The Neuro Nest

08/10/2025

Be sure to come by and say Hi!!

11/09/2025

🌼 Today is R U OK? Day 🌼
At The Neuro Nest, we know that mental health and neurodiversity journeys can have unique ups and downs. That’s why we believe that checking in with one another matters, today and always.

A simple, genuine question, “Are you OK?” can spark conversations that provide comfort, understanding, and connection. Life’s challenges aren’t always visible, so taking a moment to ask, listen, and care can make a world of difference.

How you can help every day:
✨ Ask with kindness and without judgment
✨ Listen with empathy
✨ Encourage action or support when needed
✨ Follow up and keep the conversation going

Let’s make R U OK? Day a reminder that supporting each other isn’t just for one day a year. Together, we can create a safe and inclusive space where everyone feels heard, valued, and understood, today and every day. 💛

Need support?
📞 Lifeline 13 11 14
📞 Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
🌐 www.ruok.org.au

10/09/2025

In late 2024, the NDIA commissioned an independent review of music and art therapy.

This review found music and art therapy can be effective and beneficial.

The NDIA fund these therapies when:

✔️ There is strong evidence they help people with similar disability related needs and goals.

✔️ They are delivered by a qualified therapist, registered with a recognised professional association.

✔️ The therapy aims to improve or maintain a participant’s function in areas like emotional regulation, communication, or social skills.

The review also found the current hourly rate of $193.99 is too high, with participants paying more on average than people outside the Scheme. In November, a more appropriate rate of $156.16 will be introduced. This aligns with the counselling rate.

Learn more about the outcomes of the independent review at 💻 https://ow.ly/Bryv50WUj1Q

21/08/2025

OPEN LETTER: Minister Butler — Autism Is Not Mild, Temporary or Negotiable. Yesterday, you betrayed our children.

Dear Minister Butler,

Yesterday at the National Press Club, you told the nation that too many autistic children are on the NDIS. You called their supports “overservicing.” You spoke about “mild to moderate autism.” And you suggested autism is “not a permanent disability.”

These words were not just wrong they were discriminatory, harmful, and a betrayal of every autistic child and family.

Autism is lifelong. There is no such thing as “mild autism.” These labels are political inventions, designed to justify stripping children from the NDIS. Children do not stop needing therapy because the government needs to save money. To suggest otherwise is not policy, it is cruelty.

You announced Thriving Kids as the alternative, backed by $2 billion and built on behaviour programs like Inklings programs already rejected by the autistic community as unsafe, compliance-based, and damaging. Families are being told to trust an untested scheme, with no detail, no transparency, and no guarantee that their children will have access to therapies, trusted providers, or meaningful supports.

Let’s be clear: this has been done without input from autistic people, parents, or disability-led organisations. Once again, decisions are being made about our lives, without us. That is not co-design, it is exclusion.

Minister, Australia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This commits you to:
• Closely consult with and actively involve disabled people in policy decisions (Article 4.3).
• Ensure disabled children enjoy all human rights equally (Article 7).
• Protect children from medical or scientific experimentation without free consent (Article 15).
• Guarantee respect for physical and mental integrity (Article 17).
• Ensure health interventions are based on free and informed consent (Article 25).

You have ignored these obligations. Thriving Kids is being built behind closed doors, without consent, without transparency, and without autistic leadership. That is a direct breach of international law and a direct assault on the rights of children.

Here is what your cuts mean in reality:
• Children will lose speech therapy, OT, and psychology.
• Families will lose choice and control, forced back into broken state systems that already fail.
• Mothers will be driven from the workforce into poverty, forced to homeschool and care without support.
• Autistic children will regress, mask, burn out, and suffer long-term harm all to balance a budget.

Minister Butler, you are dismantling the NDIS. You are punishing children and parents for your government’s failure to properly fund mainstream services. And you are doing it with language that demeans and dismisses us.

Autism is not temporary. Autism is not mild. Our children are not “overserviced.” They are human beings with dignity, rights, and futures worth investing in.

Hope in Colour Advocacy will not stay silent while you trample those rights. We will fight, we will organise, and we will hold you accountable.

History will not remember you for $46 billion in “savings.” It will remember that under your watch, autistic children were abandoned, silenced, and stripped of the supports they were promised for life.

We call on these leaders and organisations to stand with us and demand answers:
Mark Butler MP
Anthony Albanese
Amanda Rishworth MP
Senator Jordon Steele-John
Dr Monique Ryan
Lauren Kathage MP
Rob Mitchell MP - Federal Labor Member for McEwen
Australian Labor Party
Gerard Rennick People First Party
The Australian Greens
Children and Young People with Disability Australia
Every Australian Counts
Yellow Ladybugs
Regional Autistic Engagement Network
Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association - ANPA
People with Disability Australia
People First Victoria
Aspect - Autism Spectrum Australia
Autism Goals ASD School Advocates
Autism Awareness Australia
Reframing Autism
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

ABC Australia
The Guardian
Herald Sun
Women's Agenda
A Current Affair
7NEWS Australia
9 News
Guardian Australia
The Australian
The Age

Sincerely,
Shanntelle Marks
Founder | Hope in Colour Advocacy

21/08/2025

Open letter to Mark Butler

20/08/2025

It’s not school refusal , it’s School Can’t. 🌱
For many neurodivergent kids, the expectations of school are bigger than the enjoyment they get from it. They want to learn and be with friends, but the environment makes it hard. Miss DivergAntz explains it in this video

Check out Miss DivergAntz’s video.

19/08/2025

🌟 Exciting Opportunity! 🌟
We’re on the look out for a Junior Assistant / Allied Health Assistant Trainee to join our team at The Neuro Nest! 🌱

This is an entry-level role, perfect if you’re starting out and want to:
✅ Support therapists during fun, creative sessions
✅ Join in activities with children and young people
✅ Learn and grow in a supportive, neuroaffirming team

No experience needed, just kindness, enthusiasm, commitment and a willingness to learn 💚

👉 Apply now and find your passion, your people, and your place with us: https://www.seek.com.au/job/86573686?ref=cm-ui

08/08/2025

🎉🧠 IT’S HERE! The Neuro Nest's Official Website! 🐣🌈
We’re SO excited to spread our wings and welcome you to the brand NEW Neuro Nest website! 🎉✨

This isn’t just a website; it’s the start of something magical 🪄... a cozy, empowering, inclusive community hub for neurodivergent minds and kindred spirits to connect, grow, and thrive together. 💬💡💜

🌟 What can you find right now? A peek into what The Neuro Nest is all about, who we are and what we do.

And guess what? We’re just getting started!
More pages, tools, and surprises are on the way built to support and celebrate YOU.

Explore now: www.the-neuro-nest.com.au

Let’s build something bold, brilliant, and beautifully neurodivergent. 🧠💥

Welcome to The Neuro Nest Come find your play, your people, and your place. The Neuro Nest is a nurturing, neuroaffirming haven designed specifically for neurodivergent children, teens, and young adults. Whether you're here for connection, creativity, skill-building, or simply to feel seen and under...

08/07/2025

🖤💛❤️ NAIDOC Week 2025 ❤️💛🖤
The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy

At The Neuro Nest, we’re proud to celebrate 50 years of NAIDOC honouring the rich culture, wisdom, and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This year’s theme, “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy,” deeply resonates with our mission to nurture and empower young minds. We honour the strength of First Nations Elders who have paved the way, the vision of community leaders who continue to inspire, and the legacy being carried forward by the next generation, our future change-makers, creatives, carers, and culture-keepers.

🌱 At the Nest, we believe in creating a space where all children and young people feel safe, valued, and celebrated for who they are. As we recognise NAIDOC Week, we also reflect on the importance of cultural identity, connection to community, and the powerful role young people play in shaping a more inclusive and just future.

Together, we walk gently and proudly, led by the wisdom of the past, grounded in the present, and inspired by the bright future ahead.

Come find your play, your people, and your place at The Neuro Nest.

30/06/2025

🌈 Our Neurodivergent Community Deserves Better


At The Neuro Nest, we’re not just a service, we’re a safe space, a second home, and a support network for neurodivergent children, young adults, and their families.

But right now, the future of services like ours is uncertain.

🚫 Ongoing price freezes
🚫 Unsustainable funding models
🚫 Increased pressure on therapists and support teams
🚫 Fewer options for families who already face too many barriers

These aren’t just policy changes, they’re personal.

They affect the little ones who finally feel safe to be themselves.
They affect teens learning to self-advocate.
They affect parents trying to hold it all together.

💛 The system is being stretched, and it’s our Nesties, and the people who support them , who feel it most.

We’re raising our voices to say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Our supports matter. Our kids matter. Our future matters.

🗣️ We need your voice too.

📢 Share this post
📢 Tell your story
📢 Tag the people who need to hear it

Let’s show them what it means to protect spaces that empower, uplift, and truly understand neurodivergent people.

⸻

Tag these decision-makers and use your voice to help us be heard:

LinkedIn:
Disability Insurance Agency Fearnley Butler McAllister Ruston Steele-John

Facebook:
NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme Kurt Fearnley Mark Butler MP Jenny McAllister Senator Anne Ruston Senator Jordon Steele-John

Instagram:


X (Twitter):


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27/05/2025

🌟 We’re on the hunt for a creative, neuro-affirming Occupational Therapist to join our incredible team at The Neuro Nest! 🐣🧠

At The Neuro Nest, we're not your typical clinic, and we're not looking for a typical therapist!

We’re a purpose-driven space designed for neurodivergent children, teens, and young adults to explore their interests, connect with others, and thrive in their own unique way. 💫

This permanent part-time role is anything but ordinary; think sensory play, connection over correction, and a space where therapy looks a little more like fun than formality.

✨ A role full of purpose, play and possibility
✨ Work alongside a warm and passionate team
✨ Bring your OT magic to a space that values joy, curiosity, and authenticity

Ready to find your people, your play, and your purpose?

Learn more and apply at https://www.seek.com.au/job/84494075?ref=hirer-jobs-list

26/05/2025

❤️💛🖤 National Reconciliation Week 2025
🌱 Bridging Now to Next | 27 May – 3 June

At The Neuro Nest, we acknowledge the Worimi peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land where we play, learn, and grow.

Bridging Now to Next speaks to the future we’re building, one where neurodivergent identities and First Nations voices are respected, celebrated, and empowered.

Through connection, curiosity, and care, we commit to fostering culturally safe spaces where every young person feels a sense of belonging. Reconciliation lives in the small moments, how we listen, how we speak, how we walk beside one another.

Together, we’re creating a nest that holds all stories.