Living with Disability Research Centre Online Seminar

Two studies: one on effective support coordination and the other on outcomes when people move to individual apartments

Our July seminar features presentations from two of our colleagues from the Summer Foundation. The Summer Foundation aims to permanently stop young people with disability being forced into aged care and has a longstanding research partnership with LiDs.

Dr Sharyn McDonald will present the findings of recent research that investigated factors affecting the delivery of support coordination services to NDIS participants. Emeritus Professor Jacinta Douglas will present interim findings from a study about the experiences of people with disability and complex needs after two years in new, individualised specialist disability accommodation (SDA) apartments.

Contact lids@latrobe.edu.au to register.

“Know Everything, Be Everything”: Skills, Attributes and Challenges for Effective Support Coordination in the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Dr Sharyn McDonald, Research Fellow, La Trobe University Summer Foundation Research Partnership

This presentation will summarise findings of research which explored the role support coordinators in assisting National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants to understand their funding plans and connect with housing and disability supports. The study aimed to identify the skills and attributes of a good support coordinator from multiple perspectives.

Support coordinators (n=20), allied health professionals (n=16), NDIS participants (n = 14) and family members (n = 5) completed semi-structured interviews exploring their lived experiences of support coordination. NVivo 20 was used to collate data and key themes were identified through thematic analysis.

Major themes included the importance of collaboration and accessibility, the challenges facing the support coordination workforce and opportunities for strengthening the capacity of the support coordination workforce will be discussed. Factors that help and hinder the delivery of effective support coordination services will be highlighted.

“Having moved and being able to be quite independent.” Outcomes over two years for people with disability and complex needs after moving into new individualised apartments.
Emeritus Professor Jacinta Douglas, La Trobe University Summer Foundation Research Partnership and Living with Disability Research Centre

Jacinta will present interim findings of an ongoing mixed-methods project designed to evaluate individual experiences and outcomes of moving to individualised housing for people with disability.

The presentation will review pre- and post-move group outcome data for 15 participants and focus on the individual outcomes of the first 7 participants (mean age 42.3 yrs.) who completed pre-move, 1- and 2-yr post-move evaluation. These participants had a range of disability types (acquired brain injury, neurological other, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis) and pre-move living environments (1 aged care, 4 group home, 2 home with parents). They had all moved into new specialist disability accommodation apartments (SDA) and completed data collection at pre-move (n=7), 1 year (n=6) and 2 years (n=7) post-move.

Health, Wellbeing and community integration were compared across timepoints. Reliable change index (RCI) was used to evaluate the significance of individual score changes over time. Findings support the premise that individualised housing can make a significant contribution to improved health, wellbeing, and independence for people with disability.