Identifying your goals and building a plan for how to reach them through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is not always as easy as it sounds.
Sometimes, you need help to understand your plan and to connect with the NDIS services that are right for you and your circumstances.
That’s where a support coordinator comes in. They will:
- work collaboratively with you and your family and to help you understand your plan, to access, and connect with services.
- work to build your skills to manage your plan and reach your goals.
- help you shape your supports and manage services to best suit your needs and get the most out of your plan.
What is support coordination?
Support coordination is designed to help you to build capacity to use and manage your chosen supports under the NDIS.
At the outset, support coordination, or “coordination of supports”, helps empower you to understand and navigate your NDIS plan.
A support coordinator will explain your support budget and what it can be used for and detail how your funding budget is managed.
Once you understand your plan and how it works, support coordination can help you to map out and coordinate your supports and activities according to your needs.
This means identifying the right people to help you to achieve your goals, whether it is family members or outside services.
A support coordinator will assist you to connect with the right services and help to establish and maintain your supports, and will work with you to adjust this as your needs change.
With the help of a support coordinator, you will also be able to build your own capacity to manage your supports, allowing you to take greater control of achieving your goals and living more independently.
Importantly, a support coordinator can also help you and your support circle address unexpected events or challenges, such as going to hospital or moving house.
What are the three levels of support coordination?
There are three levels of support coordination that are available under the NDIS depending on your circumstances. The three levels of support coordination are:
- Support connection will help you to maximise your NDIS plan through building your capacity to connect with informal, community and funded supports.
- Support coordination will help you to understand your NDIS plan and how to use it to achieve your goals. A support coordinator will help you to identify the right support for your circumstances and to help increase your ability to live more independently, feel included in the community and maintain relationships.
- Specialist support coordination is available for people who have complex needs and who require more specialist support. A specialist support coordinator is tasked with assisting you to manage your support and ensuring that you receive appropriate and consistent service delivery.
What are the duties of a support coordinator?
Support coordinators have a number of duties, but their chief responsibility is to give you the tools and resources to help you to achieve your goals.
Depending on the level of support coordination you require, your goals and your individual circumstances, a support coordinator can help with a variety of tasks.
Support coordinators can work with you to help you better understand your support plan, the budget and how much you can claim for services. They will also help you to troubleshoot any problems or concerns that may arise with providers and communicate with the NDIS.
- A support coordinator can also work with family members, specialist service providers and mainstream services to ensure your needs are being met.
- A support coordinator can also help you to set up service agreements with providers, identify any barriers to you receiving the right support and check in to make sure your supports are still working for you.
- Importantly, support coordinators can also help to build your skills and your confidence to be able to manage your own plan in line with your goals. This includes helping to prepare you for reassessments.
- A specialist support coordinator can also help you to make a plan for your specific circumstances and ensure all of your support network is working together to effectively implement your NDIS plan.
Common roles performed by a support coordinator
Support coordinators can also help to set you up for success to live more independently with the right level of support for your circumstances.
They will focus on developing your relationship-building skills and helping you to learn to confidently ask for what you need from the right resources.
These include:
- Connection. By connecting you with service providers within the community, a support coordinator plays a critical role in the ongoing success of implementing your plan. Because of the knowledge and connections that support coordinators have with service providers, they’re able to make referrals that best align with their clients’ needs.
- Plan knowledge. Many people struggle to understand every aspect of their NDIS plan or the terminology, especially if they are new to the scheme. This is where a support coordinator comes in. Their knowledge of the NDIS and supports is invaluable. It’s also important to know how your plan will affect you so a support coordinator will take the time to understand your needs and make appropriate recommendations.
- Provide choice. A support coordinator’s role is to show all available and practical options to their clients to ensure they have choice and remain in control of their supports. They will also provide their recommendations based on what options will be best for each individual’s circumstances to assist in decision-making.
- Crisis resolution. If any issues were to arise with service providers, a support coordinator is there to help resolve any of these issues or act as a mediator if required. They can also end any provider relationships if the fit isn’t right.
- Reflect and refine. Once you’ve settled into your plan, your support coordinator will work with you to reflect on your experiences to date and make any adjustments necessary (where possible) to ensure the ongoing success of your plan.
All in all, a support coordinator’s role is to help you achieve your goals
What makes a good NDIS support coordinator?
A good support coordinator will have experience in the disability sector and a passion and commitment to helping you achieve your goals.
They will have a solid understanding of the NDIS, they will take the time to understand your needs and what works best for you. With a person-centred approach, they will be adaptable to meet your needs and support to navigate challenges as they arise. They will promote your choice and control in all areas of your life and support you to achieve your goals. They will support you to engage with supports and services that align with your needs.
They will also be highly flexible to ensure they are able to best support you to navigate unforeseen challenges or changes.
The best NDIS support coordinators understand the importance of feeling in control of your life and will make you feel empowered and supported as you work towards achieving your goals.
A good support coordinator will:
- have experience in the disability sector
- a passion and commitment to helping you achieve your goals
- a solid understanding of the NDIS
- take the time to understand your needs and what works best for you. With a person-centred approach, they will be adaptable to meet your needs and support to navigate challenges as they arise
- promote your choice and control in all areas of your life and support you to achieve your goals
- support you to engage with supports and services that align with your needs.
They will also be highly flexible to ensure they are able to best support you to navigate unforeseen challenges or changes.
The best NDIS support coordinators understand the importance of feeling in control of your life and will make you feel empowered and supported as you work towards achieving your goals.
About Ability Options Support Coordination services
At Ability Options, we offer Support Coordination services in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Hunter Region and the Mid-North Coast. Our team can offer support for people living across Australia through remote servicing. Our coordinators are flexible, and support is delivered through a variety of modes including in office, community or remote based on your needs. We offer virtual supports using phone, email and video conferencing.
Our team understand that managing your NDIS plan may feel overwhelming at the start and that it’s not always easy to navigate your plan and support network. The Ability Options support coordinators have extensive experience in the disability sector and are passionate about helping people to achieve their goals with the right support.
Our support coordinators have a passion to achieve great outcomes and knowledge of how to guide you there.
We have specific expertise to help support people who have high physical needs, an intellectual disability or autism, live in aged care or with mental health challenges. We also have experience helping those who are in the justice system or who are young and in residential aged care.
No matter your challenges we have a support coordinator who can help you. Our coordinators are experienced in understanding the specific needs of people with any type of disability and will support you to achieve the very best out of your NDIS funding.
Learn how our support coordination services can help you or a loved one today and read about some of the people our services have supported.
