What Support Can I Get At Home?

What is a Support Worker?

A support worker is a term used to describe someone who is employed to provide disability support services. This term is often interchanged with carer, or support staff. 

A support worker can be employed by a larger organisation (a provider), or they may be a sole trader and work for themself.

Who Can Provide Support In the Home?

The NDIS can fund a support worker to assist you in the home. Assistance can cover a wide variety of tasks that you need help with. A support worker can be involved with you directly to meet a specific support need.

Alternatively, you can hire service providers to assist with domestic tasks on your behalf.

Support with Personal Care

Personal care tasks are the activities related to hygiene. 

If your capacity to engage in personal care tasks is impacted by your physical, intellectual or psychosocial disability, or due to a neurodivergent condition, a support worker can assist you with the following personal care tasks:

• Showering
• Dressing
• Brushing teeth
• Washing face
• Brushing hair
• Applying deodorant
• Applying makeup
• Toileting, bladder and bowel management and menstrual care

A support worker can provide hands-on assistance at varying levels, depending on your support needs. Perhaps you need total physical assistance for washing your whole body, or can manage washing your upper body in a seated position and need help for washing your legs and feet.

The support worker’s role is to promote your independence and help out with the tasks in the activity you have difficulty completing.

Perhaps you don’t require physical support, but require verbal prompting and encouragement to stay on task or maintain safety. Verbal assistance can also be provided at a minimal level, i.e. gentle reminder, or a moderate/maximal level, i.e. step by step instructions.

Support Mobility and Transfers

If your mobility is impacted by a physical disability, a support worker can assist with your mobility.

This may involve physically assisting you to walk and move, or assistance to use or operate a mobility aid or device. This can range from setting up a four-wheeled walking frame or walking stick, to operating a powered wheelchair.

A support worker can assist with your transfers between surfaces. Examples include transferring between bed and wheelchair, on and off the toilet, between couch to dining chair etc. Assistance provided may involve the use of assistive technology, i.e. slide board, or the operation transfer aids, i.e. sit to stand lifter or a mobile hoist.

Support with Appliances and Aids

Set up assistance can be provided if you use appliances such as hearing and communication devices related to your disability. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices can be complex and require support to set up and position devices to promote communication, such as an Eye Gaze technology.

Support with Domestic Tasks

Due to your disability, you may be unable to complete some or all domestic tasks. If this is the case, funding may be available to you for the following activities:

• Cleaning, ranging from light cleaning/tidying to heavy duty cleaning
• Meal Preparation
• Home Maintenance
• Gardening

This support may be provided to assist you with completing certain activities, such as cooking a meal or cleaning the home alongside each other. Or depending on your functional capacity and goals, this activity can be completed on your behalf.

Support Worker Ratios of Support

You may require one support worker to provide direct physical assistance with an activity, i.e. showering and dressing. This is referred to 1:1 support, where one support worker is assisting one participant.

In some cases, 2:1 support is necessary. This is where two support workers assist one participant.

2:1 support may be required when higher support needs are present due to:

• complex disability needs and/or complex health-related disability supports
• manual handling requirements to reduce the risk of injury to the participant and support workers involved
• use of assistive technology that requires to be operated by two people, such as a mobile hoist
• supporting behaviours of concern, in line with recommendations outlined in an individualised behaviour support plan

In other cases, a shared ratio of support is deemed appropriate. Some examples of shared support are:

• 1:2 support = one support worker to two participants
• 1:3 support = one support worker to three participants
• 2:3 support = two support workers to three participants

Typically shared support provided will not be as hands on, as it usually involves close by or distant supervision, as care responsibilities are divided between the participants present.

Your ratio of support may vary across the day depending on your activities and support needs.

How do I know my Ratio of Support?

If you need help determining the ratio of support you require across a variety of activities, you can seek out a Functional Capacity Assessment.

This is completed by an Occupational Therapist who assesses your functional capacity and support needs across all of your activities of daily living.

The Occupational Therapist prepares a Functional Capacity Assessment Report that provides an overview of your functional capacity and support needs. It includes recommendations for NDIS-funded supports across Core, Capacity Building and Capital Support funding categories.

To connect with an Occupational Therapist, ask the MyCareSpace Connections Team to find you an OT with availability today.

Find an OT

Is a Support Worker For Me?

If you are considering whether you need a support worker, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What are my day to day activities - what makes up my daily life and what is important to me?
2. What difficulties do I have across my usual activities - what do I struggle with or need help with?
3. Are the challenges I experience related to my disability? Find the link between difficulties and your condition/s recognised by the NDIS.

Is A Support Worker For Me is a great place to start on your support worker journey.

Finding the Right Support Worker For Me?

Finding a support worker can be a daunting process. If you have not had support before from someone outside of your family, inviting someone new into your home can be overwhelming.

Some people can even find it invasive. This is completely understandable and reasonable!

Finding the Right Support Worker For Me? is a fantastic resource to guide you on what to consider when seeking out support.

Support Outside of the Home

In addition to support in the home, support can be provided across any of the activities discussed in the following settings:

• The home of friends/family
• Social/recreation activities
• Education
• Employment
• Holidays away from home

How do I access Support Work in my NDIS Plan?

In your NDIS Plan, you may have a Core Support budget.

Core Support funding includes supports to help you with:

• your everyday living activities
• your current disability-related needs
• to help you work towards your longer-term goals

You can use this Core Support funding to access support workers for your needs in the home and in the community, transport and low cost products related to your disability.

Review the MyCareSpace Core Support: Quick Guide for further information.

Where do I find a Support Worker?

MyCareSpace offer a FREE concierge service where our Connections Team review your details and source services in your local area with capacity to support you. It’s that easy!

All you have to do is provide your details and basic information on what you are looking for. Cleaning? Gardening? Personal care assistance? Let the team know!

Get started

The Connections Team will provide you with some options to choose from to ensure you are in control of your provider choices.