Survey of support coordinators – Essential features of support coordination assistance for pursuing home and living goals

Tags: support coordinator

Description:

The Summer Foundation and the Housing Hub work with hundreds of NDIS participants with complex needs who have goals related to housing. Many report difficulties accessing support coordinators who have the necessary depth of disability housing knowledge and skills. This results in limited opportunities for exploration of suitable housing that reflects participants’ preferences in living arrangement and supports.

Based on this, the Summer Foundation is exploring how support coordinators can improve the quality and consistency of guidance provided to NDIS participants seeking funding for home and living supports, including SDA. In July 2022 it conducted a survey of support coordinators who currently work with participants considering their housing options. Findings from this survey describe the essential features of support coordination enabling NDIS participants to make an informed choice and move into new housing.

Moving to a new home checklist

Tags: disability support, support coordinator

Description:

This checklist is written from the perspective of a person with a disability who is wanting to move to a new home. We know moving is a big task. There are many things to do, and many people may be involved in assisting a person with disability to move to a new home. This form might be completed by the person with disability and/or a trusted person such as a family member or support coordinator

Support coordinators and allied health professionals can learn more about supporting someone to move into a new home by attending our UpSkill workshop on this topic.

Collaborative Support Approach: Working together to help young people leave aged care 

Tags: health professional, residential aged care (RAC), support coordinator

Description:

The Collaborative Support Approach Tool outlines the cooperation between Residential Aged Care staff, Support Coordinators, Allied Health Professionals and other stakeholders, working together to assist a younger person leave aged care.

This tool details the tasks and responsibilities – the “who does what” when assisting a younger person to leave RAC and live in the community.

This resource will be useful to RAC, NDIS providers and other stakeholders working at this interface.

Good practice guide

Tags: allied health, support coordinator

Description:

This guide has been written for support coordinators and specialist support coordinators who are working with people with complex needs. Throughout this guide we refer to the support coordinators’ role.

Participants with complex support needs usually require a more focused and skilled approach to connecting and coordinating supports and building capacity. This resource has been developed to provide practice guidance to support coordinators for purposeful and meaningful impact whereby participants with complex support needs have the opportunity to enjoy their rights and responsibilities as full and contributing citizens.

Choosing a support coordinator

Tags: disability support, NDIS plan, support coordinator

Description:

We have created a guide to help you choose a support coordinator. We have included ideas for important things you might want to know about your support coordinator, and questions you might want to ask them.

UpSkill – Best Practice podcast series

Tags: allied health, support coordinator

Description:

This podcast series features conversations with support coordinators who share their experiences of supporting people with disability and working alongside other sectors such as health, aged care and housing.

It also includes conversations with people with lived experience of disability who share how their support coordinators focused on them as individuals and supported them to achieve new goals relating to exploring housing options and moving to their own homes.

SDA eligibility criteria

Tags: allied health, NDIS, NDIS housing resources, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), support coordinator

Description:

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is a costly support that will be provided to only a small number of NDIS participants, so the rules the NDIS uses to determine a participant’s eligibility are rigorously applied. To be considered for SDA, a participant must provide evidence to support EVERY criteria along one of the pathways in this flowchart.

For the exact wording of each rule, refer to the Summer Foundation’s How to write a housing plan resource.

UpSkill NDIS and housing resources

Tags: allied health, support coordinator, training

Description:

A series of resources that the Summer Foundation has prepared about accessing housing; they are designed for people with disability, their families and supporters, support coordinators and allied health professionals.

Allied health housing assessments guide

Tags: allied health, hospital discharge, NDIS, NDIS housing resources, support coordinator

Description:

The aim of this guide is to assist support coordinators and allied health professionals collaborate on Housing Plans for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants. Housing Plans rely on appropriately framed allied health assessments and reports to support the participant pursue their goals and aspirations.

Guide to developing a participant’s housing statement

Tags: allied health, NDIS housing resources, support coordinator

Description:

In response to feedback from the SDA panel, the Summer Foundation has developed 2 new resources to help support coordinators and allied health professionals prepare an NDIS participant housing statement.

The Participant Housing Statement Template (with accompanying guide) seeks to ensure that the NDIA provides people with funding that reflects their preferred housing option.

How to write a housing plan

Tags: allied health, housing, NDIS housing resources, NDIS plan, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), support coordinator

Description:

How to write a Housing Plan – Guide and the Housing Plan Template have been created to help support coordinators write housing plans for NDIS participants who want to test their eligibility for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding. The purpose of a housing plan is to provide the NDIA with evidence that the person you’re working for requires SDA to reach their goals, maximise their independence, and social and economic participation. Download Housing Plan Template

The guide provides information on what to include to achieve the best possible outcome for the person you’re working for.

My housing preferences

Tags: allied health, NDIS housing resources, NDIS plan, support coordinator

Description:

This tool helps you think about where you want to live, who you would like to live with and the type of housing that you would like to live in. You can use this tool to tell your housing story and work out your housing goals. You can cut and paste the information from this tool into housing application forms.

Living more independently

Tags: allied health, NDIS housing resources, support coordinator

Description:

‘Living more independently’ means living in a house (townhouse/duplex/apartment/other) where you get to decide what you do and how you live, and you only get as much support as you need.
 
This guide explains how to plan for and move from residential aged care (RAC), a group home or your parents’ home into appropriate mainstream housing or Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Fundamentals

Tags: allied health, housing, support coordinator

Description:

This short video about Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) and the accompanying flyers can be used by support coordinators to explain what SDA is to the people they are working with.

SDA Rules 2020 – What are the changes?

Tags: allied health, NDIS housing resources, support coordinator

Description:

The SDA Rules 2020, released in June, increase a person’s choice and control about where they want to live and who they want to live with. The key changes are outlined in this resource.

UpSkill Fundamentals resources

Tags: allied health, NDIS, support coordinator, training

Description:

The UpSkill team have produced the following videos to capture the fundamentals of what you need to know when you are a support coordinator or private allied health professional. If you are attending any online or face-to-face UpSkill training, you should watch the UpSkill Fundamentals videos beforehand.

Chris’s story – everything’s changed

Tags: disability support, hospital discharge, support coordinator

Description:

Chris shares his journey from hospital to his new home and the value of having good support around you.

NDIS housing pathway

Tags: accessible housing, allied health, NDIS, NDIS housing resources, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), support coordinator

Description:

On this resource we detail one pathway to mainstream housing. If you have searched for mainstream housing and discovered you can’t access it because of your disability, you can test your eligibility for SDA on the second page.

Support Coordinators – who are they and how can they support me

Tags: NDIS participant, NDIS plan, support coordinator

Description:

A support coordinator is someone paid by the NDIS to help you understand and implement your plan. They can help you with a range of of different things as outlined in this resource.

SDA payments guide

Tags: allied health, NDIS, NDIS housing resources, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), support coordinator

Description:

This guide explains what Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) payments are, who they are paid to and how they are accessed. For people who have SDA payments included in their NDIS Plan, it explains how to make the most of this funding.

Looking for somewhere to live

Tags: allied health, NDIS, NDIS housing resources, NDIS plan, support coordinator

Description:

This guide explains how you can access and make the most of NDIS funding to look for housing. It explains the capacity building funding available to NDIS participants who need support to search for suitable housing. It also includes information on choosing your support coordinator and how to make the most of the funding.

Note that this guide replaces ‘Exploring Your Housing Options’.

Summary of Changes to SDA Framework

Tags: allied health, NDIS housing resources, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), support coordinator

Description:

On 8 February 2019, the government announced ‘immediate reforms’ to Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) to improve choice and control for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants and boost market confidence. The changes arise from an Australian Government review in 2018 of the SDA Pricing and Payments Framework.

This summary provides background to the changes, what has changed now, and future changes to be brought in.

What is a support coordinator?

Tags: complex support, disability support, NDIS participant, support coordinator

Description:

Linda Rossow, Independent Support Coordinator, explains her role as a support coordinator and what this means for the participants she works with.

Support coordination: Exploring housing options

Tags: accessible housing, disability support, NDIS participant, support coordinator

Description:

Linda Rossow, Independent Support Coordinator, talks about the process she works through with participants who want to find somewhere different to live.

Chris’s experience with the health system

Tags: community, hospital discharge, support coordinator

Citation:

Chris was in hospital and rehab for 3 months. Chris’ explanation of that time was “I felt like a ping pong ball between the hospital and my care coordinator”.