Subheading Home and Community Support
Home and Community supports are contracted supports that will come from a provider contracted by Disability Support Services (under MSD). To check if you might be eligible for support please go here.
If you think you are eligible you can get a referral from your GP, specialist or allied health professional or contact the local Auckland NASC (Kaikaranga) directly for a needs assessment.
These supports include personal care, household management, behavioural support and supported living.
Personal Care:
Personal Care is when a support worker helps with things like getting dressed, assisting with eating and drinking, personal hygiene, getting around your home and developing self-care routines. The contracted provider will develop an individual support plan with you.
Household Management:
This is when you have a support worker to help with things like, cleaning, preparing meals, laundry, and other day-to-day household tasks. You can choose a provider funded by the ministry to do this for you.
The disabled person (or the parent, if child is under 16 years) must have a Community Services Card (CSC) to receive Household Management. Household management allocations are also assessed based on the age, stage of life and relationship status of the disabled person.
Behavioural Support
If a disabled person has behaviour that challenges other people, you can talk to an expert about the ‘why’ behind the behaviour, and how to manage it effectively.
The national provider for behaviour support in New Zealand is Explore. Explore will work together with you, your family and support network to come up with plans to help you support the disabled person to express their emotions in a different way, communicate more effectively and navigate daily situations with less stress.
Explore can support the disabled person and family at home or the disabled person living in a residential care setting.
Key things to remember:
- Explore has a prioritised waiting list.
- Early intervention can be life changing. Check out Explore’s wellbeing support resources on their website
This is short-term support to help people achieve prioritised goals. It’s for those who are already somewhat independent, and want to build their skills and confidence to navigate daily life on their own.
This type of support is often used as a transition to Independent living when moving out of the family home, or to build independence in the community.
A Supported Living provider will work with you to identity your core goals and plan how to reach them within a set time—this ensures you’ll get the intensity of support needed to reach these goals. Some ideas for goals are going out and about and getting to know your community, shopping, budgeting or cooking, or help when dealing with agencies such as Work and Income or your bank.
Your provider will send your plan to the NASC – Kaikaranga, so we know what goals you want to reach and how they intend to support you. Once we agree with the plan, your support will start. When your goal is reached Kaikaranga can look into other goals you may have.
For general information on Supported Living please click here.