your functional capacity because of your disability.
With the NDIS under orders to cut budgets, that rule has become the easiest way to trim a plan, and psychology is the obvious target. A planner calls your sessions treatment, points you to Medicare, and the line shrinks or disappears. We covered how that's playing out in The NDIS Is Using Mental Health to Reduce Funding.
Occupational therapy is built around function: routines, daily living, work, sensory regulation, getting out of the house. That's exactly what capacity building is meant to pay for, so an OT's goals and reports line up with how planners assess. With NDIS eligibility moving to a functional capacity model, that matters more, not less.
What a mental health OT is, and what they're qualified in
Every OT in Australia holds a degree in occupational therapy (a four-year bachelor's or a master's) and is registered with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia through AHPRA.
Here's the catch. "Mental health OT" isn't a protected title. No extra qualification is required for an OT to work in mental health, so anyone can say they specialise in it.
The credential that means something is Occupational Therapy Australia Mental Health Endorsement. To hold it, an OT needs:
current AHPRA registration
Occupational Therapy Australia membership
at least two years' full-time-equivalent supervised mental health experience, including six months in the last five years
10 hours of mental health professional development every year
ongoing professional supervision
Endorsed OTs can register with Medicare to deliver Focussed Psychological Strategies under Better Access. That's the same Medicare stream registered psychologists and mental health social workers use.
What they can and can't do
What they can do
Endorsed mental health OTs deliver Focussed Psychological Strategies, which cover:
psychoeducation, including motivational interviewing
cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
relaxation strategies
skills training: problem-solving, stress and anger management, social skills, communication
interpersonal therapy
EMDR, which is on the current list, though not every OT is trained in it
On top of that they bring the OT toolkit: sensory profiles and regulation plans, routine and task design, home and workplace adjustments, and functional capacity assessments. That last one is exactly the evidence the NDIS is moving towards.
What they can't do
Diagnose you. That stays with psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors.
Prescribe medication.
Replace specialist trauma therapy unless they've trained for it. Some hold postgraduate psychotherapy qualifications. Many don't. Ask.
How to make it work
Split the job across two funders. Medicare Better Access covers clinical treatment: a mental health treatment plan from your GP gets you up to 10 individual sessions a year with a psychologist or an endorsed OT. Your NDIS budget then pays an OT to work on function. You can't claim the same session from both.
Check the endorsement. Search Occupational Therapy Australia's Find an OT directory, then ask directly whether they hold OTA Mental Health Endorsement.
Ask before you book:
Do you work with autistic and ADHD adults?
Which psychological strategies do you use?
What's your hourly rate? $193.99 is a ceiling, not a set price.
Do you charge travel, and do you offer telehealth?
Are you NDIS registered? This only matters if your plan is agency-managed, where you can only use registered providers.
Write functional goals. Frame them around what you can't do yet, not symptoms. "Get through a full work week without shutting down" survives a plan review. "Reduce anxiety" invites a planner to call it treatment.
Make the strategies stick
An OT will build you systems: visual schedules, timers, routines, sensory plans. They only work if you use them between sessions.
The Wired Differently shop stocks practical organisational aids built for neurodivergent adults, and our body doubling sessions give you somewhere to actually practise the routines your OT sets.
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