Mental health
Psychosocial disability support services
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Key points
In the year ending 30 June 2025:
People with a primary psychosocial disability (about 65,300 participants or 9% of all NDIS participants) formed the fourth largest primary disability group in the NDIS.
$5.7 billion of paid supports were provided to NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability, with an average annual payment of $88,700 per participant.
Among all age groups, people aged 55–64 years had the highest rate (per 100,000 population) of inclusion in the NDIS as participants with a primary psychosocial disability (550).
Mental illness, and in particular severe mental illness, is a significant cause of disability. The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024 found that mental and substance use disorders were the leading cause of years lived with disability (YLD) (AIHW 2024a). Mental illness can vary in severity and be episodic or persistent in nature. According to the 2020–2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, an estimated 6% of Australians have mental illness that can be classified as severe (see ABS 2023).
For some Australians with severe mental illness their condition constitutes a psychosocial disability – and they can experience challenges with communication and social inclusion, finding suitable housing and employment and maintaining physical health (Tune 2019). Disability support services are critical in assisting people with a psychosocial disability to overcome functional limitations (for example, with communication, daily living or self-care) and facilitating full and equal participation in the community.
This section presents information on specialist disability support services provided under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to participants with a psychosocial disability as their primary disability. The NDIS (also referred to in this report as ‘the Scheme') sets out to provide Australians who have a permanent and significant disability with funding for supports and services. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) is an independent statutory agency whose role is to implement the NDIS. This section also includes information on employment services provided by Disability Employment Services (DES) for people with a psychiatric disability as their primary disability. Please note that DES program uses the term psychiatric rather than psychosocial.
Spotlight data
Psychosocial primary disability NDIS participants, headline numbers and measures of participation by demographic characteristics, 30 June 2025
Figure showing headline data for NDIS participants with a psychosocial disability, and rates of participation in the NDIS for key demographic categories as at 30 June 2025.
Source: NDIA Psychosocial data to 30 June 2025; AIHW analysis of NDIA Psychosocial data to 30 June 2025
The 2019 review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act) commissioned by the Australian Government (commonly referred to as the Tune Review) affirmed the NDIS delivery response works well in general for adults with physical disability but singled out people with psychosocial disabilities as a group for whom the provision of services had been challenging. Among several findings relating to the NDIS delivery response to people with psychosocial disabilities, the Tune Review found that legislated requirements in relation to permanent impairment for the purposes of eligibility had created particular challenges for people with psychosocial disabilities (Tune 2019).
In December 2021, following consultation with participants, families, carers, peak bodies, service providers, clinical mental health services, state and territory governments and NDIA staff, the NDIS Psychosocial Disability Recovery-Oriented Framework (Recovery Framework) was endorsed by Disability Ministers and released. The Recovery Framework sets out six principles and a series of high-level implementation strategies designed to improve the experience of participants with psychosocial disability in the NDIS (NDIA 2024).
In March 2022, parliament passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2022 to amend the NDIS Act. The Bill reflects certain recommendations from the Tune Review including clarifications on the eligibility of people with psychosocial disability, such that impairments that are episodic or fluctuating in nature may be taken to be permanent.
In December 2023, the Independent NDIS Review recommended new approaches within the NDIS to psychosocial disability and mental health. The Review recommended a new and dedicated approach to people with psychosocial disability that better meets needs associated with the episodic nature of mental illness and which is focussed on personal recovery. Beyond the NDIS, the review also recommended broader reforms in the mental health system to better support people with severe mental illness.
Participation and access to the NDIS
As at 30 June 2025, people with a Psychosocial disability as their primary disability formed the fourth largest primary disability group among NDIS participants (almost 9%), after Autism (40%) and Intellectual disability (13%) and Developmental delay (11%) (NDIA 2025a). At this time there were about 65,300 people with a primary psychosocial disability who were active participants with an approved plan under the NDIS.
In the year ending 30 June 2025, 25% of NDIS applicants who applied to participate due to psychosocial disability were granted access to the scheme (compared with 80% across the Scheme as a whole). This is a decrease from 40% of psychosocial disability applicants gaining access to the scheme in the year ending 30 September 2023 (compared with 77% across the Scheme as a whole).
Characteristics of NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability
As at 30 June 2025, the highest population rates of inclusion in the NDIS for participants with a primary psychosocial disability was among people aged 45–54 years (533 per 100,000 population) and 55–64 years (550). The lowest rates were among people who were 18 years old or younger.
Males had a marginally higher participation rate than females (245 per 100,000 population compared with 230) (Figure PDSS.Spotlight).
As at 30 June 2025, about 9% of NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (First Nations). The population rate of First Nations participants with a primary psychosocial disability was almost 3 times that of non-Indigenous Australians (553 people per 100,000 population compared with 194). Across the NDIS as a whole, the rate of First nations participants was about two and a half times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians (5,824 compared with 2,210) (Figure PDSS.Spotlight).
As at 30 June 2025, about 13% of NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability identified as being from a culturally or linguistically diverse background (CALD). The population rate of NDIS participants who identify as CALD (132 per 100,000 population) was half that of those who do not (263) (Figure PDSS.Spotlight). Note that participants who identify as First Nations are not counted as CALD to align with NDIA quarterly reporting.
Whilst almost three quarters of NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability (72%) usually reside in Major cities as at 30 June 2025, the remoteness area with the highest population rate of participation was Large rural towns with 297 participants per 100,000 population. This broadly mirrors the geographical patterns of participation across the entire Scheme. The lowest rates of participation among NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability were for Remote communities (171) and Small rural towns (178) (Figure PDSS.Spotlight). The NDIA uses the Modified Monash Model to classify geographic remoteness – for further information, refer to the data source.
As at 30 June 2025, Victoria had the highest population rate of inclusion in the NDIS for participants with a primary psychosocial disability (293 per 100,000 population), whereas Tasmania (209) and Western Australia (189) had the lowest (Figure PDSS.Spotlight).
NDIS funding for supports
In 2024–25, over $5.7 billion in supports was paid to NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability, an 9% increase from 2023–24 ($5.3 billion).
The average payment per participant with a primary psychosocial disability in 2024–25 was $88,700. This is about 35% higher than the average across all NDIS participants ($65,800) and a 7% increase from 2023–24 ($83,100).
Outcomes
Eighty-one per cent of NDIS participants aged 15 years and over with a primary psychosocial disability reported they felt the NDIS had helped them have more choices and control in their life at their most recent assessment. This is compared with 69% at first reassessment after entry to the Scheme and 81% of participants across the NDIS as a whole.
Eleven per cent of NDIS participants aged 15–64 years with a primary psychosocial disability reported having a paid job at their most recent assessment, compared with 10% at entry to the Scheme and 23% across the NDIS (Table PDSS.1). For more information about NDIS outcomes and the surveys through which outcomes data are collected, view NDIS Participant and Families/Carers Outcomes Reports.
Indicator description | Baseline or first reassessment % | Most recent reassessment % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosocial primary | Psychosocial primary | All NDIS |
% of families or carers who are in a paid job | 39 | 37 | 53 |
% of those aged 15 and over who have been actively involved in a community, cultural or religious group in the last 12 months | 26 | 30 | 41 |
% of those aged 15–64 who have a paid job | 10 | 11 | 23 |
% of those aged 15 and over who feel the NDIS helped them have more choices and more control over their life | 69 | 81 | 81 |
Source: NDIA 2025
Employment services for people with a psychiatric disability
Employment and financial security are important for improving outcomes for people with disability. In 2022, the Survey of Disability and Carers found an unemployment gap of 11 percentage points for people with a psychosocial disability and those without disability, the highest gap among all disability groups surveyed (AIHW 2024b).
Disability Employment Services (DES) help people with disabilities find and maintain employment. DES are not part of the NDIS and are operated by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS). Supports greater than what may be reasonably provided by an employer or the provisions of the DES are able to be funded by the NDIS (NDIA 2025b). As at 31 March 2025, 59% of working NDIS participants with a primary psychosocial disability reported getting the support they needed to do their job (AIHW 2025a).
In 2024–25, Psychiatric disability was the primary disability category with the largest proportion of valid 52-week full outcome claims for employment submitted to DES (41%), followed by Physical disability (37%) and Autism (7.1%) (AIHW 2025b). For more information about this measure, refer to Australia’s disability strategy 2021–23, Disability employment services.
As at 30 June 2025, 11% of NDIS participants aged 15–64 years with a primary psychosocial disability reported having a paid job at their most recent assessment.
For more information on employment-related outcomes for people with psychosocial disability, view Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–31, Employment and Financial Security.
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The NDIS began operating at trial sites in July 2013, and from July 2016 it began transitioning to the full scheme. On 1 July 2020, Christmas Island and Cocos Island joined the NDIS, thus almost completing the staged role out of the Scheme.
Except for Disability Employment Services (DES), the NDIS has largely replaced disability support services provided under the National Disability Agreement (NDA). Data were last collected under the NDA in the Disability Services National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) in 2018–19. The transition of disability support service users from the NDA to the NDIS effected a gradual reduction in data collection under the NDA between 2013 and final collection in 2019.
The NDIA collects data pertaining to the NDIS and publishes online quarterly reports (NDIA 2025).
Remoteness areas of usual residence
NDIA uses Modified Monash Model (MMM) categories to assign remoteness areas of usual residence. The MMM classifies metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas according to geographical remoteness, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and town size. The MMM remoteness categories are defined as follows including the Australian Geography Standard – Remoteness Area (2016):
MM 1: Metropolitan areas –Major cities accounting for 70% of Australia’s population
All areas categorised ASGS-RA1.
MM 2: Regional centres –Inner (ASGS-RA 2) and Outer Regional (ASGS-RA 3) areas that are in, or within a 20km drive of a town with over 50,000 residents. For example: Ballarat, Mackay, Toowoomba, Kiama, Albury, Bunbury.
MM 3: Large rural towns – Inner (ASGS-RA 2) and Outer Regional (ASGS-RA 3) areas that are not MM 2 and are in, or within a 15km drive of a town between 15,000 to 50,000 residents. For example: Dubbo, Lismore, Yeppoon, Busselton.
MM 4: Medium rural towns – Inner (ASGS-RA 2) and Outer Regional (ASGS-RA 3) areas that are not MM 2 or MM 3, and are in, or within a 10km drive of a town with between 5,000 to 15,000 residents. For example: Port Augusta, Charters Towers, Moree.
MM 5: Small rural towns – All remaining Inner (ASGS-RA 2) and Outer Regional (ASGS-RA 3) areas. For example: Mount Buller, Moruya, Renmark, Condamine.
MM 6: Remote communities – Remote mainland areas (ASGS-RA 4) AND remote islands less than 5kms offshore. For example: Cape Tribulation, Lightning Ridge, Alice Springs, Mallacoota, Port Hedland. Additionally, islands that have an MM 5 classification with a population of less than 1,000 without bridges to the mainland will now be classified as MM 6 for example: Bruny Island.
MM 7: Very remote communities – Very remote areas (ASGS-RA 5). For example: Longreach, Coober Pedy, Thursday Island and all other remote island areas more than 5kms offshore.
For more information on geographic remoteness categories using the MMM refer to the Modified Monash Model fact sheet.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2023) National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020–2022, ABS Australian Government, accessed 19 January 2026.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2024) Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024 AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 19 January 2026.
AIHW (2024b) Australia’s disability strategy 2021–2031, Unemployment gap, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 19 January 2026.
AIHW (2025a) Australia’s disability strategy 2021–31, NDIS participants job support, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 19 January 2026.
AIHW (2025b) Australia’s disability strategy 2021–2031, Disability employment services, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 19 January 2026.
COAG (Council of Australian Governments) (2011) 2010-2020 National Disability Strategy, Canberra: COAG, accessed 19 January 2026.
NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) (2024) NDIS: Psychosocial Disability Recovery-Oriented Framework, NDIA, accessed 19 January 2026.
NDIA (2025a) NDIS: Quarterly report to disability ministers, 30 June 2025, Q4 2024–25, NDIA, accessed 19 January 2026.
NDIA (2025b) NDIS: Supports in employment, NDIA, accessed 19 January 2026.
Tune D (2019) Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013: Removing red tape and implementing the NDIS Participant Service Guarantee, Report to the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, accessed 19 January 2026.
Unless otherwise specified, data coverage for the NDIS applies to the final quarter of the 2024–25 financial year.