NDIS Change of Situation in a Crisis: A Guide for Support Coordinators

Managing a participant’s change of situation when it involves a crisis is challenging. We reveal the steps required to navigate such events.

By Mary Ingerton, Managing Director at Support Coordination Academy.

Circumstances change for NDIS participants, as they do for us all – but often these changes are anticipated or even expected.

Take life transitions for example, like leaving school or moving out of home.

But a change of situation relating to a crisis event is a whole other matter.

Yet it is an expectation that a Support Coordinator can adequately prepare a participant for such unpredictable events and has the skills to plan, prevent, develop strategies and take steps to manage a crisis.

This is because these situations usually impact a participant’s access to supports, have a detrimental effect on the individual and, most importantly, place them at risk of harm.

So, how can a Support Coordinator build their skills to identify and manage a crisis situation?

Let’s look at some key steps.

How to Identify Changes

When a Support Coordinator first works with a participant, they start to build the relationship and gain an understanding of how a participant chooses to live their life.

This includes noting the significant people in their life, the supports and services they receive, where they live and the decisions they make – in effect, how they choose to have choice and control over their day-to-day.

Through this understanding, a Support Coordinator is able to recognise when a participant’s life is not going as well as it should be.

This is often observed through a pattern of behaviour over time, which is an indicator that a participant could be heading towards a crisis situation – especially if no action is taken to address the matter.

This pattern of behaviour could include things like:

• Disengagement from formal services: A participant consistently missing appointments or making excuses about why a support is not working
• Unstable living arrangements: The person might be having constant disputes with their neighbours or landlord or are constantly in arrears in their rent
• Frequent interactions with mainstream services: For example, the police, healthcare or justice
• Risk factors in informal supports: There could be an over-reliance on ageing carers or exposure to domestic violence or frequent abuse of drugs or alcohol

How to Manage Risk

It’s a fine line.

A Support Coordinator needs to maintain a balance between ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the participant, while respecting the person’s autonomy and right to have choice and control over their supports and services.

Support Coordinators manage this balance by:

• Working collaboratively with the participant and their support network to discuss and address concerns, using a person-centred approach to understand the underlying issues and how these challenges create barriers and/or risks for the participant
• Identifying appropriate strategies to overcome barriers and reduce the likelihood of a risk occurring, taking the participant’s individual needs and preferences into consideration, to ensure their choice and control remain central to all planning and agreed intervention strategies

NDIS Change of Situation Form

If you have assessed that your client’s needs have changed, and the NDIA must be notified, an NDIS Change in Situation form will need to be completed.

When supporting a participant to submit a Change of Situation form, a Support Coordinator has to provide evidence to substantiate the recommended supports required, and evidence how they have supported the participant to manage the crisis.

This is in addition to the collaborating evidence provided by the participant’s support network.

Support Coordinators supply this evidence by providing:

• A Risk Assessment and Risk Management Plan, to evidence the nature and level of risk, the mitigation strategies being implemented to reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring and how the support network is supporting the participant to manage the risk.
• A Report to document the change in the participant’s situation, the impact, the factors that contribute to a higher level of complexity, associated risks and the recommended supports required.

The NDIS will then assess whether a Plan Variation or a full Plan Reassessment is required, based on the information provided in the Change of Situation form and attached evidence.

In simple terms, managing a crisis situation is a matter of remaining vigilant, following procedures with diligence and keeping a level head.

These factors are all crucial to its success.

Looking for More Support?

We have only scratched the surface of a complex and important topic.

If you have any questions about managing a crisis situation or require other assistance as a Support Coordinator, contact us today.

To help you to build your skills, Endeavour Foundation has partnered with Support Coordination Academy to offer free online professional learning sessions for Support Coordinators.

To register your interest in future webinars, sign up below.

Support Coordination Academy provides essential training and resources for Support Coordinators across Australia.