TO PAY FOR PSYCHICS

PSYCHIC healing, tarot cards, sound baths and crystal wand making are being offered to people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The treatments range in cost but contribute to the annual $35.8 billion NDIS bill.

Our investigation has found multiple businesses – some officially registered on the NDIS and audited – are providing a range of alternative therapies funded by the taxpayer.

Many are provided under the category of Innovative Community Participation, which has no price limits on what people can charge.

The NDIS guidelines state services provided have to be “reasonable and necessary”, related to someone’s disability, represent value for money and must be likely to be effective and work for the participant.

But there’s no definitive list of which therapies are allowed and which ones are not, leaving it open to interpretation.

One sector insider, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s basically a pub test and no-one is checking”.

A psychic medium, who offers NDIS clients “a new pathway to wellness through a variety of spiritual care services” said she has done everything by the book.

She paid $3000 through a third party to help her register as an NDIS provider and passed an audit, which cost her a further $850.

She said as a qualified holistic counsellor she uses a combination of psychic healing, tarot cards, crystals, runes, chakra, meditation and role play to help her NDIS clients, for $95 an hour.

She said someone made a complaint in December after seeing one of her business leaflets and the NDIS watchdog said she could carry on.

On Friday, the woman said she learned of another complaint and had “made my flyer clearer – holistic counselling and meditation can only be claimed under the NDIS”.

We found many other businesses offering similar services on the NDIS, including sound baths, which is a meditative experience where participants are “bathed” in sound waves.

Another business offers a $295 “NDIS supported workshop” making crystal wands.

The course host said crystals are “conductors and emitters of energy so they make you feel good”.

The woman behind the established business said the crystal wand workshop was a form of art therapy and a group social event. She said they have helped hundreds of people on the NDIS.

After we pressed the NDIS watchdog and Minister Bill Shorten’s office several times for clarification on whether services like psychic healing are accepted on the scheme, a spokeswoman for the NDIS said “services such as psychic readings, intuitive readings and psychic healings are not considered reasonable and necessary”.

Mr Shorten said he has asked the National Disability Insurance Agency to “scrutinise” the invoices provided by the psychic healer to make sure they comply and “I thank the media for bringing this to my attention”.