The Journey to Conscious Healthcare
The Journey to Conscious Healthcare
A Psychologists Take on the Do's & Don'ts of Support Coordination with Kate Turnbull from Turning Point Support hosted by Trevor Keen from Trevor Keen Health Services
We have made it to Episode 4!
This week's podcast on "The Journey to Conscious Healthcare" features Kate Turnbull from Turning Point Support.
Today we discuss:
- Her involvement in the early stages of NDIS
- What has changed with the NDIS since its inception
- How her psychology background influences her work
- The evolution of Support Coordination and transition into psychosocial recovery coaching
- How to make a 12 hour NDIS plan work
- What it takes to building rapport and trust with participants
- Navigating clinical psychology and therapist options for patients
- Best piece of advice she has learnt from her mentors
- How she ensures quality delivery of services
- Where to go to for information
- Where people go wrong in support coordination
- Ways support coordinators can navigate the stresses they face
- Developing the skill of expectation management
- A day in the life of a Support Coordinator
- Kate’s vision for 20 years into the future in the disability sector
Please like & share as you see fit to spread the word & educate others
Shout out to Trevor Keen Health Services for putting this all together.
Special Mentions
Where to go to look for information:
Occupational Therapy Australia
#NDIS #SupportCoordination #Healthcare #TKHS
Welcome to episode four on the journey to conscious healthcare, where we explore what it takes to consciously drive longevity, happiness, and fulfillment in your life of others. The journey to conscious healthcare looks at the he at industry disability sector and how best navigate these areas to get the best for you and your life. I'm your host. Trevor can. And I'm the founder and CEO of Trevor Canne health services, an expert company that is known for high quality healthcare services and transforming the healthcare industry in the disability space. This series is on the support coordinators in the disability space called the dos and don't of support coordination. Today's show is sponsored by Trevor keen health services at Trevor keen health services. We provide high quality N D I S healthcare services in the comfort of your own home. If you are interested in an easy and reliable way to navigate the N D I S and access health services, please get in touch. Today's guest graduated in 2011 with a psychology degree. Her experience backs to the inception of the N DS. Having worked as a support coordinator for six is now she's also been running her own business for nearly a year and a half, and her team is certainly growing by the day, Kate Turnbull. Welcome and thank you for joining us from turning point.
Speaker 2:Thanks to having me, Trevor.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, we've got a bit of an interesting starting question, a bit of a quirky hobby. Would you like to tell me a little bit more about one is that people D know about something you might
Speaker 2:Do dunno? Well, I have traveled to India several times to study yoga thats, so that's a big passion of mine, and I also teach yoga regularly back in Adelaide.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect. And what sort sparks you into,
Speaker 2:Into, I guess it's something that allows me to, you know, connect with myself and to move and to, I guess, connect back with our breast big part of why I started teaching yoga though, was to bring together a community of likeminded people to create a space where we could, or to share in something that, you know, allows us to kind back from possibly all the craziness of what's happening in the world and just to, um, have a bit of fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. So I'm a bit guilty there as well. Actually. I've got a bit of an interest in yoga. I know I've done a bit of yoga with Adrianne. Uh, is that something you are interested in as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I with, um, with her as well, she sensation and big part of yoga as well. Importance people's wellbeing and mental health. Yeah. After
Speaker 1:That. Oh, there's nothing better than that. And James as well, your husband, his, his movement related, so you've got psychology, like he's a physiotherapist, so that's right. You've got all bases
Speaker 2:Covered there. Yeah. Yeah. I guess we see the importance in moving our bodies and how, you know, wonderful. That can be for our mental health and wellbeing. Yeah. Works quite well as a team for sure.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect. Well, we we're better get back onto your journey now. It's quite an interesting one. So N has come back and, uh, you were right at the early stages
Speaker 2:If I believe. Yeah. That's years back now. I was, um, working for a national mental health organization. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and I was, I traveled over to Perth at the time when I was in a managerial position to help them set up an office in Perth, whereby they were rolling out the N DS. So at the time my role was to go out and to meet what we now call participants to get to know them. And we had that stage where we were discussing these plans and funding with each person. It was a completely new, I guess, funding model to what we had previous. And it's definitely come a long way since then. There's been a few increases that we bind out along the way. For sure. Absolutely. There's been interesting to see, I guess, the growth of the whole industry as well through that, throughout that time. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And of many things stayed true throughout. Like I know you said it's changed a bit from when you started to now, is there much that stayed the same, much that's changed. I'm quite curious. Cause there's probably learnings that happened along the way
Speaker 2:There. So yes, I think there's lots changed. I guess back then it was more just presenting plans and to, as to that, but I guess what's really changed that over the years, they have got a little bit better, I guess, at making it really person centered and really making it around the discipline and what they, how they wish to use their funding. That was always the aim at the start. But over the years we've got better and better at really targeting it to how that person wants to best use that funding that they've been allocated, which as I said, we're so different to the funding models we have, uh, previously to the N D I S
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Cause I mean, obviously we've, we've gone from being block funded, correct. Uh, and then being very institutionalized and now sort of the whole movement of open employment and uh, freedom choice and control these things that come through everywhere. It's incredible where it's started from and where it's going to and who knows where it'll
Speaker 2:End up. Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah. We, it's exciting though, when the person's the forefront of what's happening though, and they're leading it and, you know, guiding what's happening. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I must Dell on your psychology background. So you've studied that in regards to your team, typically, who do you sort of work with and how do you, uh, how are you different? So I understand levels of qualification that are required or certain experience for them to join.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess as a team overall, we're really diverse and that's been something that's been really intentional. We all have different backgrounds and we all have different skill sets that we bring to the role. And we're obviously all based across, um, FA as well. So that allows us to have really good knowledge of different providers and different areas. It's important to me to get a really diverse team so that what we do when we get a referral is we actually look at that participant and work out who will be best within in our team to support them. So we're really tailoring our service as well to the participant, I guess, predominantly in our team though, we do have more of that psychology social work background. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and that's where I guess we tend to get, um, several psychosocial referrals for participants with psychosocial disabilities, just because I guess we have a bit of a deeper understanding as to mental health and that sector. We really know how that sector works, which helps
Speaker 1:A lot. Absolutely. Well, I'm intrigued, uh, could be a little bit topical as I bring it up, but as we sort of talk there's this psychosocial coach now know that you guys do that in your business. Well, at turning point support, like as in, how do you see that evolving? Cause we've got support coordination, we've got all different levels. 1, 2, 3 through psychosocial recovery coaching, interesting as to the qualifications people to involved. And it's changing thoughts that you front runner
Speaker 2:With it. Yeah. I guess we've naturally progressed into the psychosocial recovery coaching role just given our backgrounds and where I see it going. I mean, I think it's just gonna continue to grow. It's fantastic for me to see that there's more emphasis on something specialized towards mental health in the NS. I think there was that area that was mental health side of, um, supports, but this psycho social recovery coach role is really, I guess, a more in depth look at supporting someone with mental health and not only just, you know, going out there and support them with services, but actually, you know, coaching and more regular contact. So we tend to create a bit of a different approach between the recovery coaching role and the support coordination role with the recovery coaching role as a team, we've really thought about how to best do that. And that's where we do a lot more face to face, meet a lot, you know, more face to face meetings. And we tend to have like a regular coaching session with that participant, I guess. Yeah, we can. I see that role continuing to grow as a sector grows as well, just given that the, there is a different approach with working with someone with psychosocial disabilities versus, you know, know other disabilities as well and just tailor it to the individual is really important.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And, uh, has it been quite receptive? Have you felt that participants been pretty receptive in that role or I'm quite intrigued? Cause my experience I've seen a lot of, uh, not so much psychosocial, uh, recovery coach, but support coordination. Now haven't been hugely beef when it comes to, um, people with psychosocial disability. So I'm interested in how that gets navigated and, and utilization of funding, but also then, uh, increasing independence. It's a, it's a challenging piece cause you know, mental health is pretty ING of course. So any you have,
Speaker 2:I, um, psycho recovery generally have a, but my understanding of that is that the role itself then is more hands on and you know, is a regular catching up with that participant to explore all aspects of their life around their idea of recovery. So it's really individualized as to recovery to them turning forms that we use, which are psychosocial reco plans. And we go through them with participants around what their goals are around recovery and they might be as simple as I just wanna be able to go to check my letter box and you know, feel confident to get outta the house and to go check that once a week. So it's really working out what that goal is for each person. And then we provide regular coaching sessions. So that might be two weekly catchups with that person sometimes might be taking them to an appointment perhaps being there for that first physio session, you know, just to build bit of confidence if they're feeling anxious about a new therapist. So it really is a little bit different from support coordination. I think it's important to create a difference between the two and the fact that they is more funding for the recovery coach role allows for that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Cause it's, uh, it can be often challenging if you're running outta support coordination hours or too. And I totally understand that from us having provided therapies, the first time that you meet a therapist, often in the disability sector, participants will wanna be with one therapist they won't wanna and change necessarily. And so meeting people to evoke, you know, bit of anxiety and can be a bit of a nervewracking time. Yeah. Um, you'll gotta sort lay there and say, what, what it's that you wanna achieve and know a lot about you and that rapport and trust building. Yeah. Uh, something I'm assuming you and your team with the qualification experience are probably is there about rapport and trust, uh, with
Speaker 2:I thinks finding perhaps, and it could just be, you know, sharing a joke or something that someone to laugh or, you know, sharing something that's in common. We have strategies as well, I guess having psychology and social work backgrounds around asking deeper questions. So just questions, question, no question. We tend questions deep. So once you get an answer, you then explore that an example would be, you know, what'd you get on the weekend, Trevor, you said you went to the watch, the cricket I'd say who was playing and then know how was the match there? Kinda just, you know, we used that as a way, build rapport getting on by, I guess, asking questions. Yeah. Take the time. It's a big focus in our team around getting to know somebody. Yes. We have, you know, support plans and recovery coach plans that we use to kind generate that conversation. But I always say the team go off script, you know, at the end of the day, everyone's an individual and we wanna spend the time to really get to know them for who they are because they, then we can do our job to the fullest by knowing them. Oh, absolutely
Speaker 1:Think, uh, being heard, appreciated and understood. I think
Speaker 2:That's Allow people to live their best possible life to feel seen, to feel heard. And I saw the NDI as an opportunity whereby someone is really leading their own, you know, their own life. And they're able to make choices and act autonomously support coordination role really appealed to me from the start. Cause I saw us as someone there that, you know, a role essentially where able to help them to create that life that they want, but not, you know, to a point that we get them whereby they're actually leading it themselves. So although we support someone, then they're actually able to kinda continue on from there themselves. So it's a really big, it's a big part of why I got into the role just cause I wanted to someone to kinda flourish from there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I'm, I'm intrigued as well. So with psychology, I'm assuming there's a few different pathways that people go along, but so not a clinical psych. You didn't go down that you quite the aspect, that realm. Was there thoughts about that? As far as the divergence, assuming psychologists can go one or two ways?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess, um, when I left university, I actually moved into a management position and that was with the mental health company, a national company at the time. And through that, I was exposed to the support coordination role with the role the N D I S it was obviously a new role and it was created participants to better use their NS plans because changing funding models, it was completely new to everybody. So the role was really there just to help people find their feet in the industry and participants to get the most outta their plans. I saw the opportunity not only to help part participants get the most outta their plans, but to allow them to take control of their lives again. And that they're leading the whole along the way. So big focus of what we do is to empower people, really lead that own their own, you know, their own journey
Speaker 1:I can. So you really sort of spark up there, get a little bit more happy and vibrant, you know, that, I think there's something really about being, say something like a guide and to help someone on that journey. You're not necessarily the boss you're there and you've got, and that can help with them, but fundamentally, absolutely. I that,
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. That's a big part of what we do for sure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, that's fantastic. I must jump in. So mentors, have you got any mentors and I'd to know if you've got any good bits?
Speaker 2:I guess a mentor in my life is probably my, my that's where I entrepreneurial side from. And that's I guess where I business side from. So not necessarily the mental health or the disability background, but probably the business side. When I started out working as a support coordinator at the early stages, I really saw the need to create a quality service and one where people were highly skilled and really confident in the role. That's why a big part of what we do turning point is around providing professional development to our, so we have two weekly professional development sessions and my goal was to really create a, an organization whereby the staff who really supported and really enjoy the role. And therefore they're gonna do a great job with participants. So it's a, a trickle down effect. Yeah. And doing a great job for is the main reason we're all here. And that's the purpose of what we're doing. So to me, it was to support the team and hopefully they love their job. And then obviously they'll do a great job for the participants, which is what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I reckon, uh, we spoke maybe a year ago, something like that. And when we were talking, talking about how we ended up developing our structures, our and not structure in and the follow I'm pretty amazed, the systems that you put in place with your business to make sure that there's very thorough follow up and support in place. Like you've done a fantastic job in, in that regard. I dunno if you wanna say anything on that or not.
Speaker 2:Oh, I guess it's just really around providing a, a high level of support and ongoing training and professional development to the team. The role is forever changing as well. The sector is definitely forever changing. So it's really important to stay ahead of the changes that are happening. And that's a part of what my role is as the manager. So always saying up to date with what's changing and then, you know, relaying that back to the team. Another aspect, I guess, of our organization, that's little bit unique is that I also a hands on manager. So I have a small caseload as well. So I work with psychosocial participants and our support coordination. I work with a, to a very diverse range of participants, which I love, and that allows me to really keep a good handle on what the role is about and also the change that are happening. And I can really speak from actually doing the myself, which is so important to me. And I guess if people call up turning point support, they're gonna speak directly to me, which is the way, you know, I really love that. That's you? The approach that we have as a team?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Highly personalized. Absolutely. You talk about an ever and changing space. Whereabouts would
Speaker 2:To look for information. I mean, the internet has a bit of quite a wealth of information and I guess the NDIS website, um, is actually continually improving. I'm finding it's getting easier and easier to navigate. I also think DSC, um, their website is a wealth of information and they send out regular email updates on different things that are changing the sector, different papers that are getting released. And what I like about their emails is that they actually break down the content and really user friendly. And then we can share that with our teams around you, what's changing and yeah, they're fantastic at what they do.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome. I think it's quite interesting because every different field has gone in there at different levels. Honestly, if you think of the association Australia, so OTA, um, they're very heavily involved OTs everywhere in the, and you've got some that, you know, I was talking to Patricia president of thew. So the social, the social, and it's there's opportunity about support, probably this podcast, how it's actually gone from very much the, the role in hospitals, you have social workers that tend to get involved and sort coming out to the community and obviously based upon the different levels of complexity as well. So I'm interested to see how that goes as far as what organizations up and, and which, um, it's evolving. Talk about mental health. I thought maybe there might be a bit more from the psychology association, but you never know they might have a plan in place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's, I think, you know, every, sector's getting more and more familiar with the N DS. I know it's been around, you know, since, but we're still obviously getting more and more information that's getting, you know, translated agencies. And, but yeah, I think there's definitely room for those, those different peak bodies to get more and more information as well. I think there's a lot that they could learn. That's probably would be very
Speaker 1:Helpful. Ah, that's awesome. I plan to interview the presidents coming up. Excellent. Various different organizations. So you afterwards, yeah. Moving on support coordinators. So with support coordinators, what are recommendations you from support, coordination support, or whether wrong,
Speaker 2:Not about recommendations, I, where go wrong role, not doing their researchers to providers. Um, I think too, you know, it's very easy just to have a list of providers and, you know, just send out the same providers time and time again, to the different participants, but taking the time to really get to know the participant is the first step and then taking the time to know which provider for that participant the next. And I think provides out there, you know, no, not all OT are the same physios the same and taking the time to really get to know what they specialize in is really important to then make sure that you're providing quality options to that participant that are tailored for them. And then it's up to them to make that to that.
Speaker 1:And it must be quite an interest decision process that goes, so I've spoken to many support coordinators over my time and I've had a few comments come up as far as participants might like purple or might be different aspects of, uh, you know, businesses that to light. You can sort there far might go one another's organizations, small, interesting to see how participants choose different providers.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if you, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess that's, that's where taking the time know someone is so important, I guess someone might prefer perhaps physiotherapy in the home. If you know, a lot reasons it's more in the home. Some participants really do love going with small, so traders, um, cause I know they're gonna get like a really personed approach and they're speaking just directly to that one person rather than to a small organization. Some people like the security of going through a big company whereby one support worker's unavailable, they can get enough support worker in to cover that shift. So it really depends. And again, we all those questions that when we meet with our participants to get to know what's the best fit for them.
Speaker 1:Mm absolutely. And as we go further in, so the support coordinators, there's a lot of stress that's involved. It's, uh, a pretty challenging, you know, the phone picks up when you got email, you someones of different changes. So quite intrigued as far as how you suggest support coordinators can handle the stresses and the constant obstacle that they face.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, gosh, I guess selfcare is a very easy thing to say harder, harder to do sometimes<laugh> but I think just really being mindful of your time is really important and, you know, making sure that you carving out good time during the day to do parts of the role. I know some of the team we've talked about when they work best, you know, whether it's morning or afternoon, we do spend a bit of time in our team also talking about, you know, do we, you know, how each person work best, whether that's answering emails in the morning follow calls in the afternoon, it's important to know how you work best as well to make sure that you are, you know, working effectively and also conserving, you know, your own energy levels with the role as well. I think it's important to look at caseloads and to focus on not necessarily piling someone up with a huge caseload as a support call coordinator. It can be really easy to say yes to a lot of referrals, but actually looking at the quality of what we're providing. So at turning point support, we focus on really small caseloads because it's important to me that we provide quality. We spend quality time with each participant as well. And also the team, you know, we don't, we don't we're at the end of the day. So it's important that they find the balance between caseloads and obviously people being busy, but also allowing them to have that work life balance is really important too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's uh, who I spoke to recently as well. She was through very similar things as far as sure. Personalized service, smaller caseloads, high support the theme. I certainly recommend both of you guys as a fantastic provider. There's obviously a bit of a theme going on there as far as some of the things that are working
Speaker 2:Quite well. We've all done the sort working late into the evening and we all know what that's, I think, you know, if you stressed or getting burn burnt out in the role, the empathy and the patients just not gonna be there. So it's really important to look after ourselves in these roles when we're with people. So that're and present them
Speaker 1:Absolutely. In regard to after. And so curious to see what your take is as to how you and your team handle expectations of it's not only it's providers now that could be providers that could be allied health providers, support workers. It matter what it's saying, maybe keeping it outta your head in a place, or what do you do to manage expectations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess, um, it's about being just open and honest and, you know, communicating with participants around the hours that we do work putting in clear boundaries as to, you know, this is when I'm available for phone or emails and just letting them know as well. You know, that obviously that we have the intention of following up and being as possible and doing things as quickly as possible for them. But sometimes things are gonna take a little bit longer provides might take a bit longer to get back to us and I'll be juggling several things at once, but a big aspect of a big, important aspect of the role is being able to multitask, I think, and to, you know, prioritize as well. You know what, right now, what can done in a few days time, obviously we'd like to help everyone straight away, but it just, you know, we need to obviously make that we're focusing on the priorities are, but then communicating that look you'll you're too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's a challenging one. As far as if the, the phone's not ring or if I haven't got an email or something happening, whereas, you know, I dunno how many exploring housing option reports and that do, but often there's a lot of desks work that's required and it's not necessarily every week that you're talking to someone it's a challenging one to make sure the loop without actually you wanna burn too much time, as far as talking all the time when you actually got report to get done. That's right. So just making that clear earlier saying
Speaker 2:Yeah. Make it clear from, from the get go that, you know, this is what, you know, the role looks like. We spend a bit of time at the very beginning when explaining how the role sort of, so at the start, when start with someone, we would, would be spending more hours with that participant, setting everything up and explaining, you know, their options and explaining the plan and you know, really doing a lot of the bulk of the work at the very beginning. And then we would be checking in every couple of weeks to see how it's all going. So that's the point where it's in perhaps a maintenance stage, of course, things from time, time pop up there's crisis that happen it's life, but around the, of what the role sort of looks like as well as, I guess we're a team and team is the key because we do work together and that's where we share resources. If someone on the team, you know, is finding that their, you know, workload has really increased, then we look at how we can perhaps share that a little bit more amongst the team. We also resource share a lot. So that's where, you know, someone's finding that they're spending hours trying to find the, the perfect seal provider say, we might be sharing as amongs team. You know, oh, this company actually has availability at the moment just to kinda not work harder, but work smarter.
Speaker 1:It's a one with, I feel like you, you're very good with being organized and time manage. So I'm gonna this outta here, little bit left, say if I participant with a hour plan, would you sort maximize or utilize that? So is there any way that you think you can navigate a 12 hour plan? I dunno, we can call it Jane. Maybe if we master's 12 hour plan, what are we gonna do to try and maximize the use there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. 12 hours is challenging an hour. Month is yeah. Really challenging. We at 12 hour plans fairly often, as you said, that's becoming a little bit more common. Now. My hope would be if someone's funded for 12 hours though, that they've been assessed that that's what's necessary and that, you know, there's not a higher level of support that's required. If we find that once, you know, in the first month working with someone that we're actually a lot of hours, because there is a lot of work to do and a lot of to provide for that participant to get things all set up or perhaps to, you know, manage a crisis. We be then going back to the agency and saying, you know, this is the situation and gathering reports to kinda really support know a of, but that's review of decision is to get things changed in that plan. If there was a lot that needed to be done, we also explore, I guess, communicating with the agency. So we might be saying, look, you know, we've got to this point and they might actually say, okay, we're to do back to the, and the will then kind manage it from there. What we're really finding is when someone's managed, when someone is funded for 12 hours, it's just a matter of having a discussion at the very start of that plan with the participant around, you know, we've got 12 hours of funding for the next year for Jane and what that's gonna look like. So, and you know, how are we gonna structure that, how that participant like us to use those 12 hours is also really important to, because it's their decision as to how they use are funding. And if they would like us to spend six hours at the start setting everything up for them, and then they're pretty happy just to cruise through the rest of the year and then just come on board a little bit, the end to help them with their plan review. That's what we do. If they say no, I'd really like you to call, you know, check in every co every couple weeks. And you know, we have a 20 minute just for an update and then we can, you know, change things if need be perfect. We'll do that too. So it's minute to the participant, how they wanna use their plan as well and how they wanna use our funding.
Speaker 1:I love how transparent youre at the start with what you can get done. So you take it on value that is required if that's what it's been funded for. Likewise, if to go down the road and it's not looking like it's gonna match, you have the conversations at that point in time. Yes. And you're very proactive on the front about it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's than you're have services and they're all looked after throughout. So very intriguing in. So as far as any daily rituals that you sort have, like I'd love to know, uh, rituals or what's a day look like for you, I'm quite intrigued support. They do a bit of everything, right? What a day?
Speaker 2:Day thing. Yes. But I guess, um, I, um, in the morning I try to get up and, you know, do something for myself around, maybe go for a walk or meditate or spend time with my family just to kinda set myself up for the day. That's really important break straight to the desk. Um, and then, yeah, obviously I would be starting work working throughout the making sure that I take good breaks throughout the day as well. It doesn't always happen. I'm not gonna pretend that this is the perfect oil that that always happens, but that's usually my intention to listen a couple of short breaks just so I can reset and then come back with like a really clear mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Is it like a then, or, You know, five or 10 minute break, coffee, tea, whatever it might be. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Something, something on those. And look, that would be an ideal day for sure. That's what I strive for, but doesn't always happen sometimes the phone rings, it like to be fairly urgently and that's, that's the, well, I do find though having done this role for quite a few years now, though, you do get a good handle on how to kinda best use your time. Um, and what other priorities as well as, you know, perhaps a participant might that's. So that situation as well, sometimes, yes, the support definitely needs to jump in and really manage the situation and talk to all the service providers. But sometimes it's actually might be the physio or the OT. That's better suited to handle that, you know, to handle whatever a reason. So we really do spend time outed as well without just jumping in all the time. Cause I can. Absolutely. And also, I guess, you know, a big part of our role is to empower the participant. The support coordination role was really developed to kinda get ourselves outta a job, essentially in that we are empowering them to understand their plans and their options and to services. So if we're our job, right, you know, that participant should be gaining a lot of confidence in plan. There are certainly participants out there though, whereby they may have support coordination for many, many years to come. But a lot of the time it's really around allowing that participant to understand the N D I S, and to understand how they can, you know, use that to really create the life they want and to work towards their goals. So, um, yeah, I guess a big part of what we try and do is really allow them to kind take the lead with that and to be working towards their goals. So if there is something that pops up during the day, we might be asking the participant, perhaps who would be best to follow this up with and, you know, what do you thinks the best way to manage this? So also getting involved in that process, which can light the,
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think as it's also getting that buyin, and if that buys to the, the process, they gonna then do a bit more and build up a bit more self efficacy and their ability to actually have control over their life and the situation and
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Yes. They, the then, you know, do that, but it's depend the, of course, um, some you get to know your participants as well. Some are gonna really thrive when you give them the chance to, you know, the opportunity to run that themselves and to problem solve and to, you know, create their own life and all the life they're wanting and others, you know, you might be doing a little bit more behind, you know, standing behind or holding their hand and kind going through that process together. So you get to know your participants and that's where you kind of manage time a little bit more as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's well, I think we're, uh, we're around questions here you might before, so let's pretend that're into the future. And in the,
Speaker 2:I mean, I still think we have a long way to go in 20 years time. I mean, my would be that you knows funded for, and I think on that my would be that participants like participants and are just able to really work towards their goals, but at the point where they're probably achieving their goals and everyone is just obviously working together, I don't think we need to have necessarily participants and service providers. I think perhaps everyone's obviously working together and yeah, I think obviously a situation whereby there's a lot more integration in the disability sector as well. I'd love to see, I think a lot less younger people in aged care and more opportunities there as well. Um, so there's a lot that we can perhaps still do in the next 20 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It sounds like a sort of working together and, uh, more opportunities. It's, it's been quite an interesting question to hear from a few different people, as far as where they say it going, but you sound very
Speaker 2:Optimistic about it. Yeah. Well, you've gotta be<laugh> I think you've gotta be optimistic. I mean, I'd like think that we feedback, I think that's know is doing that, but we can continue to ask more and more questions of how people are finding the, the scheme and, and really learn from their experiences. I mean, they're the ones that are, um, accessing it at the end of the day. And if we listen to how they're finding, I think we can actually grow a lot more as well. That's really important to get more and more participant feedback and then continue to perhaps bring in little bit, you know, different changes that can help with that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We've been talking to Kate Turnbull, a highly dedicated and knowledgeable support coordinator from turning point support. Kate, where can people go to learn more about what it's that you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah. People can check out our website, www dot, turning support.com AU on. Then they'll find a little bit about who we are, our team and what we do, and they can also find, um, my contact details on there. If they wanna gimme a call and have a chat.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much.
Speaker 2:No worries. It's been a pleasure. Thanks.