Reach Out, April 2016, isue 103

Personal Stories
Insurance Adventure
Things to think about when choosing service providers
• Think carefully about what it is you want for your child.
Don’t be afraid to dream big – where do you want your child
to be in 5 years’ time? In a job? Then look at accessing job
training services. Living out of home? Residential services.
You’d be surprised how many programs and services NDIS
will cover.
• The NDIS is person-centred. The aim is to put in place the
supports needed to help your child be the person they are
or want to become. You may already be accessing some
disability services – are these of maximum benefit to your
child? The NDIS will fund support that allows your child
to ‘achieve the same outcomes as their previous support,’
although it may not be with the same provider currently
used. This is a great opportunity to think about your child’s
personhood, their interests and likes, their strengths and
weaknesses, their personality. At planning stage, a lot of
questions will be directed at getting to the core of who your
child is, family and friends may be asked to participate. It’s
worth having a round table with all the family to discuss
goals, interests and aspirations. The role of service providers
should be to facilitate growth, to create opportunities and
experiences to develop their client.
• What do you currently do for your child? Note down all the
things you currently do for him or her every day. This is
the level of support they will need in their funding package
for a service provider to do it for them. I know it’s tempting
to ‘talk your child up’ and be proud that they can tie their
shoes, or do up the zip on their jacket. But take into account
the bad days, when they won’t cooperate, won’t wear their
jacket, or take their shoes off and throw them. Use this as
your baseline for the level of support they’ll need. These bad
days may only happened once or twice a month, but you’ll
have peace of mind knowing the funding is there should it be
needed. If your child currently receives mobility allowance
from Centrelink, factor in any transport needs, as they will
cease to receive mobility allowance under NDIS.
• The NDIS website has a list of registered providers in your
area. It also has a list of prices, but this is not important at
the initial stage. Choose the services you believe your child
needs and be prepared with detailed reasons why they need
them. Some services will require backup documents from
therapists involved with your child. For example, in order
to receive funding for Liam’s exercise physiology program
at the pool we needed a letter of endorsement from his occupational
therapist.
• As the NDIS aims to support the whole person, there are
a large range of wellbeing options, ranging from physiotherapy
to nutrition, exercise programs and swimming. Be
well informed at the start and if you’re not sure if a service is
funded, phone or email and ask!
Time to chat: Once you’ve made some decisions around which
services are needed, it’s time to call or meet with them. First visit
the Department of Social Services website (www.dss.gov.au) and
read the National Standards for Disability Services. These will
give you a good idea of what a service provider should be, well…
providing.
Questions to ask providers
• What is their vision for an individual? Do they have a mission
statement? Ask for a copy. Ask them how they implement
their vision day to day.
• Ask how they see their role as a service provider. Do they really
understand ‘person-centred’ or are they more focussed on
a rigid outline of what they do as an organisation. They may
not be prepared to be flexible, to be committed to your child’s
growth journey, they may miss opportunities to develop and
stretch her or him. Remember, the switch to a person-centred
orientation is new to service providers as well.
• Are the staff trained in alternative forms of communication
(if your child has challenges in this area). If so, ask them to
demonstrate for you.
• All the services I have ever dealt with welcome visits. Make
sure you also pop in unannounced from time to time. Observe
the dynamic, watch how staff interact with individuals
there. Check the surroundings. Come back at different times
of day – the environment might be very different at 3pm, say,
when perhaps groups of people are coming back from outings
creating a noise level that may be too much for your child.
Overwhelmed? Get yourself a Coordinator of Supports. Liam
has funding for around 6 hours a week for this service, and we
went with an organisation who had been advocating for us for
years and we had a good relationship with. Our Coordinator of
Supports is an absolute godsend. She’s up
to date with who is offering what, can
arrange everything easily, even down
to simply ordering continence aids. She
can short-cut the process of deciding
on appropriate providers because she
knows what they all offer, where their
facilities are, if they are near any shops
that sell Coke! She also keeps me on
track with regular meetings to discuss
long and short term goals, where
we’re going next with Liam and how
we’re going to get there. We had
been trying to navigate the system
ourselves prior to 2015 and one of
the results was that we had funding
lines in Liam’s package we didn’t
even realise were there. Which
brings me to my next point.
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