Category: News

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.

–

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.

1. Cut the training admin and reporting

Chasing completions, updating spreadsheets and pulling together evidence before an audit adds up fast, especially with casual staff, shift workers and multiple sites.

A good LMS takes most of that off your plate. Enrolments, reminders, progress tracking and certificates happen in one place with only a couple of clicks. Reports like a training matrix are always ready when you need them, not after a weekend of data entry.

Amy from Home Assist SA put it simply: the platform “saves us a lot of time in an industry that’s heavily focused on compliance.”

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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.

–

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.

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

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

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.

–

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.