About The National Assistance Card
The National Assistance Card is a personalised Card to assist people with disability and health conditions in the community.
Who is the National Assistance Card for?
The National Assistance Card is currently available to people living with brain injury in Australia and autistic people in Tasmania. Following the successful Tasmanian trial, the National Assistance Card will be launched nationwide for the autistic community in early 2025.
We’re currently welcoming expressions of interest (EOI) from autistic applicants who live outside Tasmania. Submit your EOI here.
The National Assistance Card Service hope that, in the future, the National Assistance Card will be available to all people in Australia with disability and health conditions.
There are no age restrictions for applying for the National Assistance Card.
The Card is available to children and adults.
Can I include other disabilities and health conditions on my Card?
We know that some people have more than one disability or health condition, some of these can be listed on the card too.
People in Australia with brain injury who also have a diagnosis for autism, epilepsy, intellectual disability, and/or mental illness, can include these on their Card.
In Tasmania autistic people who also have a diagnosis for brain injury, epilepsy, intellectual disability and/or mental illness, can include these on their Card.
People have the option of including other disabilities and health conditions in the additional information (QR Code) section of their application.
Why do I need to provide supporting medical documents with my application?
To ensure the success of the National Assistance Card as a community service it is important the cardholder’s disability and/or health condition has been professionally verified.
As part of the application, people must provide medical documentation to verify any disability or health condition they choose to list on their Card.
The documents must be from a medical or allied health professional and need to include the applicant's name and disability or health condition diagnosis. The documents do not need to go into detail.
We accept letters, reports, and certificates from the following professionals:
- General practitioner (GP)
- Medical specialist (for example, neurologist)
- Clinical neuropsychologist or psychologist
- Allied health practitioner (for example a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist).
A scan or photo of the document can be uploaded directly to the application, or you can email or post the document to the National Assistance Card Service.
Important things to know about brain injury
- Brain injury is defined as any damage or injury to the brain, occurring after birth, resulting in ongoing impairments. (The definition also includes Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder which is brain damage caused by alcohol exposure before birth).
- Common causes of brain injury include motor vehicle crashes, assaults, sporting accidents, stroke, lack of oxygen to the brain, brain tumours and degenerative neurological conditions.
- The ongoing impairments a person may have could be physical, cognitive, emotional and/or behavioural.
- Many of the effects of brain injury are not visible; this doesn’t make the impacts any less real.
- The effects of brain injury are different for each person.
Important things to know about autism
- Autism is a neurological and developmental condition that occurs when the brain develops differently.
- Autism affects the way people sense, communicate, behave and interact with the world.
- While there are some common autistic traits, people experience autism in different ways.
- All, some, or none of a person's autistic traits may be obvious to others or only noticeable in difficult settings.