Author: Justain Sombrio

Early diagnosis happens in a clinic.

Early action happens everywhere else, in kitchens, in the community, and in care homes, every day.

Support Professionals are often the people who spend the most time with a person living with diabetes. They are there at mealtimes, during medication support, personal care, on outings and in the quiet moments when something might not look right.

A professional who understands diabetes can recognise early signs that someone is unwell, follow a management plan with confidence and know when to escalate when things get bad. They can also support a person to manage their own condition, so this ongoing care and support builds independence rather than replacing it.

Reducing the stigma around diabetes is also a huge part of a professional’s role. Stigma reduces when the people around someone talk about diabetes without blame or judgement.

Diabetes training resources:

At the NGO Training Centre, we offer a three-part diabetes series for disability support and a separate three-part series for aged care.

Every course is online, short and built for the realities of a working day.

For Disability Support Professionals (NDIS)

Individual Diabetes courses

Learn extensive knowledge about the different types of diabetes and how to manage the condition with lifestyle changes and medication. This is an excellent place to start your training on diabetes.

See Diabetes Part 1

Builds on Part 1 with more on diabetes management, including common mistakes support workers make when supporting a person with diabetes and disability, and how to avoid them.

See Diabetes Part 2

Builds further on Part 1 and Part 2 with various practical skills you can use to help participants manage their diabetes day to day. An ideal course to study to take your knowledge of diabetes to the next level.

See Diabetes Part 3

Diabetes bundle (2.5 hours)

All three parts noted above are included together with a 20% saving on overall course costs, covering diabetes management plans, the 7 areas of support for people with disability and diabetes, and how compassion and care help participants live happier, healthier lives.

See Diabetes Bundle

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For Aged Care Professionals

Individual Diabetes courses

Types of diabetes, symptoms and risk factors, what hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia and ketoacidosis mean for older people, and how diabetes affects daily life.

See Diabetes Part 1 in Aged Care

Learn about common complications of diabetes in ageing individuals, and how to provide high-quality, person-centred support.

See Diabetes Part 2 in Aged Care

Supporting people to monitor their own blood glucose, including glucose meters and continuous glucose sensors, and prompting self-administration of oral and injectable diabetes medication.

See Diabetes Part 3 in Aged Care

This World Diabetes Day, give your team the knowledge to spot it early and reduce the stigma around diabetes.

Explore our diabetes courses for disability support and aged care, and talk to our team about training your whole workforce.

Your confidence, skills, knowledge and awareness could make a significant impact on the lives of people living with diabetes, not just today, but every day.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

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Author: Matthew Crawford, PGCert(Bus)

Matt has over a decade of experience in B2B sales and business development and with a passion for human services, is deeply committed to driving meaningful solutions within the disability and aged care sectors. His commitment to improving service quality and his deep understanding of client needs make him a trusted partner in advancing the capabilities of organisations that support ageing individuals and people with disability across Australia.

What happens to your organisation when that key person walks out the door?

For many disability and aged care providers, the honest answer is uncomfortable. And I can tell you, it has happened to the best of us. A single resignation can take years of knowledge, relationships, and all of those little ‘things’ that really weren’t so little, putting continuity of care for the people we support at risk.

That’s why we developed ‘Knowledge Management and Succession Planning’, part of our Specialist Leadership series at the NGO Training Centre. We are delighted to introduce Bronwyn Herbertson as the Subject Matter Expert behind it.

Bronwyn is an ISO and NDIS Auditor, a Solicitor and an Associate of Engels Floyd Quality Consulting. She has extensive experience in the disability and human services sector, which she brings to her work as an auditor and consultant. Her career spans senior management, policy, compliance, contract management, business development, and governance, giving her a unique, well-rounded perspective on what service providers need to achieve best practice.

Bronwyn is passionate about training and education, and about ensuring every provider understands their legal, ethical, and legislative responsibilities. That blend of legal expertise, audit experience and hands-on leadership makes her the ideal guide for a topic that sits at the heart of good governance.

I had the pleasure of working with Bronwyn when I was an advocate at TASC Community Legal Centre in Toowoomba, QLD. She was always an incredible wealth of knowledge, a passionate advocate and leader, and an all-round amazing human. We are proud to have Bronwyn on our governance team at the NGO Training Centre.

About the Course

In this 45-minute course, learners gain a thorough understanding of knowledge management and succession planning, and why both matter so much for disability service providers.

See the course

Whether you are a CEO, board member, manager, or team leader, this course will help you protect your organisation’s knowledge and prepare for whoever comes next.

Learn more about all our brilliant Subject Matter Experts on our About Us page.

This year, the focus is on amplifying the voices of people with lived experience of mental health challenges, so they can help shape the policies, services and community attitudes that affect them.

The power of lived experience is hard to overstate. If you haven’t seen it in action, it can be difficult to picture, so I’d like to share some of my own experience.

In 2012, I was lucky enough to work in a multidisciplinary recovery team that included three remarkable mental health peer workers. We made no decisions without their input, and for good reason.

They had been there, were sometimes still there, and knew that recovery is a lifelong journey.

Peer support was only just gaining momentum, and peer workers faced plenty of barriers of their own. Today, peer workers are increasingly part of every area of health care, which is great news for people living with psychosocial and physical challenges.

Their work on both acute and longer-term psychiatric wards was extraordinary, and its impact lasted. I watched them instil hope, build autonomy and support recovery on a whole new level. That mutual support helped to break down the stigma and shame that so often stop people from seeking help and staying engaged in treatment.

They also brought a lived-experience lens to the clinical team, giving staff a fresh perspective on the everyday lives of the people they supported.

Education was a core part of the peer role, but not in the traditional sense. Peer workers often shared their own journeys, creating space to talk about positive coping strategies and to normalise everyday challenges. Hearing from someone who is going through, or has come through, a similar experience can be a powerful way to help people engage with other forms of treatment.

Peer workers show us what is possible when people feel heard and understood.

Every support worker can build on that by understanding mental health challenges and responding with confidence and compassion.

At the NGO Training Centre, our Mental Health and Positive Outcomes pathway offers evidence-based online courses for disability and aged care workers, written by qualified subject matter experts. Courses include:

• Introduction to Mental Illness
• Stopping the Cycle of Shame
• Trauma Informed Care
• Suicide Prevention
• Schizophrenia (Parts 1 and 2)
• Bipolar Disorder
• Personality Disorder

Courses can be completed individually or as part of the full pathway, and are aligned with the NDIS Practice Standards and the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

Explore the full Mental Health and Positive Outcomes pathway

See the pathway and enrol

Or view individual Mental Health courses

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Bipolar Disorder

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Introduction to Mental Illness

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Personality Disorder

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Schizophrenia Part 1

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Schizophrenia Part 2

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Stopping the Cycle of Shame

View course This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

Suicide Prevention

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Trauma Informed Care

This World Mental Health Day, let’s listen to lived experience, challenge stigma wherever we see it, and keep building workplaces and services where mental health is understood, valued and supported.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

So how big is the problem?

The numbers are pretty confronting:

• About 1 in 11 people using specialist homelessness services has a disability.
• Around a third (34%) of them live with severe or profound core activity limitations.
• More than 60% also experience mental health issues, and around 45% have experienced family or domestic violence.
• Nearly half (48%) were already homeless by the time they first asked for help.

And it’s not just about finding somewhere to live. Some people are being pushed into homes they can’t easily leave, move around in, or even use the bathroom in.

So, what finally pushes people to reach out for help? The top reasons are:

0%

general housing crisis

0%

housing that’s inadequate or unsafe

0%

family or domestic violence

Sadly, many people with disability don’t report family or domestic violence. Instead, they stay with the person harming them because they’re afraid of becoming homeless or being left without support.

When people do ask for help, what they need most is often what they’re least likely to get. Long-term, stable housing is the most requested form of assistance, yet only a small number of people with disability have secured it by the time they leave a service.

People with disability also tend to need more support, for longer. On average, they use 12.4 services and need 81 days of support, more than people without disability.

Where people end up matters too.

Moving to an area with no accessible transport, few NDIS providers or limited healthcare can leave people isolated and at greater risk. Even crisis options can fall short: many women’s refuges are physically inaccessible, and some are reluctant to let NDIS workers in to provide support.

Getting emergency help isn’t simple either. In Victoria, people needing crisis or emergency accommodation have to call a central number. Advocates say they’ve waited on hold for more than an hour, just to get a voucher for up to seven nights’ accommodation.

In regional and rural areas, it can be even harder. Advocates often have to ring local social housing providers to track down a motel room, and those rooms are often run down.

Advocates have also raised concerns about how little regulation there is around some living arrangements, such as Specialist Residential Services and non-registered group homes for people with Supported Independent Living (SIL) funding.

The good news?

People are taking action. The Queensland Disability Advocacy Network has set up a Housing Working Group to coordinate efforts nationally. The group has made a submission to the federal government’s National Housing and Homelessness Plan, calling for disability to be made a priority.

Because at the end of the day, people with disability deserve what everyone deserves: a safe, stable home and the support they need to thrive.

So today let’s raise awareness about the ongoing issues and barriers faced by people with disability, celebrate the good work, benchmark progress and advocate for improved policies and funding that can help prevent and end homelessness.

Together, we can make things right.

This is a preventable crisis.

Source: Anne Webster MP, YouTube

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

Connection looks different for everyone, and it works best when it happens in ways that feel safe and comfortable. It might mean reaching out to the world around you, such as waving to a neighbour, chatting with the cashier or a support worker, spending time with the people you love, playing with a pet, or volunteering in your community.

It can also mean connecting with yourself.

Whether you’re connecting with others or reconnecting with yourself, small and simple acts can make a big difference.

Isolation is one of the most significant factors that leads us to feelings of loneliness and despair, and contributes to poor mental health. It occurs even more often in the disability and aged care communities.

I have seen time and time again that a lack of access and inclusivity can marginalise and isolate people to the point that they do not want to leave their homes. Helping people feel understood, included, and safe matters, and we can all contribute by showing compassion, understanding, and awareness of each person’s needs and wants.

Research has shown that feeling connected can ease stress, support emotional balance, and help us cope when things get tough. Across our communities, humans find connection in ways that feel meaningful to them, shaped by who they are, what they value and what’s happening in their lives.

This year’s theme invites us to take small, achievable steps toward connection that feels supportive. That might be with humans, animals, places, routines or moments that help us feel grounded.

After all, every little connection counts.

Check out the General Mental Health Month Calendar from Wayahead below. It’s a traditional monthly calendar featuring a different connection-focused prompt for each day of October. Designed for individuals, families, community groups and organisations looking for an easy way to participate in Mental Health Month.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

I have seen many times how even the most well-meaning support staff have inadvertently created or inflated a situation that could have been avoided, through better education and understanding of this widely misunderstood diagnosis. I have personally heard psychologists say that they will ‘refuse’ to work with someone with this diagnosis, saying it is ‘too hard’, leaving them with no support and ultimately at even higher risk of becoming unwell.

This is just not good enough, and things need to change.

The campaign calls on people living with BPD, carers, clinicians, policy makers, politicians and the wider community to help create safer, more compassionate spaces where recovery is possible.

• People living with BPD need others to listen without judgement, stay present during distress, and see their strengths, resilience and humanity, not only a diagnosis or a moment of crisis.
• Carers need to be included, understood and practically supported, with reassurance that relationships can improve over time.
• Clinicians often know that language, tone, consistency and presence can make a lasting difference, but may not have the time, training or system support to work in the ways they value most.
• Politicians can help by promoting greater awareness of BPD and advocating for the rights and needs of people living with BPD, both within the mental health system and across state and federal government, and
• Policy makers, system leaders and the community are being asked to recognise that connection, continuity of care and relational safety are not optional extras. They are central to effective support and recovery.

What this means for providers

For anyone working in disability, mental health or community support, every interaction is a chance to build trust. Like in any relationship, trust is key. Listening well, keeping your word, staying calm and consistent, and responding with warmth rather than judgement can help someone feel safe enough to keep reaching out. These skills can grow with education, understanding, and practice.

If you’d like to deepen your understanding of personality disorders, including how to offer respectful and effective support, NGO Training Centre’s Personality Disorder course is a great place to start. It covers what personality disorder is, the three clusters, risk factors, and practical ways to support the humans you work alongside.

See the course

This BPD Awareness Week, think about the small moments. Train your staff, create awareness. Reduce stigma.

A little more patience, a kinder word, or simply staying present can change someone’s day, and sometimes their lives.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.

Early in my advocacy work, I supported a woman in her early 30s to access the NDIS. We booked a medical appointment with a GP to complete her access request form. As an independent woman, we approached the clinic reception desk.

She was standing right there.

Her hands moved as she told the receptionist exactly what she needed.

The receptionist turned to me, her advocate, and asked,

“What’s she after?”

I have thought about that moment for years.

Not because it was cruel. The receptionist wasn’t cruel. She was just built, like most of our systems, to hear a voice and nothing else. When a language arrived that she couldn’t process, she reached past the person using it and looked for someone more convenient to talk to.

Another man I supported was unaware that he had a hearing impairment until it was too late. His employer took his lack of communication as arrogance and disengagement, and he was laid off. It wasn’t until months later that he found out that his hearing loss was so significant that he required aids, which we then had to fight for from the NDIS.

He learned to adapt, but not enough to pick up the nuances of communication, small talk, and banter he needed to keep his job.

That is the whole problem in one gesture.

And it is why 23 September matters.

The United Nations marks the International Day of Sign Languages every year on that date. The General Assembly established it by resolution in 2017, proposed by the World Federation of the Deaf, and 2026 carries weight the earlier years didn’t. This year the Federation turns 75. It is also 20 years since the world adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This year’s theme is:

Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights. No Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights.

FACT: There are more than 300 different sign languages in use around the world. They are full languages, with their own grammar, their own regions and their own jokes that don’t translate cleanly, the same way ours don’t. Auslan is not signed English. It is its own thing, carried by its own community, and it deserves the same respect we hand a spoken language.

Over 70 million people are Deaf worldwide, with more than 80 per cent residing in developing nations. In these countries, having access to an interpreter in court or classroom is often a matter of chance rather than a right. Think about what that means for a medical appointment where the diagnosis lands second-hand. A parent-teacher night the parent can only partly follow. An NDIS tribunal where your future is discussed in a language nobody has bothered to translate into yours.

As having worked in the disability sector, we were very good at writing “inclusion” into our values statements and very slow to book the interpreter. Often, it was challenging to find one available when we needed it most. Access that depends on someone being available or someone remembering to arrange it is not access.

The fix is not that complicated, which is the frustrating thing. We need to recognise sign languages properly in law and in funding. Fund interpreters as infrastructure, the way we fund ramps and lifts, rather than as an optional extra someone has to fight for. Teach sign language early, to Deaf children and to the hearing world around them. Hire Deaf people to design the services meant for Deaf people.

On the human level, learn a little.

You do not need to be fluent to change a room.

A greeting in someone’s own language is never a small thing. It says I see you standing there, and I am talking to you, not about you or around you.

Which brings me back to the front desk. I have imagined that scene ending differently more times than I can count. The receptionist looks up, meets the woman’s eyes, and finds a way. It could be an interpreter on a screen, a notepad, a few learned signs, anything that says you are the person I am speaking with. It costs almost nothing. It changes almost everything.

The NGO Training Centre offers an exceptional course on Communication. If you’d like to learn to:

• Define and explain effective communication
• Describe the best practices for effective written and verbal communication
• Understand how a person’s body language influences communication
• Recognise some of the different Communication aids you will come across in your role.

You’ll get clear on what effective communication actually is, and pick up the practices that make your written and verbal messages land the way you meant them. You’ll learn to read the part of the conversation nobody says out loud, the body language that’s often telling you more than the words.

You will also get to know the range of communication aids you’ll meet in your role, so that when the usual channels don’t fit a person, you’ve got others ready.

Because good communication isn’t just a trait humans are born with. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it gets sharper the moment you decide to work on it.

See the course and enrol

See the course and enrol

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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country

Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.