Navigating the NDIS

Navigating

the NDIS

Claire Marsh has a long career ensuring people with disabilities are given the best chances in life - and as Hall & Prior’s new NDIS Manager, she has big plans to expand the scheme within the Group’s offering. By Gabi Mills.

There are around 4.3million Australians living with a disability currently and it’s estimated that over the next five years, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will provide more than $22billion in funding a year to about half a million Australians with a permanent or significant disability. In many cases, this will be the first time they will receive the disability support they need. From Hall & Prior’s point of view, creating the new role of NDIS Manager was a must-do part of their future strategy for growth - and in Claire Marsh, the Group has found a very safe pair of hands. Moving to Australia from the UK at the age of 13, Claire showed early signs of being destined for a role in the caring professions. “I think my teachers would have said that I scored high on the empathetic scale,” says Claire, who was born in Essex. Thanks to some family connections around the disability sector, her first job took her into this challenging landscape - and she’s worked in it ever since. In the past, the funding mechanism had not developed significantly to support those who most needed it, but the NDIS now provides funds for helping people in a variety of areas of their lives, including supports for older people and people with a psycho-social disability.

After five years working with the Good Sammies, supporting people with disabilities with employment within the organisation, Claire’s advocacy skills were well-developed. “The organisation had a pretty good culture and was a good environment for people with disabilities to work and create friendships, but of course there were some challenging situations over the years,” she said. “My role involved advocacy on behalf of the employees I represented, and when abuse, neglect or discrimination occurred externally, you’d have to navigate those complex issues also.” After taking some time out to have her two daughters, Claire returned to the workforce in 2014 with a role at specialist disability services organisation, Rocky Bay. Her role this time was in post-placement support, where she would ensure that those employees taken on - often with significant disabilities - were able to keep their job once placed in an organisation. Again it was a challenging role with a high level of advocacy - but rewarding too as having a job for many of these employees was a life-changing event. Working with external organisations would also be challenging as exploitation or discrimination could occur “It was hard for employers to see beyond labels sometimes and when times were tough, the chances of employment for people with disabilities was even worse,” she said. A move to Chorus followed where Claire provided community support for disabled and older people, and it was here that Claire began to hear about NDIS and thus tried to factor it in around employment opportunities. When COVID-19 hit, Chorus asked Claire to manage a programme to ensure their most vulnerable clients had enough food. “I enlisted some co-ordinators and support workers and arranged food to be delivered for these people - and also upskilled people to use online shopping for themselves, making use of the delivery service for vulnerable people off.” This valuable experience made Claire’s appointment to the new role at Hall & Prior a vital part of the Group’s plans to expand their service offering to NDIS participants. In many cases, aged care can be the last resort for somebody who has a disability and struggles to make ends meet; some residents at aged care homes are significantly younger than they should be, and often homeless. “I believe that NDIS is a very good thing,” said Claire. “People are getting funding who didn’t have access to funding before, especially around mental health, but the program is still relatively new and subject to frequent change as peoples’ needs are understood.”

With a blank sheet, Claire is working hard to align NDIS within the Group, supporting DONs and helping them understand the complexities of NDIS as well as connecting relevant stakeholders.

“Hall & Prior’s vision is to move towards more appropriate housing options for our residents who fall under the NDIS definition - supported independent living, independent living or community living support,“ Claire said. “For instance, we might have a participant who needs suitable accommodation and supports to match. We also have a great offering of allied health which we would also really like to offer the NDIS community. As Hall & Prior already offer specialised accommodation and do it very well, providing this new resource is not such a great leap.” It’s an exciting time to forge this new path, with the opportunity to offer great new options for disabled participants, said Claire.

“It’s a great chance for Hall & Prior to create new options and reassuring for those people to know that there’s an alternative to aged care.”

THANKS FOR caring

Aged Care Employee Day was the perfect opportunity to say thank you to the people who care for our most vulnerable members of society.

On Saturday, August 7 Aged Care Employee Day gave many of our employees the chance to stop and celebrate one another as well as allowing grateful residents to say thanks for caring.

The special national day of thanks has become especially pertinent during COVID-19 when our staff have been working incredibly hard to keep our residents safe and their families informed during the pandemic. On the day, an estimated 360,000 aged care staff from around Australia stopped for morning and afternoon teas to celebrate. With the theme #ThanksforCaring, the day recognises each and every team member involved in caring for the 1.3 million older Australians receiving residential aged care services or in-home community care. Hall & Prior’s CEO Graeme Prior said the day was important on the aged care calendar.

“I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the love, mercy and care you give to our residents and their families every day,” Graeme said. “From PCAPs to chefs, DONs to Nurses, dietitians to delivery drivers, hospitality teams to cleaners and Allied Health teams to administration and management teams, you all add to the beautiful sense of family and love that exists within our homes and care programs. “With COVID-19 a constant threat to our community, I want to say a special thanks to those on the frontline, especially in NSW, who are going above and beyond to make our residents and their worried families feel as safe and secure as possible. “We live by the mantra, ‘Compassionate People, Dedicated to Care’ and this has never been more important.” #ThanksforCaring

TEAM SPIRIT Hall & Prior staff from homes in WA and NSW celebrated the special work they do.