Recent changes to NDIS plans now have funding provisions for Psychosocial Recovery Coaching in conjunction with Support Coordination. This shift is significant in its positive reflection of the NDIS’s recognition of the importance of mental health in the community.
However, these changes present some questions. For example: how can a Support Coordinator and a Psychosocial Recovery Coach effectively work together? How can they operate side-by-side without conflict? How does having both enhance the participant’s outcomes?
A Support Coordinator and a Psychosocial Recovery Coach (PRC) can form a powerful team. All it takes is building trust and developing the right working relationship.
Understanding Their Roles
Forming an effective Support Coordinator/PRC team relies heavily on understanding the role each plays. Maintaining clear knowledge of the differences and overlaps in their duties helps avoid confusion and disagreement while preserving high standards of participant care. Ideally, any role overlap should only be evident when a participant uses one or the other – not both.
A Support Coordinator’s role is to ensure the proper execution of your support plan.
On the other hand, a Psychosocial Recovery Coach (PRC) is responsible for supporting individuals with psychosocial disabilities by helping them take more control over their lives and gain the tools to better manage their daily living.
In some cases, Support Coordinators may be apprehensive about referring their customers to a PRC from another provider, especially if the other provider offers Support Coordination. However, it falls to each provider to set and observe boundaries that preserve the value of each role- particularly for customers referred to them.
It would be best if you kept in mind that customers know what’s best for them, specifically when selecting service providers. Therefore, when you receive a new referral for a PRC customer from a Support Coordinator, it is better to take a collaborative rather than a competitive approach. This consideration ensures your customers enjoy a sector rich in diversity of choice.
Psychosocial Recovery Coaches also have various tasks to complete for participants that fall outside a Support Coordinator’s purview. These differences can help ease the Support Coordinator’s job. In addition, a PRC’s focus often lies in leveraging their lived and learned experience with mental health to work with the participant in managing and improving their mental health. Usually, this process involves developing a goal-focused recovery plan and researching and organising non-NDIS resources such as hobby groups, clubs and leisure activities. Moreover, PRCs have the funding to perform regular customer catch-ups, after which they feed back any requests or developments to the Support Coordinator, who takes the appropriate action.
Fundamentally, referring customers to a PRC can be significantly beneficial. Not only can it help Support Coordinators stretch their funding, but it is also a way to help the customer access even more support in pursuing their goals.
As mentioned above, the best PRC services are strongly informed by the customers’ needs and desires. Therefore, making this approach the centrepiece of your operation ensures that you remain effective in offering your customers beneficial services that provide significantly better outcomes.
All in all, both Support Coordinators and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches are vital components of the NDIS framework. However, with a high potential for overlaps in their duties, it is important for them to work together to create a seamless collaborative team that allows you to avoid confusion and focus solely on meeting your goals.
