Support coordination: Lessons from the trenches – Question 13

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
• Zena Dyson (ZD) – Specialist Support Coordinator/Team Leader, Esteem Care Services
• Sera CrichtonAita (SC) – Support Coordinator, Australian Regional & Remote Community Services

How do support coordinators train, upskill, and develop as professionals?

MP – Summer Foundation webinars, NDIA webinars, DSC short courses, and by creating support coordinator networks.

VS – By engaging with other support coordinators and networking.

AT – Through courses available that are relevant to the industry, as well as by support through management through regular supervision, and links to counselling services (such as EAP).

SG – There are many great, free and cost-effective training opportunities out in the area for support coordinators to utilise.

EH - I cannot say enough, the best support coordinators are ones who have amazing networks – both for their own support and so that they are connected with their community and can help their clients.

There are so many opportunities to train – either to get appropriate formal qualifications (which I think is important for support coordinators from the outset), and also to continue to develop skills.

In the last financial year, I participated in over 50 hours of personal continuous improvement – this was through networking and information sharing meetings (industry and location specific), short courses focusing on specific learnings (e.g. risk management, emergency planning and disability specific learning), NDIS training and webinars. All of this ensured that I was aware of changes to the NDIS, able to consider different supports for my participants, and had expanded my network to better support my clients.

HR – One way that support coordinators develop as professionals is to actively listen to other professionals. Understand what some of the tips and tricks are that an OT or a speech pathologist uses. Listen to the support workers and what they are saying is happening on a day-to-day basis for the participant.

There is a lot of training on offer for support coordinators out there. It is important to find the training that works for your learning style.

SH – This is limited. I find that webinars cover the very basics and do not delve further, which means it is a waste of time. So we do inhouse training.

ZD – It helps to have a related profession before becoming a support coordinator.

SC – Internal training, or learning from others.