December 8, 2024 • 49 mins
On this episode Sam and Hannah get to chat with a genuine legend of the NDIS, Sue Grier from Let's Connect Support Services. We have been looking forward to this one for a while, and we hope you enjoy a great conversation about support coordination, some of the current difficulties in the NDIS space, and much more.
If you want to get in touch with Let's Connect, head to their website:
or email:
If you want to get in touch with us, you can:
Contact the podcast whatinthendispod@gmail.com
Contact Hannah hello@plandecoders.com.au
Contact Sam sam@rosenbaum.consulting
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We acknowledge the original owners of the land on which we podcast, whose stories were told for
(00:05):
thousands of years. Today we are recording in Mianjin. We pay our respects to elders past
and present who may be listening. Sovereignty was never ceded. A quick note before we get started,
that there may be some swearing in today's podcast. If you don't like swearing or usually
listen with children in the car, you have been warned. Hey podcast fans, ready for a podcast
(00:33):
event that's as unique as you are? Mark your calendars for February 12th, 2025. The What in
the NDIS Now podcast is going live and you're invited. But here's the twist, our dress code
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(00:59):
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(01:24):
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(01:53):
Hey there NDIS enthusiasts, have you been burning to ask me and Sam a question all year? Well,
guess what? Your moment has arrived. Yay! That's right. The What in the NDIS Now podcast is
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(02:19):
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(02:42):
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(03:09):
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(03:31):
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(03:53):
brought to you by Astalti. Astalti is the software solution for NDIS professionals built by NDIS
professionals. Astalti is my go-to software and Astalti is trusted and loved by hundreds of other
NDIS providers. I love how easy it is to use and how it keeps all my participant information,
(04:17):
notes and invoicing all in one place available to me anytime from any device. Sign up now
for your 14-day free trial. Head to astalti.com.au to sign up now. See for yourself how much easier
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(04:41):
today's episode. You're listening to What in the NDIS Now, a podcast where I, Hannah Redford,
and my friend Sam Rosenbaum interview participants and providers about all things NDIS.
(05:11):
Hi Sam, how are you going? Yeah, really good. Hannah, how are you yourself?
Yeah, I'm super excited today. On the podcast with us, we have Sue Greer. Welcome to the podcast,
Sue. Thanks, Hannah. Hi, Sam, how are you going? We're going really well, Sue. We've been very
excited to try and get you onto the podcast and we're very happy we've finally been able to do it.
(05:34):
Thank you. Oh, look, I'm great to be here. As we usually start the show, where did you grow up?
I grew up in Ashgrove in Brisbane. So I'm a Brizzy girl, Queenslander. Around the corner from me.
Where are you? Where were you, Sam? I'm in Ferny Grove. Oh, okay. Great little part of the world
here in Brizzy. And you spent some time in Tassie too. Yes, so we did a state change and moved down
(05:59):
to Tassie just when they were rolling out the NDIS down there. So I was lucky to be part of
that rollout. Worked in the sector down there for a little bit. Became homesick, missed my grandkids
and my daughters and moved back to Queensland thinking the NDIS space would be the same in every
(06:23):
state because it was a federal initiative rollout and was pleasantly surprised that Queensland did
things different. Yes. So that brings me to how did you get into the disability sector?
Okay, so 38 years ago I gave birth to this amazing son who was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth.
(06:52):
So when he was born, it was the era of the, I actually think it's the same year that they were
closing the institutions down in Queensland. So there was a lot of funding and money out there
to have people moved out of Woolston Park. William was actually in a program from the age of three
(07:17):
months. So he's always been in some sort of funding model from that day. So and then I ended up
working in the industry. So yeah. As a lot of us do. I know. And it's really interesting because
(07:38):
you can see things from a personal perspective, especially when we work with so many families and
participants now, but we also know from a business perspective and compliance perspective of how
things need to run. Although at the moment things are all a little bit rocky. Yeah. Yeah. So now you
(08:05):
are a support coordinator and have a support coordination business that is independent.
Yes. Do you want to tell us a little bit about how that came to be? Okay. So I was working for a large
Australian support coordination company. I'm not going to name them, but they are a fairly big one.
(08:27):
We had a difference of opinion. I left, went out on my own, thought I would just be a independent.
You know, it was right on that we're in COVID. So it was for just over four years ago.
And realised within about a couple of months, it wasn't going to be just me in that time. I think
(08:50):
in 2021, we became a registered provider with the NDIS. We've grown to at the moment, we support
about 400 people in Australia with support coordination. So we work alongside a lot of the
hospitals here with hospital discharges, work with people with psychosocial, the disabilities
(09:19):
are across the board. And I have a team of 13 support coordinators now. Wow. And we've got our
main offices in Redcliffe now. Yeah. So that gives you a lot of perspective and insight into
what is happening in the sector. And one of the reasons why I particularly wanted you on the
(09:42):
podcast is your amazing LinkedIn posts that are so detailed and are often a story of a participant
who is being severely let down by the system. And it is often shocking and gripping at the same time.
(10:09):
So I wondered if, you know, you want to talk about some of that and how you, you don't have to
necessarily tell their stories because that's for them, but how you sometimes get through that.
Okay. I think the biggest one we're seeing at the moment is we're seeing people's,
(10:30):
you know, in their family situation or their disability or their independence has declined
and they're needing more support in the home. So we go through the change of situation. We have
all the reports. We, you know, the staff ring the call centre and they've just, you know, we get those
(10:54):
answers of just use the plan as you need to use. And then,
which of course is the worst advice ever.
We know that, but you know, when someone, when families can no longer support a person at home,
we have to increase the supports or their independence has declined. We have to put more
(11:19):
support in place and then it starts the phone calls. So we have a two week, every two weeks,
we ring the NDIS to find out where things are. Can they escalate the change of situation
where a phone call and Hannah, you would know from your years in this industry as well, that
(11:42):
when we used to ring the NDIS, we could do a phone call in 15 minutes.
Yes.
Now they're taking over an hour.
Yes.
Because, you know, they're still working from two systems, one being pro to one being pace.
And, you know, we hear this, oh yes, we'll escalate it. Here's your receipt number.
(12:03):
For your phone call. So two weeks later, we ring up and oh no, it hasn't been escalated.
Yes. Oh, but here's my receipt number. Yeah, they didn't actually push the last button.
And so then it wasn't escalated. And you're like, well, if it was just the push of a button,
how hard, like, how did they miss this?
(12:25):
Yeah. Yeah. But I think the hardest part is, you know,
when we're getting to the stage where there'd be less than $1,000 left in a plan and we know
that person is going to have to do a social admission into a hospital. And we hate that.
The last thing we want to see is placing a healthy person in a hospital,
(12:53):
of sick people, taking up a bed space, because we all know ourselves how much Queensland Health
is suffering too, because of the lack of beds. And then we also don't want to put the stress
also on the HLOs that are in the hospital as well, because, you know, then they've got another
(13:16):
person with a disability. And so we want to see that. And so we want to see that.
And then they've got another person with a disability being admitted into a hospital
that doesn't need to be hospitalised, because there's no funds.
And on top of that, a lot of the nurses are not trained in disability, because they're
(13:38):
trained in like sickness, illness, that sort of thing. They're not trained in disability.
So they don't understand how to talk to someone with a disability, how to,
you know, support them within that hospital structure appropriately. But also we're not
allowed to have support workers in the hospital with the person at the same time to relieve that
(14:01):
issue. Yeah, it's sort of, you know, it goes around in that vicious circle. And, you know,
I've been lucky, I shouldn't say lucky, but I do have a contact I ring or I text. And you would know
in my posts that I always write which hospital. Yep. Just so the HLO is aware where they're going.
(14:30):
Yeah. And, you know, normally I'll get a, I'll receive a call or one of my team will receive
a call from that HLO in the afternoon. And then within the next 48 hours, we will have possibly
a restart of a plan, which has been, you know, it's been a big relief for families and also the
(14:55):
participants, because we don't want them in hospital. No, but at the same time, you're bashing
your head against the brick wall, because it was that plan that got them into this and then they
were like, oh, we're going to do this in the first place. Actually, we requested a new plan.
We actually need a new plan, not just the old plan restarted, but that's something to get us
(15:18):
through until you can catch up and do the change of situation. Yeah. And that's if you get to get
the change of situations in before the next rollover or the next fiery date then. Yeah.
The other thing that really frustrates me about all of this, it's really good that you're getting
the response. But I remember from back in the days when I was having to advocate and deal with mum
(15:40):
in the hospital system within Queensland Health. Why do we have to go to that kind of level to get
a response? If it's that easy for the people to kind of go, oh, someone's making noise here, why
do we have to make noise for them to actually do something? Yeah. It's, I can't, you know, we
shouldn't have to. We shouldn't have to have it where families are at breaking point or even
(16:04):
support coordinators, because, you know, a lot of us have worked with these people, with families
and participants for many years. And, you know, we're not just that support coordinator. We're
actually part of an amazing network to ensure this person has the right supports. So it sort of
(16:26):
becomes a little bit more personal. So yeah, we should never have to go through this. And I've
never seen the NDIA in such a bad state at the moment, not even during rollout, was it ever like
this? So it's only been in the last 18 months since we've seen this happen. Yeah, it's the worst. I
(16:52):
keep saying that to people that I've been in this a long time too, and I've never ever seen it this
bad. And it's really shocking and upsetting. I had a similar thing where a few times I've written
letters to federal MPs and that I've managed to get responses quite quickly and things have turned
(17:19):
around quite quickly doing that. And so I've been frustrated even by that because I'm like, well,
you're just lucky that I happen to be, you know, of enough education and that I understand how to
write these letters so that the MPs will pay attention, you know. And if you, whereas if you
(17:47):
were just with someone else, they might not be as good at that. And it's so frustrating that there's
almost a little bit of a lottery in the type of support coordinator you happen to interact with
at that point in time is then also has a significant impact on your outcome. And then,
(18:14):
like, also things like what do people do who don't have support coordination? You know, they're
totally up shit creek in this current circumstance. Yeah. I mean, there's, and we always talk as a team
that, you know, there's only 13, 14 of us and there are thousands of people that don't have support
(18:38):
coordination. What do they do? How do they cope? You know, it would be so hard. And then there's
new people still coming into the system or coming into support coordinators and they don't have the
experience and the knowledge to do this. Because it is hard when, you know, you're dealing with
(19:01):
so many different government officials or government officers, you know, especially when
you're dealing with Queensland Health, you've got education, there's just so many people involved
and systems. It's really hard. So, you know, I've got a team of really experienced support
coordinators and I'm really grateful for the team that we've got. But, you know, even I still learn
(19:26):
after all these years because it just changes. Everything change, it can change weekly in the
sector at the moment. And that's the bit that is the most annoying. And they'll just, like,
come up with something as if it was like a shower thought, you know, and they blurt it out and you're
(19:49):
like, what? And all of us get on them and go, no, no, no, you can't do this. And then they sometimes
they turn around and go, oh, you're right. Stuff it, we're not doing that. And then sometimes they
they're like, no, no, that's what we're doing. And we don't give a shit that you're all unhappy
with it. And I mean, that's part of why we have this podcast is to try and let people know of
(20:16):
those changes. But of course, sometimes it does just happen too fast and we can't get episodes
out fast enough.
Yeah.
Also the magnitude of information that does come out from time to time, especially now more than
ever.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think too, like, the hardest bit is now, you know, we've got the new legend,
we've got the new legislation and there's all these new changes and the latest one being the art
(20:42):
therapy and the music therapy. You know, I work with a lot of people with behavioural problems and
intellectual disability and I've seen the result in, you know, from prior to them, us linking them
into music therapy to where they are today. And we've seen that, you know, the behaviours have
(21:06):
decreased and, you know, things are working so much better in the homes and, but to now not value
the amazing work that these qualified art therapists and music therapists are doing.
It's a shame that it's happened what's happened.
Oh yeah. It kills me. And I actually called my Federal MP actually a couple of times because I
(21:35):
didn't get through to start with. I hope that it meant that other people were calling. But
eventually when I got through, I was like, you are meant to represent my views to the parliament.
That's why you're there. These are my views, represent them.
Yeah. And look, I think there's going to be a lot more come out in the next couple of months. I mean,
(22:02):
we've seen the, the STA ruling. I'm not going to even going to comment on that one, but yeah,
it's, it's very interesting, you know, this whole thing also around SIL. People need to
live with two other people. Well, no, they don't. It's not the norm. My son is supported in his own
(22:27):
unit 24 seven by himself. He chooses not to live with anyone and that's his choice, but we
work alongside his funding budget to ensure that continues.
Yeah. Yeah. Look that man almost, I mean, they haven't mandated, but they've said predominantly
(22:49):
it will be one to three. That kills me as a human being because I'm like, I'm an adult and I know,
I don't want to live in a shared house. Why do we make just because people have a disability,
all of a sudden they have to live in a shared house. Like what the hell.
Well, and look, he's, he's tried living with someone and it was a really negative
(23:13):
result. And you know, when I used to, well, when I used to receive phone calls at 10 o'clock at
night begging to come home, it's heartbreaking. So we chose that he would live in his own home.
And this is his home. It's not a home owned by a provider or anything. This is his home.
(23:36):
Yeah. And that's how we want it kept. Yeah. And look, he has the best life and he does some
amazing things and he's, you know, he's so lucky because he lives up at Red Cliff and he has such
a really good network of people around there that, you know, I always believe it. What are that?
What's the saying? It takes a community to raise a person. Yeah. And that's exactly what the Red Cliff
(24:03):
community has done with him. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is. It's a funny part of Brisbane because it is
sort of almost like a little country town within the greater Brisbane area. So that is,
that is really lovely. Yeah. And I think, you know, going back to when they closed our institutions
(24:27):
down here in Brisbane, a lot of the ILS homes and all that were in Red Cliff. So people with
disabilities has always had, have always been accepted by PR, the Red Cliff Peninsula. So.
Oh, that's so great. That's something I did not know about.
Red Cliff is a very unique and wonderful part of Australia. Yes. It's very diverse and very
(24:54):
eclectic and yeah, very interesting. Anyone that hasn't been to Red Cliff and can get over there
for a day trip, well worth it. Yeah, definitely. Are there any other parts of the NDIS that are,
that you are seeing big holes in? Equipment, approval of equipment. I think I might have put
(25:14):
a post a while ago about a gentleman that I've been working with for quite a few years, an amputee.
We put in for his new prosthetics in July. I'm happy to say a new plan came in two days ago.
Oh my goodness. Was it approved? But you know, even going through that whole phone calls,
(25:36):
you know, where are we with the equipment? You know, oh, is it urgent? Well, yes, he needs a
leg to stand. And some, some of the questions that we get from the call centre, you know what,
my magic ball would be that the NDIA actually had, or Bill Shorten provides the agency with funds to
(26:02):
educate the people on the call centre. Right. Yeah. Because it annoys me so much that they seem
to be the least educated people about the NDIS and they're the ones meant to answer people's
questions. I just throw a spanner in that statement and maybe just go stop outsourcing,
(26:26):
hire internally and have a training program because clearly an outsourcing program is not
working. Yeah, definitely. And look, some of the planners as well, you know, I was doing a plan
review meeting with a lady I've been supporting, I think for six years. So she has progressive MS
(26:49):
and a spinal injury, amazing woman and a great team working with her. But when we're waiting
for equipment and we get this phone call from the planner and he's not addressing her and she's
sitting next to me and he's putting all the questions to me and then makes a comment of,
(27:10):
oh, I've seen you've been using your therapy budget. Has there been an increase in your
independence? And I'm there, have you read what her disability is? You know she has progressive MS.
Do you know she's got a spinal injury? My role is to make sure the bit of independence she does
(27:33):
have, we keep it. So she's, I think at one stage he used the word, was she getting better?
Yeah. So I said, she's actually not going to get better.
No, not ever.
Ever.
Not ever. Like that's not the way this works. Yeah. When you were telling the story about
(27:57):
the prosthetic leg, I was very nervous because I know sometimes they've asked,
well, hasn't it grown back? Like a limb grows back. And you're like, what do you mean? What do
you mean? Did you go to high school biology? I didn't know. I know the answer to that.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like I had a participant who had a spine, has a spinal injury and needed a new
(28:27):
shower chair, like something relatively simple, but it had to be, it did have to be made for her.
Yeah.
And it took nine months for the approval to come through. And in the meantime, I kept calling them
and I'm like, this is a huge risk because the current one is broken. And if, and it's held
(28:53):
together by duct tape and hopes and dreams. And if she, like, if she was to have a fall because it
all of a sudden fell apart while she was sitting on it, like this is a huge risk, do something.
And they'd be like, ah, yes, well, you know, we've, we've escalated it or whatever,
(29:15):
you know, and you're like, but that's not enough. I need you to actually approve this thing.
Or we're paying out or plans are paying out for higher equipment for months and months. Like
my lady with MS, like we, we got a new plan through just over the last seven days,
(29:37):
but she was hiring a shower commode for $600 a month.
Yeah. Yeah.
When the shower commode is, I think it was four and a half thousand dollars.
Yeah.
You know, what a waste of taxpayer money when, you know, people have been on the scheme for so
many years and they, they know the background, but they're, they're not working quick enough to
(30:03):
approve this equipment. And there's just wasted money to hire places.
Yeah, absolutely. I've definitely done that before. And it's made me want to scream because
also it reduces their other budgets to be able to like actually do things. I have felt that
(30:26):
the way they're making everything harder and harder to do, we are going backwards to the days
of coffee and cake. And it pisses me off that we're going back to that because we tried so
hard to get away from that. And I mean, there are still some people doing it, but we've,
(30:50):
we've worked so hard to get people's thoughts away from coffee and cake or just go bowling
all the flipping time. Like bowling is fine a couple of times, but not all the time.
Most of the participants really into bowling league.
Yeah.
Exactly. Like if you're into bowling, go, go for your life, but not everyone is that into bowling.
(31:17):
And, you know, like we're, we're going backwards to those days of just sort of making people with
disabilities do the most boring shit possible. And it really makes me so angry watching this
happen and all of the innovation that we've all worked towards just be, just be removed from the
(31:44):
system and the scheme as a whole, because nothing innovative now fits in anywhere. It's all on the
no list.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot, look, a couple of years ago, when I, I had a, I had some time to kill
(32:07):
before I went to another meeting and, and this is talking about coffee and cake a little bit.
I had to stop, I stopped at McDonald's, just to get a coffee, sit down and watch. And when I arrived
there, I noticed a person with a disability in a wheelchair and a support worker sitting there.
(32:29):
And I, like, I had over an hour to kill and I sat in the road back and then I looked at the woman
and I've gone, I know this woman because she lives in the house. I have to go visit. And she was out
with her community access provider. And after an hour of watching, no communication made by this
(32:56):
support worker who was just sitting on her phone, texting, I got up to leave and I said, hello to
the woman in the wheelchair. And then the support worker asked me, did I know this woman? I said,
I know this woman. I said, yes. And I know where you are from too. And I will be, I will be reporting
(33:17):
you to your company for sitting here for an hour, totally ignoring the person you're supposed to be
supporting. And I did, I did end up ringing them. I don't know what became of it, but I think I
always tell my team, if you see something like that, you report it. You, you go up and say
something, you know, don't be afraid to advocate on behalf of that person with the disability,
(33:43):
because I think the more times people pull people up, I think we could possibly see a little bit of
a change in how these people are supporting. Yeah. And generally in the community interaction as well.
Hmm. Like the amount of times that I hear stories from people on guardianship orders,
(34:06):
trying to get stuff, medication sorted out the pharmacy, and they've got a script from the
hospital and they take it into their pharmacy and the pharmacy goes, no, you need to go speak to your
GP because I'm not accepting this script. Wow. And then dismissing the individual going, where's your
(34:26):
worker? Because I want to talk to the worker. Why are we dismissing people's intelligence and the
ability to engage? Yeah. Ridiculous. And that's true. Look, I've worked with a big company that
worked with people with spinal injuries when I first moved back to Queensland and I sat on,
sat next to an amazing woman who has a disability and she had a very big career and she'd work for
(34:58):
work cover and everything like that. But the way professionals treated her outside of her work area
was that they treated her that she didn't understand, but her intellect is probably
better than mine. So it's amazing that people today still see a person with a disability
(35:22):
as not understanding. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And don't understand that their disability could be
purely physical. Yeah. And brain is brilliant. Yep. And even if someone does have an intellectual
disability, their brain can still be brilliant in a slightly different way that you're not expecting.
(35:48):
And so to just dismiss people is infuriating to me. Yeah, definitely. And look, we've seen-
Sorry Sam. No, you're all right. I was saying that it goes back to that conversation that we were
having at the start around the interactions we were having with the hospital and having just to
(36:08):
argue for the simplest things. It's common sense. It just baffles me at the moment why we seem to be
pushing on a social front to progress forward, but collectively walking our way backwards. Yeah.
Yeah. I think that encapsulates it exactly. Don't know what the answer is to change it.
(36:28):
No, I wish I did know. Yeah. I mean, I always say education, training, education. Like I said
before, I learn something new every week in this sector. But I suppose people just don't understand
(36:49):
a lot of people with disabilities or they don't want to, or are we going back to where
people are scared? Well, that's possibly a good thought, especially with where you think about
some of the stuff these days around the whole political correctness conversation. Yes. I think
a lot of people feel scared that they're about to say something out of turn and go get cancelled.
(37:14):
Yeah. But do you think also that the media these days are focusing on so much negativity
in the NDIS space? Look, we know over time that where there is government money, whether it's
Centrelink, NDIS, Medicare, there's always going to be fraud. We know that. But to continue to
(37:45):
focus in the media that people on the NDIS are spending money on prostitutes and yoga therapy
and all these things. Don't forget the boats. And the boats. Goat therapy. Goat therapy
is ridiculous. Yeah. Well, you and I went to where I attended a networking event very recently.
(38:15):
And at the end of that event, I was walking home a bit dismayed going, let's stop talking about
the fraud and more focusing on the fake. Yeah. And there's a lot of fake. Oh, there's so much fake.
And the weird thing is, is the amount of peers in the industry that we have that don't necessarily
(38:36):
seem to see it. Yeah. Yeah. And... Or don't want to call it out. No. I mean, I think you all know me
well enough. I'll call it out. I don't have a problem. Well, I love you Sue. Sometimes my
mouth gets me into trouble. But, you know, I've been in the disability sector for too long. And
(39:00):
in this space at the moment, you know, we are seeing some things happening that I don't like
and I'll call a provider or a person out on that. I don't have an issue. And neither will my team.
My team will call a person out. I'm really excited that your wisdom is being... is flowing out to a
(39:22):
new generation of support coordinators. And this new generation of support coordinators are like
you going to call a spade a spade. Yeah. And that is so comforting to me as someone who has jumped ship.
It's a hard space. It is. You know, there's over... I can't even remember when I started. I started
(39:47):
doing support coordination when I was in Tassie. Only a little bit. That's when the price guide was
16 pages. And then it moved to 37. I don't even know how many pages it is these days. But
these days where I just think, oh, can't do this anymore, but something will happen that will be a
(40:09):
positive. And I go, yes, this is the reason I'm doing this. And this is why... Speaking of positive
notes, I really do love the throw out on your positivity. I think yours and Nina Crumpton's
from down in New South Wales, Newcastle, Newcastle space area. And I think you're going to be
(40:30):
a Newcastle space area. But I think continually I call out the shit, but purposely go out of way
to praise the good news as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that needs to be more of the latter. Oh,
yeah. You know, we see such amazing things happening. And, you know, I try and talk to the
team every when I can, you know, what's the positive for this week? What's something positive
(40:54):
that's come out of it? You know, the positive this week, I've got a gentleman that's got his
prosthetics approved. I've got a woman that's got a new plan with all her equipment approved.
You know, they're really big wins because just for those two, that equipment is going to make
such a big difference in both their lives. Awesome. I love that so much. So that brings me to,
(41:21):
in your ideal world, what would the future of the NDIS look like? That people were funded correctly,
stop thinking that everyone on the scheme, it's, is there ripping off the taxpayer because there's
a lot that don't. There's a tiny, tiny little bit that maybe, and like I said,
(41:46):
it's government money. You're always going to have fraud where there's government money.
That we had staff that work in the industry in there for the right reason. I always said,
even prior to the NDIS, there's no money in the NDIS, there's no money in disability.
(42:08):
If you're in it for the money, you may as well leave because if you're doing the job right,
there's no money. You know, I'm not swimming in jewels or flashy cars or big houses.
Or boats.
Or boats. One thing I do do is I hope I provide a good work environment for my team. And that's
(42:34):
something I always wanted to do was to ensure that my team are happy with the company that I'm in.
That my team are happy with the company they work for. So I invest more education into my team and
provide them with vehicles to use. So we're not passing on cost to participants around all that.
(42:59):
Because we all know in this industry, mileage is a big thing.
Oh my goodness. It does my head in.
So.
Personally, of the opinion that you either pick time or you pick mileage,
the fact that you can charge both kills me. And I have never ever charged both.
(43:21):
I charge time. That is it. And every time I see people who charge both, I'm just like, no, stop it.
And I look, I think one thing I want to say to any of the support coordinators
listening to this podcast is put a value on your time. If you're getting new participants
(43:47):
with support coordination in and they've provided you with the meet, I've read where some people
have had six hours of support coordination for the year. Knock it back. That's disgusting.
Yeah.
You know, if it's six hours, then it needs to go back to the LAC.
They can work with the families because six value your time, use play such an important role
(44:13):
in supporting people on the scheme, push it back to the local area coordinators. If
the funding is absolutely shocking, because I'll tell you what, they actually get paid more than
what we do to do. And we do a more thorough job. Yeah. That bit pisses me off the most.
(44:34):
Recently, my eldest daughters, I had to put in a change of situation and I finally got to the
point where it got to the LAC. And as she was talking, I played dumb and I said, but I need a
support coordinator because will I be able to call you? Will I be able to email you? And she said,
(44:58):
oh, no. And I was like, oh, and you know, I really need someone who can come out to my house
and talk me through things. And she's like, oh, we can't come out to your house. And I said, so how
come support coordinators can, cause she said, oh, it's too big a risk for us. And so we never go
(45:18):
out to people's houses cause that's too big a risk. And I said, but support coordinators do that all
the time. And she said, yeah, but we're more important. Really? And I was like, I'm sorry, what?
Really not surprised by that. And the other thing that she said that I really
(45:41):
poorly put on LinkedIn was always saying that my daughter needs support workers to teach her
independence, you know, through everyday things and, and all the time, because she needs it modeled
a million times, not just like five. And the LAC said to me, oh no, that's not what support coordinators
(46:05):
are, support workers are for. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Of course that's what support
workers are for. And she said, no, no, no, that's what allied health assistants are for. And I said,
but then they can only come out like once a week. And I'm talking about your everyday sort of things.
And she said, no, no, support workers aren't there for capacity building. They're there just for,
(46:32):
to get you through life for the, for like showering and eating and stuff. And I said,
but it would be a waste of, it's not value for money to send out an allied health assistant when
a support worker is cheaper. And she said, oh, well, I guess we'll see what the planner says.
(46:53):
Wow. And so now I'm still waiting, like, and then I said, oh, well, how long until I get to speak to
the planner? And she said, oh, well, they're backed up at the moment. It could be three or four months.
But you know what? That's another thing I hate at the moment is when you ring up and they say,
oh, you know, we've got a backlog and we're really busy. And you know what? If I ran my support
(47:15):
coordination company like that, I'm pretty sure I would lose my registration. Right. And that's,
that's another thing that pisses me off because I'm like, yeah, if, if any other company said what
they are saying and doing, they'd be out of business. And look, I think there's been a few
(47:36):
times that we've got so angry over that we've reported them to quality and safeguards. We get
the email back to say, we can't investigate the NDIA. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. They're not going to
report them to quality. Yeah. Then who? Who do we report them to? I'm a wealth ombudsman.
(47:58):
Okay. Are they going to do anything, Sam? I am not in a position to comment on the
successfulness of that ombudsman. Okay. Look, I know when things, things get really tough.
If you look at similar ICAC investigations in previous years from state-based levels,
(48:18):
they give you a good picture. Okay. Okay. And, you know, I know this, I, my team work with a few
federal members who actually really do what their role is. Especially because our office is based
in Redcliffe. We have a really good federal member up there that actually will support NDIS
(48:41):
participants and we'll make those phone calls. And his team does work really hard. And, you know,
there's a couple around the Logan that do exactly the same. That's awesome. So we just need them
in every area. Yeah. Right. 100% there. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
(49:05):
You're very welcome. I've enjoyed it. Oh, I'm so glad. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next
time. Until next time. Bye. Bye. Huzzah. Thank you for listening. Please share with people you know.
Until next time, as the Green Brothers say, don't forget to be awesome.
We acknowledge the original owners of the land on which we podcast, whose stories were told for
(00:05):
thousands of years. Today we are recording in Mianjin. We pay our respects to elders past
and present who may be listening. Sovereignty was never ceded. A quick note before we get started,
that there may be some swearing in today's podcast. If you don't like swearing or usually
listen with children in the car, you have been warned. Hey podcast fans, ready for a podcast
(00:33):
event that's as unique as you are? Mark your calendars for February 12th, 2025. The What in
the NDIS Now podcast is going live and you're invited. But here's the twist, our dress code
is your favourite outfit. Whether that's an Elmo onesie or black tie or an awesome dress with
(00:59):
pockets, anything goes. Here's what's in store. We're doing a mini trade show networking event.
We'll have an expert panel discussion. We'll have fun, laughter and valuable insights. Providers
want to stand out? You can sponsor a table for just $300. For that, you'll get your logo displayed
(01:24):
behind our panel and advertising leading up to the event. General admission is free, but spaces
are limited. Don't miss the chance to connect, learn and have a blast. To secure your spot or
membership, email whatinthispod at gmail.com or call Hannah. See you there in your fabulous outfits.
(01:53):
Hey there NDIS enthusiasts, have you been burning to ask me and Sam a question all year? Well,
guess what? Your moment has arrived. Yay! That's right. The What in the NDIS Now podcast is
wrapping up the year with a bang and you're the star of the show. We're dedicating our final
(02:19):
episode of the year to you and your burning questions about the NDIS. It's time to turn the
tables and put me and Sam in the hot seat. Here's how you can join in. Record a voice memo with your
question. It's like leaving a voicemail for your favourite podcast. Or if you're feeling a bit shy,
(02:42):
shoot us an email. We love reading those too. Send your questions to whatinthispod at gmail.com.
It's that simple. But wait, there's a catch. The clock is ticking. Tick, tick, tick. You've only
got until Friday the 13th of December to get your questions in. That's right. Mark your calendars.
(03:09):
Set those reminders. Don't miss your chance to get your voice heard on the podcast. Have your
questions answered by us. Be part of our end of year celebration. So what are you waiting for?
Grab your phone, clear your throat and start recording. Or fire up that email and start
(03:31):
typing. Remember, whatinthispod at gmail.com. Share this with your friends, family or anyone
who's curious about the NDIS. The more questions, the merrier. Let's make the final episode of the
year the best one yet. We can't wait to hear from you. This episode of What in the NDIS Now is
(03:53):
brought to you by Astalti. Astalti is the software solution for NDIS professionals built by NDIS
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(04:17):
notes and invoicing all in one place available to me anytime from any device. Sign up now
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(04:41):
today's episode. You're listening to What in the NDIS Now, a podcast where I, Hannah Redford,
and my friend Sam Rosenbaum interview participants and providers about all things NDIS.
(05:11):
Hi Sam, how are you going? Yeah, really good. Hannah, how are you yourself?
Yeah, I'm super excited today. On the podcast with us, we have Sue Greer. Welcome to the podcast,
Sue. Thanks, Hannah. Hi, Sam, how are you going? We're going really well, Sue. We've been very
excited to try and get you onto the podcast and we're very happy we've finally been able to do it.
(05:34):
Thank you. Oh, look, I'm great to be here. As we usually start the show, where did you grow up?
I grew up in Ashgrove in Brisbane. So I'm a Brizzy girl, Queenslander. Around the corner from me.
Where are you? Where were you, Sam? I'm in Ferny Grove. Oh, okay. Great little part of the world
here in Brizzy. And you spent some time in Tassie too. Yes, so we did a state change and moved down
(05:59):
to Tassie just when they were rolling out the NDIS down there. So I was lucky to be part of
that rollout. Worked in the sector down there for a little bit. Became homesick, missed my grandkids
and my daughters and moved back to Queensland thinking the NDIS space would be the same in every
(06:23):
state because it was a federal initiative rollout and was pleasantly surprised that Queensland did
things different. Yes. So that brings me to how did you get into the disability sector?
Okay, so 38 years ago I gave birth to this amazing son who was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth.
(06:52):
So when he was born, it was the era of the, I actually think it's the same year that they were
closing the institutions down in Queensland. So there was a lot of funding and money out there
to have people moved out of Woolston Park. William was actually in a program from the age of three
(07:17):
months. So he's always been in some sort of funding model from that day. So and then I ended up
working in the industry. So yeah. As a lot of us do. I know. And it's really interesting because
(07:38):
you can see things from a personal perspective, especially when we work with so many families and
participants now, but we also know from a business perspective and compliance perspective of how
things need to run. Although at the moment things are all a little bit rocky. Yeah. Yeah. So now you
(08:05):
are a support coordinator and have a support coordination business that is independent.
Yes. Do you want to tell us a little bit about how that came to be? Okay. So I was working for a large
Australian support coordination company. I'm not going to name them, but they are a fairly big one.
(08:27):
We had a difference of opinion. I left, went out on my own, thought I would just be a independent.
You know, it was right on that we're in COVID. So it was for just over four years ago.
And realised within about a couple of months, it wasn't going to be just me in that time. I think
(08:50):
in 2021, we became a registered provider with the NDIS. We've grown to at the moment, we support
about 400 people in Australia with support coordination. So we work alongside a lot of the
hospitals here with hospital discharges, work with people with psychosocial, the disabilities
(09:19):
are across the board. And I have a team of 13 support coordinators now. Wow. And we've got our
main offices in Redcliffe now. Yeah. So that gives you a lot of perspective and insight into
what is happening in the sector. And one of the reasons why I particularly wanted you on the
(09:42):
podcast is your amazing LinkedIn posts that are so detailed and are often a story of a participant
who is being severely let down by the system. And it is often shocking and gripping at the same time.
(10:09):
So I wondered if, you know, you want to talk about some of that and how you, you don't have to
necessarily tell their stories because that's for them, but how you sometimes get through that.
Okay. I think the biggest one we're seeing at the moment is we're seeing people's,
(10:30):
you know, in their family situation or their disability or their independence has declined
and they're needing more support in the home. So we go through the change of situation. We have
all the reports. We, you know, the staff ring the call centre and they've just, you know, we get those
(10:54):
answers of just use the plan as you need to use. And then,
which of course is the worst advice ever.
We know that, but you know, when someone, when families can no longer support a person at home,
we have to increase the supports or their independence has declined. We have to put more
(11:19):
support in place and then it starts the phone calls. So we have a two week, every two weeks,
we ring the NDIS to find out where things are. Can they escalate the change of situation
where a phone call and Hannah, you would know from your years in this industry as well, that
(11:42):
when we used to ring the NDIS, we could do a phone call in 15 minutes.
Yes.
Now they're taking over an hour.
Yes.
Because, you know, they're still working from two systems, one being pro to one being pace.
And, you know, we hear this, oh yes, we'll escalate it. Here's your receipt number.
(12:03):
For your phone call. So two weeks later, we ring up and oh no, it hasn't been escalated.
Yes. Oh, but here's my receipt number. Yeah, they didn't actually push the last button.
And so then it wasn't escalated. And you're like, well, if it was just the push of a button,
how hard, like, how did they miss this?
(12:25):
Yeah. Yeah. But I think the hardest part is, you know,
when we're getting to the stage where there'd be less than $1,000 left in a plan and we know
that person is going to have to do a social admission into a hospital. And we hate that.
The last thing we want to see is placing a healthy person in a hospital,
(12:53):
of sick people, taking up a bed space, because we all know ourselves how much Queensland Health
is suffering too, because of the lack of beds. And then we also don't want to put the stress
also on the HLOs that are in the hospital as well, because, you know, then they've got another
(13:16):
person with a disability. And so we want to see that. And so we want to see that.
And then they've got another person with a disability being admitted into a hospital
that doesn't need to be hospitalised, because there's no funds.
And on top of that, a lot of the nurses are not trained in disability, because they're
(13:38):
trained in like sickness, illness, that sort of thing. They're not trained in disability.
So they don't understand how to talk to someone with a disability, how to,
you know, support them within that hospital structure appropriately. But also we're not
allowed to have support workers in the hospital with the person at the same time to relieve that
(14:01):
issue. Yeah, it's sort of, you know, it goes around in that vicious circle. And, you know,
I've been lucky, I shouldn't say lucky, but I do have a contact I ring or I text. And you would know
in my posts that I always write which hospital. Yep. Just so the HLO is aware where they're going.
(14:30):
Yeah. And, you know, normally I'll get a, I'll receive a call or one of my team will receive
a call from that HLO in the afternoon. And then within the next 48 hours, we will have possibly
a restart of a plan, which has been, you know, it's been a big relief for families and also the
(14:55):
participants, because we don't want them in hospital. No, but at the same time, you're bashing
your head against the brick wall, because it was that plan that got them into this and then they
were like, oh, we're going to do this in the first place. Actually, we requested a new plan.
We actually need a new plan, not just the old plan restarted, but that's something to get us
(15:18):
through until you can catch up and do the change of situation. Yeah. And that's if you get to get
the change of situations in before the next rollover or the next fiery date then. Yeah.
The other thing that really frustrates me about all of this, it's really good that you're getting
the response. But I remember from back in the days when I was having to advocate and deal with mum
(15:40):
in the hospital system within Queensland Health. Why do we have to go to that kind of level to get
a response? If it's that easy for the people to kind of go, oh, someone's making noise here, why
do we have to make noise for them to actually do something? Yeah. It's, I can't, you know, we
shouldn't have to. We shouldn't have to have it where families are at breaking point or even
(16:04):
support coordinators, because, you know, a lot of us have worked with these people, with families
and participants for many years. And, you know, we're not just that support coordinator. We're
actually part of an amazing network to ensure this person has the right supports. So it sort of
(16:26):
becomes a little bit more personal. So yeah, we should never have to go through this. And I've
never seen the NDIA in such a bad state at the moment, not even during rollout, was it ever like
this? So it's only been in the last 18 months since we've seen this happen. Yeah, it's the worst. I
(16:52):
keep saying that to people that I've been in this a long time too, and I've never ever seen it this
bad. And it's really shocking and upsetting. I had a similar thing where a few times I've written
letters to federal MPs and that I've managed to get responses quite quickly and things have turned
(17:19):
around quite quickly doing that. And so I've been frustrated even by that because I'm like, well,
you're just lucky that I happen to be, you know, of enough education and that I understand how to
write these letters so that the MPs will pay attention, you know. And if you, whereas if you
(17:47):
were just with someone else, they might not be as good at that. And it's so frustrating that there's
almost a little bit of a lottery in the type of support coordinator you happen to interact with
at that point in time is then also has a significant impact on your outcome. And then,
(18:14):
like, also things like what do people do who don't have support coordination? You know, they're
totally up shit creek in this current circumstance. Yeah. I mean, there's, and we always talk as a team
that, you know, there's only 13, 14 of us and there are thousands of people that don't have support
(18:38):
coordination. What do they do? How do they cope? You know, it would be so hard. And then there's
new people still coming into the system or coming into support coordinators and they don't have the
experience and the knowledge to do this. Because it is hard when, you know, you're dealing with
(19:01):
so many different government officials or government officers, you know, especially when
you're dealing with Queensland Health, you've got education, there's just so many people involved
and systems. It's really hard. So, you know, I've got a team of really experienced support
coordinators and I'm really grateful for the team that we've got. But, you know, even I still learn
(19:26):
after all these years because it just changes. Everything change, it can change weekly in the
sector at the moment. And that's the bit that is the most annoying. And they'll just, like,
come up with something as if it was like a shower thought, you know, and they blurt it out and you're
(19:49):
like, what? And all of us get on them and go, no, no, no, you can't do this. And then they sometimes
they turn around and go, oh, you're right. Stuff it, we're not doing that. And then sometimes they
they're like, no, no, that's what we're doing. And we don't give a shit that you're all unhappy
with it. And I mean, that's part of why we have this podcast is to try and let people know of
(20:16):
those changes. But of course, sometimes it does just happen too fast and we can't get episodes
out fast enough.
Yeah.
Also the magnitude of information that does come out from time to time, especially now more than
ever.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think too, like, the hardest bit is now, you know, we've got the new legend,
we've got the new legislation and there's all these new changes and the latest one being the art
(20:42):
therapy and the music therapy. You know, I work with a lot of people with behavioural problems and
intellectual disability and I've seen the result in, you know, from prior to them, us linking them
into music therapy to where they are today. And we've seen that, you know, the behaviours have
(21:06):
decreased and, you know, things are working so much better in the homes and, but to now not value
the amazing work that these qualified art therapists and music therapists are doing.
It's a shame that it's happened what's happened.
Oh yeah. It kills me. And I actually called my Federal MP actually a couple of times because I
(21:35):
didn't get through to start with. I hope that it meant that other people were calling. But
eventually when I got through, I was like, you are meant to represent my views to the parliament.
That's why you're there. These are my views, represent them.
Yeah. And look, I think there's going to be a lot more come out in the next couple of months. I mean,
(22:02):
we've seen the, the STA ruling. I'm not going to even going to comment on that one, but yeah,
it's, it's very interesting, you know, this whole thing also around SIL. People need to
live with two other people. Well, no, they don't. It's not the norm. My son is supported in his own
(22:27):
unit 24 seven by himself. He chooses not to live with anyone and that's his choice, but we
work alongside his funding budget to ensure that continues.
Yeah. Yeah. Look that man almost, I mean, they haven't mandated, but they've said predominantly
(22:49):
it will be one to three. That kills me as a human being because I'm like, I'm an adult and I know,
I don't want to live in a shared house. Why do we make just because people have a disability,
all of a sudden they have to live in a shared house. Like what the hell.
Well, and look, he's, he's tried living with someone and it was a really negative
(23:13):
result. And you know, when I used to, well, when I used to receive phone calls at 10 o'clock at
night begging to come home, it's heartbreaking. So we chose that he would live in his own home.
And this is his home. It's not a home owned by a provider or anything. This is his home.
(23:36):
Yeah. And that's how we want it kept. Yeah. And look, he has the best life and he does some
amazing things and he's, you know, he's so lucky because he lives up at Red Cliff and he has such
a really good network of people around there that, you know, I always believe it. What are that?
What's the saying? It takes a community to raise a person. Yeah. And that's exactly what the Red Cliff
(24:03):
community has done with him. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is. It's a funny part of Brisbane because it is
sort of almost like a little country town within the greater Brisbane area. So that is,
that is really lovely. Yeah. And I think, you know, going back to when they closed our institutions
(24:27):
down here in Brisbane, a lot of the ILS homes and all that were in Red Cliff. So people with
disabilities has always had, have always been accepted by PR, the Red Cliff Peninsula. So.
Oh, that's so great. That's something I did not know about.
Red Cliff is a very unique and wonderful part of Australia. Yes. It's very diverse and very
(24:54):
eclectic and yeah, very interesting. Anyone that hasn't been to Red Cliff and can get over there
for a day trip, well worth it. Yeah, definitely. Are there any other parts of the NDIS that are,
that you are seeing big holes in? Equipment, approval of equipment. I think I might have put
(25:14):
a post a while ago about a gentleman that I've been working with for quite a few years, an amputee.
We put in for his new prosthetics in July. I'm happy to say a new plan came in two days ago.
Oh my goodness. Was it approved? But you know, even going through that whole phone calls,
(25:36):
you know, where are we with the equipment? You know, oh, is it urgent? Well, yes, he needs a
leg to stand. And some, some of the questions that we get from the call centre, you know what,
my magic ball would be that the NDIA actually had, or Bill Shorten provides the agency with funds to
(26:02):
educate the people on the call centre. Right. Yeah. Because it annoys me so much that they seem
to be the least educated people about the NDIS and they're the ones meant to answer people's
questions. I just throw a spanner in that statement and maybe just go stop outsourcing,
(26:26):
hire internally and have a training program because clearly an outsourcing program is not
working. Yeah, definitely. And look, some of the planners as well, you know, I was doing a plan
review meeting with a lady I've been supporting, I think for six years. So she has progressive MS
(26:49):
and a spinal injury, amazing woman and a great team working with her. But when we're waiting
for equipment and we get this phone call from the planner and he's not addressing her and she's
sitting next to me and he's putting all the questions to me and then makes a comment of,
(27:10):
oh, I've seen you've been using your therapy budget. Has there been an increase in your
independence? And I'm there, have you read what her disability is? You know she has progressive MS.
Do you know she's got a spinal injury? My role is to make sure the bit of independence she does
(27:33):
have, we keep it. So she's, I think at one stage he used the word, was she getting better?
Yeah. So I said, she's actually not going to get better.
No, not ever.
Ever.
Not ever. Like that's not the way this works. Yeah. When you were telling the story about
(27:57):
the prosthetic leg, I was very nervous because I know sometimes they've asked,
well, hasn't it grown back? Like a limb grows back. And you're like, what do you mean? What do
you mean? Did you go to high school biology? I didn't know. I know the answer to that.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like I had a participant who had a spine, has a spinal injury and needed a new
(28:27):
shower chair, like something relatively simple, but it had to be, it did have to be made for her.
Yeah.
And it took nine months for the approval to come through. And in the meantime, I kept calling them
and I'm like, this is a huge risk because the current one is broken. And if, and it's held
(28:53):
together by duct tape and hopes and dreams. And if she, like, if she was to have a fall because it
all of a sudden fell apart while she was sitting on it, like this is a huge risk, do something.
And they'd be like, ah, yes, well, you know, we've, we've escalated it or whatever,
(29:15):
you know, and you're like, but that's not enough. I need you to actually approve this thing.
Or we're paying out or plans are paying out for higher equipment for months and months. Like
my lady with MS, like we, we got a new plan through just over the last seven days,
(29:37):
but she was hiring a shower commode for $600 a month.
Yeah. Yeah.
When the shower commode is, I think it was four and a half thousand dollars.
Yeah.
You know, what a waste of taxpayer money when, you know, people have been on the scheme for so
many years and they, they know the background, but they're, they're not working quick enough to
(30:03):
approve this equipment. And there's just wasted money to hire places.
Yeah, absolutely. I've definitely done that before. And it's made me want to scream because
also it reduces their other budgets to be able to like actually do things. I have felt that
(30:26):
the way they're making everything harder and harder to do, we are going backwards to the days
of coffee and cake. And it pisses me off that we're going back to that because we tried so
hard to get away from that. And I mean, there are still some people doing it, but we've,
(30:50):
we've worked so hard to get people's thoughts away from coffee and cake or just go bowling
all the flipping time. Like bowling is fine a couple of times, but not all the time.
Most of the participants really into bowling league.
Yeah.
Exactly. Like if you're into bowling, go, go for your life, but not everyone is that into bowling.
(31:17):
And, you know, like we're, we're going backwards to those days of just sort of making people with
disabilities do the most boring shit possible. And it really makes me so angry watching this
happen and all of the innovation that we've all worked towards just be, just be removed from the
(31:44):
system and the scheme as a whole, because nothing innovative now fits in anywhere. It's all on the
no list.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot, look, a couple of years ago, when I, I had a, I had some time to kill
(32:07):
before I went to another meeting and, and this is talking about coffee and cake a little bit.
I had to stop, I stopped at McDonald's, just to get a coffee, sit down and watch. And when I arrived
there, I noticed a person with a disability in a wheelchair and a support worker sitting there.
(32:29):
And I, like, I had over an hour to kill and I sat in the road back and then I looked at the woman
and I've gone, I know this woman because she lives in the house. I have to go visit. And she was out
with her community access provider. And after an hour of watching, no communication made by this
(32:56):
support worker who was just sitting on her phone, texting, I got up to leave and I said, hello to
the woman in the wheelchair. And then the support worker asked me, did I know this woman? I said,
I know this woman. I said, yes. And I know where you are from too. And I will be, I will be reporting
(33:17):
you to your company for sitting here for an hour, totally ignoring the person you're supposed to be
supporting. And I did, I did end up ringing them. I don't know what became of it, but I think I
always tell my team, if you see something like that, you report it. You, you go up and say
something, you know, don't be afraid to advocate on behalf of that person with the disability,
(33:43):
because I think the more times people pull people up, I think we could possibly see a little bit of
a change in how these people are supporting. Yeah. And generally in the community interaction as well.
Hmm. Like the amount of times that I hear stories from people on guardianship orders,
(34:06):
trying to get stuff, medication sorted out the pharmacy, and they've got a script from the
hospital and they take it into their pharmacy and the pharmacy goes, no, you need to go speak to your
GP because I'm not accepting this script. Wow. And then dismissing the individual going, where's your
(34:26):
worker? Because I want to talk to the worker. Why are we dismissing people's intelligence and the
ability to engage? Yeah. Ridiculous. And that's true. Look, I've worked with a big company that
worked with people with spinal injuries when I first moved back to Queensland and I sat on,
sat next to an amazing woman who has a disability and she had a very big career and she'd work for
(34:58):
work cover and everything like that. But the way professionals treated her outside of her work area
was that they treated her that she didn't understand, but her intellect is probably
better than mine. So it's amazing that people today still see a person with a disability
(35:22):
as not understanding. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And don't understand that their disability could be
purely physical. Yeah. And brain is brilliant. Yep. And even if someone does have an intellectual
disability, their brain can still be brilliant in a slightly different way that you're not expecting.
(35:48):
And so to just dismiss people is infuriating to me. Yeah, definitely. And look, we've seen-
Sorry Sam. No, you're all right. I was saying that it goes back to that conversation that we were
having at the start around the interactions we were having with the hospital and having just to
(36:08):
argue for the simplest things. It's common sense. It just baffles me at the moment why we seem to be
pushing on a social front to progress forward, but collectively walking our way backwards. Yeah.
Yeah. I think that encapsulates it exactly. Don't know what the answer is to change it.
(36:28):
No, I wish I did know. Yeah. I mean, I always say education, training, education. Like I said
before, I learn something new every week in this sector. But I suppose people just don't understand
(36:49):
a lot of people with disabilities or they don't want to, or are we going back to where
people are scared? Well, that's possibly a good thought, especially with where you think about
some of the stuff these days around the whole political correctness conversation. Yes. I think
a lot of people feel scared that they're about to say something out of turn and go get cancelled.
(37:14):
Yeah. But do you think also that the media these days are focusing on so much negativity
in the NDIS space? Look, we know over time that where there is government money, whether it's
Centrelink, NDIS, Medicare, there's always going to be fraud. We know that. But to continue to
(37:45):
focus in the media that people on the NDIS are spending money on prostitutes and yoga therapy
and all these things. Don't forget the boats. And the boats. Goat therapy. Goat therapy
is ridiculous. Yeah. Well, you and I went to where I attended a networking event very recently.
(38:15):
And at the end of that event, I was walking home a bit dismayed going, let's stop talking about
the fraud and more focusing on the fake. Yeah. And there's a lot of fake. Oh, there's so much fake.
And the weird thing is, is the amount of peers in the industry that we have that don't necessarily
(38:36):
seem to see it. Yeah. Yeah. And... Or don't want to call it out. No. I mean, I think you all know me
well enough. I'll call it out. I don't have a problem. Well, I love you Sue. Sometimes my
mouth gets me into trouble. But, you know, I've been in the disability sector for too long. And
(39:00):
in this space at the moment, you know, we are seeing some things happening that I don't like
and I'll call a provider or a person out on that. I don't have an issue. And neither will my team.
My team will call a person out. I'm really excited that your wisdom is being... is flowing out to a
(39:22):
new generation of support coordinators. And this new generation of support coordinators are like
you going to call a spade a spade. Yeah. And that is so comforting to me as someone who has jumped ship.
It's a hard space. It is. You know, there's over... I can't even remember when I started. I started
(39:47):
doing support coordination when I was in Tassie. Only a little bit. That's when the price guide was
16 pages. And then it moved to 37. I don't even know how many pages it is these days. But
these days where I just think, oh, can't do this anymore, but something will happen that will be a
(40:09):
positive. And I go, yes, this is the reason I'm doing this. And this is why... Speaking of positive
notes, I really do love the throw out on your positivity. I think yours and Nina Crumpton's
from down in New South Wales, Newcastle, Newcastle space area. And I think you're going to be
(40:30):
a Newcastle space area. But I think continually I call out the shit, but purposely go out of way
to praise the good news as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that needs to be more of the latter. Oh,
yeah. You know, we see such amazing things happening. And, you know, I try and talk to the
team every when I can, you know, what's the positive for this week? What's something positive
(40:54):
that's come out of it? You know, the positive this week, I've got a gentleman that's got his
prosthetics approved. I've got a woman that's got a new plan with all her equipment approved.
You know, they're really big wins because just for those two, that equipment is going to make
such a big difference in both their lives. Awesome. I love that so much. So that brings me to,
(41:21):
in your ideal world, what would the future of the NDIS look like? That people were funded correctly,
stop thinking that everyone on the scheme, it's, is there ripping off the taxpayer because there's
a lot that don't. There's a tiny, tiny little bit that maybe, and like I said,
(41:46):
it's government money. You're always going to have fraud where there's government money.
That we had staff that work in the industry in there for the right reason. I always said,
even prior to the NDIS, there's no money in the NDIS, there's no money in disability.
(42:08):
If you're in it for the money, you may as well leave because if you're doing the job right,
there's no money. You know, I'm not swimming in jewels or flashy cars or big houses.
Or boats.
Or boats. One thing I do do is I hope I provide a good work environment for my team. And that's
(42:34):
something I always wanted to do was to ensure that my team are happy with the company that I'm in.
That my team are happy with the company they work for. So I invest more education into my team and
provide them with vehicles to use. So we're not passing on cost to participants around all that.
(42:59):
Because we all know in this industry, mileage is a big thing.
Oh my goodness. It does my head in.
So.
Personally, of the opinion that you either pick time or you pick mileage,
the fact that you can charge both kills me. And I have never ever charged both.
(43:21):
I charge time. That is it. And every time I see people who charge both, I'm just like, no, stop it.
And I look, I think one thing I want to say to any of the support coordinators
listening to this podcast is put a value on your time. If you're getting new participants
(43:47):
with support coordination in and they've provided you with the meet, I've read where some people
have had six hours of support coordination for the year. Knock it back. That's disgusting.
Yeah.
You know, if it's six hours, then it needs to go back to the LAC.
They can work with the families because six value your time, use play such an important role
(44:13):
in supporting people on the scheme, push it back to the local area coordinators. If
the funding is absolutely shocking, because I'll tell you what, they actually get paid more than
what we do to do. And we do a more thorough job. Yeah. That bit pisses me off the most.
(44:34):
Recently, my eldest daughters, I had to put in a change of situation and I finally got to the
point where it got to the LAC. And as she was talking, I played dumb and I said, but I need a
support coordinator because will I be able to call you? Will I be able to email you? And she said,
(44:58):
oh, no. And I was like, oh, and you know, I really need someone who can come out to my house
and talk me through things. And she's like, oh, we can't come out to your house. And I said, so how
come support coordinators can, cause she said, oh, it's too big a risk for us. And so we never go
(45:18):
out to people's houses cause that's too big a risk. And I said, but support coordinators do that all
the time. And she said, yeah, but we're more important. Really? And I was like, I'm sorry, what?
Really not surprised by that. And the other thing that she said that I really
(45:41):
poorly put on LinkedIn was always saying that my daughter needs support workers to teach her
independence, you know, through everyday things and, and all the time, because she needs it modeled
a million times, not just like five. And the LAC said to me, oh no, that's not what support coordinators
(46:05):
are, support workers are for. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Of course that's what support
workers are for. And she said, no, no, no, that's what allied health assistants are for. And I said,
but then they can only come out like once a week. And I'm talking about your everyday sort of things.
And she said, no, no, support workers aren't there for capacity building. They're there just for,
(46:32):
to get you through life for the, for like showering and eating and stuff. And I said,
but it would be a waste of, it's not value for money to send out an allied health assistant when
a support worker is cheaper. And she said, oh, well, I guess we'll see what the planner says.
(46:53):
Wow. And so now I'm still waiting, like, and then I said, oh, well, how long until I get to speak to
the planner? And she said, oh, well, they're backed up at the moment. It could be three or four months.
But you know what? That's another thing I hate at the moment is when you ring up and they say,
oh, you know, we've got a backlog and we're really busy. And you know what? If I ran my support
(47:15):
coordination company like that, I'm pretty sure I would lose my registration. Right. And that's,
that's another thing that pisses me off because I'm like, yeah, if, if any other company said what
they are saying and doing, they'd be out of business. And look, I think there's been a few
(47:36):
times that we've got so angry over that we've reported them to quality and safeguards. We get
the email back to say, we can't investigate the NDIA. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. They're not going to
report them to quality. Yeah. Then who? Who do we report them to? I'm a wealth ombudsman.
(47:58):
Okay. Are they going to do anything, Sam? I am not in a position to comment on the
successfulness of that ombudsman. Okay. Look, I know when things, things get really tough.
If you look at similar ICAC investigations in previous years from state-based levels,
(48:18):
they give you a good picture. Okay. Okay. And, you know, I know this, I, my team work with a few
federal members who actually really do what their role is. Especially because our office is based
in Redcliffe. We have a really good federal member up there that actually will support NDIS
(48:41):
participants and we'll make those phone calls. And his team does work really hard. And, you know,
there's a couple around the Logan that do exactly the same. That's awesome. So we just need them
in every area. Yeah. Right. 100% there. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
(49:05):
You're very welcome. I've enjoyed it. Oh, I'm so glad. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next
time. Until next time. Bye. Bye. Huzzah. Thank you for listening. Please share with people you know.
Until next time, as the Green Brothers say, don't forget to be awesome.
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