What makes a good suport agency?

 

What is a good support agency and how do pick one we see that this is more complex than just going with one, as you need to consider a lot of things that we see can be a massive factor in choosing the right support agency for you? 

You need to look at a lot of factors, some things that seem obvious like do you like their ethics, do they have space for you, do they treat you as a human and not a cash cow, and what happens if they need to cancel and you have plans as some support services promise person-centred care but deliver very poor levels of support and backup to the clients and their families leading to family conflict and wondering if having a support agency is even worth it and worth the drama of trying to get good support.  As I have been wondering this myself.

As I am starting to see that this is something that we need to talk about as it’s an ongoing issue there is no formal standard for the deliveries of support in an agency setting and it can be hard to navigate as well, we see that this creates conflict to people and we see that people need to be able to plan as if a person doesn’t drive and we see often a person might need to do something but an agency might not have someone to cover the shift and they might not even ring a person when they have plans so we see that it might take a while to get the right fit of agency and I have learned the hard way not to stay for just one support worker that you click with as it creates issues long term for a lot of families and puts extra pressure on them to try to understand what is happening.  

Because some families rely on this support to take the pressure off them and to help the family member to be more independent and live normal life.  As this is the core of the NDIS and the agency might have a great support workers it can often be hindered by  lack of support in the office.

 

So you need to be aware that service agreements are a legal document and everything needs to be put into writing are will be a time that you need to give them if you need to change agencies and we see that this is generally month and for a simple cancelation of a shift it is 7 days so this is where it is common respect to have a shift covered or to have a  bloody good  reason for cancelling this puts the power in the agencies control, however, they are also running a business so you need to be aware of that and to understand that they have these policies place for a reason and that reason is they need to protect their workers.  Often a support worker won’t call in until late and we understand that humans will human but we need to be aware that people need to have support and to be able to plan some sort of day and week.