Support coordination: Lessons from the trenches – Question 11

Lessons from the trenches - panel members

• Miranda Purchase (MP) – Support Coordinator, MP Coordination
• Veronica Santomingo (VS) – Support Coordinator, Richmond Fellowship Queensland
• Aylin Taylor (AT) – Support Coordinator, Tailored Options
• Sue Grier (SG) – Managing Director, Let’s Connect Support Services
• Elizabeth Hickey (EH) – Support Coordinator, AFA Support Coordination
• Hannah Redford (HR) - Support Coordinator, Tulip Coordination
• Sabine Hazlett (SH) – Support Coordinator, Lifestyle Mentor Services
• Sera CrichtonAita (SC) – Support Coordinator, Australian Regional & Remote Community Services

What’s one outcome you’re most proud of having supported a client to achieve?

MP – Appropriate funding for a child to remain in the care of his family (kinship).

VS – I had pushed for months to get answers from the NDIA regarding Supported Independent Living (SIL) for my client. Someone had made a mistake in the NDIA and had not processed the approval in home and living. Eventually, after several calls and emails, I got a new plan and a decision from the NDIA that the client had been approved. She passed away a week before receiving the good news.

AT – Good question. Finally receiving the extra funding required for a participant – it was an ongoing battle, and they finally received a positive outcome.

SG – Too many to choose from. I supported a person through the AAT and had all funds reinstated. I’ve supported many people into housing and also with discharges from hospital, which is always a good feeling. I also supported someone home to die peacefully with their family around them instead of in hospital.

EH – There isn’t one outcome – all the good outcomes make me proud! However, the thing that puts the smile on my face every day is when I empower a person to see the funding they have put into practice so that they can live their life.

HR – One outcome I am most recently proud of is having supported a participant to get a higher spec wheelchair than the base model.

SH – I was able to exit a participant out of aged care (she was over 65). She obtained SIL and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding.

ZD – The best outcome I have supported a client to achieve is an 18-year-old young man who lives with Autism Level 2 with intellectual impairment. He was living at home with his Mum, Dad, and two younger siblings and he was very angry, with behaviours of concern, which was causing extreme emotional and physical distress for his family. The family relationships with this young man were to the point where they were falling apart and he was filled with hate towards his family members. The family home was also being damaged by this young man due to his anger at not wanting to be living at home any more.

I gathered a lot of evidence and completed a change of circumstances form and request for home and living for SIL accommodation and sent that to the NDIA as an urgent review. After three escalations on this case and two months of waiting, I received the good news that this young man had received all the funding he needed to move into a SIL home.

The big smile on this young man's face, and the excitement he exuded when I met with him and his father at his new home, made me feel so proud of the work and effort I put into this case. My heart was so happy too.

SC – Connecting clients with their families.