ChatGPT seems the talk of the town at the moment. You can not seem to access the internet without learning something about ChatGPT so if you haven’t heard about it that means you have probably been living under a rock. At first ChatGPT was sen as a big hairy monster that was going to make all human beings redundant but let me assure, especially if you are in the disability sector, ChatGPT is not coming for your job. It will however help alleviate some of the back log in the NDIS system. How you ask? Well, with 1.2 million Australians struggling to communicate their message effectively, due to the nature of their disability, and with 44% of Australian adults said to have low literacy skills, lets explore some of the ways that ChatGPT can help make the NDIS more efficient and productive for everyone.
ChatGPT is simply another form of AI (Artificial Intelligence) which humans have been using since the advent of smart phones.Think Siri and Alexa. ChatGPT is simply taking Siri and Alexa to a whole new level and as is human nature with anything new our nervous system goes into fight or flight resulting in information overload as our brain starts trying to process the billions of issues this technology can solve, problems we secretly love most of the time because it feels safe. But stop and think for a minute, we as humans often complain about time, which is a finite resource, but we have been gift a technology, compliments of Elon Musk and others that now gives us back the very thing we claim we dont have enough of, TIME. How so you ask, well lets explore some of the things that ChatGPT is capable of
There are reports of educational institutions around the world going out of their minds because ChatGPT can expand on short sentence. Improve on text and emails as well. Even help write a complaint letter or open job opportunities. But, is this a bad thing? After all, garbage in garbage out. ChatGPT is only as smart as the information you give it which means it still relies on critical thinking.
So, how does this all translate to the NDIS space? Well, there are all sorts of ways NDIS Providers could use ChatGPT to make their work and workplace more efficient and if they are more efficient they can help more participants more effectively then maybe we may not have such a supply and demand issue. Maybe agencies could use it to produce training manuals, cutting down on training costs and thus having better prepare and qualified staff. Agencies and participants could use ChatGPT to generate quality questions to ask in interviews so that participants get the carers who are most qualified and appropriate for their needs. With disability care at times being a complex critical situation that needs action 10 minutes ago, why are we not using tools at our disposal like ChatGPT to give instant answers? I hear everyday of agencies spending way too much time on compliance report and audits, this is time that can and should be spent servicing clients with high quality care and now that is possible with the ability for ChatGPT to write reports, case notes, and service agreements. Stuck for ideas and ways to help clients achieve their goals? Just ask ChatGPT. With the availability and capability of ChatGPT I can not see any conceivable reason why there are so many issues within the NDIS. The only issue ChatGPT is not yet capable of solving is the massive financial issue and budget short fall within the NDIS but i say watch this space, especially when we already have smartphones, smart TV’s, Smart fridges, Autonomous cars and now ChatGPT anything is possible but for now we still need funding and we still need people who are trained to care.