Ensuring you play your part in participant growth

Whether you are highly qualified, or at an entry level in the disability sector, all workers in the NDIS space have the opportunity to contribute to the potential growth within a participant’s life.

Having industry professionals who operate in defined roles, matched with relevant budget categories, is a very important function of the NDIS.

However, when considering the recurrent influence workers have in supporting a participant, it would be foolish to disregard the affect any one of those workers has on building individual capacity.

In the sum of my experiences with disability across many professional roles, volunteer roles and lived experiences, I believe there needs to be a collective industry focus toward vital underpinning factors which open the door to capacity building in the first place.

From observation, pre-requisites for participant capacity growth manifest from:

1. Confidence

2. Self-Advocacy

3. Informed Decision Making/Choice

4. Developed Community Relationships

If a participant’s collective service providers are focusing on these factors, no matter what professional role they fulfil, that’s when we can truly allow capacity building to happen.

In approaching this ideation, I have found that it is vital to consider a participant’s preparedness to adopt the support and strategies (within my scope of practice) that can deliver on their desired outcomes.

I must remind myself to facilitate and not force, and to be sensitive of the various historical and personal factors that have shaped a certain participant’s life.

We need to encourage, support and facilitate their choice to be capacity minded, however ultimately the decision is made at their own pace.