We simply couldn’t be prouder of our own Amanda Robinson! ❤️
Amanda has been named one of just two finalists for the Victorian Disability Awards 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award!
It’s a huge and thoroughly-deserved recognition of a career dedicated to advocating for people with disability, driving positive change and making a lasting impact across the sector.
We see Amanda’s passion and genuine care every day at the NGO Training Centre, but her impact reaches far beyond our organisation. Throughout her career, she has touched countless lives through her work in disability rights, advocacy, leadership, education, training and workforce development.
Congratulations, Amanda! We absolutely adore you and all that you do.
Being recognised at this level is an incredible achievement and so well deserved. We’ll be cheering you on all the way to the awards later this month!
And we also wish to congratulate all the other finalists and nominees for the Victorian Disability Awards on your profound impact within the community!
This year’s Mental Health Month theme, A Little Connection Goes a Long Way, reminds us that small, everyday moments of connection can do a lot for our mental wellbeing.
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.
From 10 December 2026, the rules on automated decisions change. Privacy Act changes mean providers using automated tools to make significant decisions must say so in their privacy policy.
A second wave of reforms, released as an exposure draft on 31 August 2026, would also widen what counts as personal information and tighten the rules on consent.
Here’s what disability providers need to know, and what to do before the end of the year.
10 December 2026 – automated decisions
The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 has passed. From 10 December 2026, your privacy policy must disclose when you use AI or a computer program to make a decision that could significantly affect a person’s rights or interests, and that program uses personal information to do it.
For disability providers. Check any software that
screens or prioritises referrals and intake
allocates supports, hours or accommodation
scores risk or flags behaviours, or
informs incident escalation or restrictive practice decisions.
If a tool uses participant information and shapes an outcome that matters in someone’s life, it likely belongs in your policy.
The exposure draft of the Privacy Amendment (Personal Data Protection) Bill 2026 would define personal information as anything that relates to an identified or reasonably identifiable person. That is broader than today’s test, and it could bring more of what providers hold into scope, from case notes to app and device data that can be linked back to someone.
Genomic information would also be named as both sensitive information and health information. Genetic information is already covered, so this mostly removes any doubt.
Consent has to mean something
Under the draft, consent must be voluntary, informed, current, specific and unambiguous.
Pre-ticked boxes, opt-out models and one broad form covering every possible future use are unlikely to be acceptable. Consent can still be implied where a person’s conduct makes it clear and the purpose is obvious from context.
This can be a big change for disability services, where a single intake pack often bundles consent for sharing with the NDIA, other providers, family and researchers. Each purpose will need to stand on its own, so a person can say yes to one and no to another.
It also fits naturally with supported decision-making. Specific, current consent is consent a person can understand, revisit, and change, with support where they want it.
If you run or join research
The current health and medical research exceptions would be replaced by one human research exception.
To rely on it, research must be reviewed, approved and monitored under the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and follow new guidelines from the Privacy Commissioner.
Projects that never needed ethics approval before may now need a Human Research Ethics Committee to sign off. The exception only starts once those guidelines are in place.
What to do now
1.Map your tools. List every system that uses personal information to make or shape decisions about participants, and ask whether the outcome significantly affects them.
2. Update your privacy policy before 10 December 2026. Say plainly which decisions involve automation and what information they use. An Easy Read version helps the humans it’s about.
3. Audit your consent forms. Pull apart bundled consents, remove pre-ticked boxes and build in review points so the consent stays current.
4. Brief your team. Staff need to know personal information is likely to cover more than it used to.
5. Watch the bill. Consultation on the exposure draft closed on 18 September 2026, and the final version may change.
We will keep you updated with any changes as they arise. Keep your eye out on our In The News page!
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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.
This year’s BPD Awareness Week theme, ‘Connection Changes Outcomes: In BPD, Every Interaction Matters’, puts relationships at the heart of recovery.
For people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), how others respond to them can shape how safe, hopeful and supported they feel.
Stigma, misunderstanding, rejection and invalidation can deepen shame, distress and disconnection. Empathy, safety, consistency and understanding do the opposite. They can reduce crisis and build hope for recovery. The language and words that we choose, the way we listen and whether we stay present when things get hard can all change what happens next.
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.
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.
In Australia, since 1967, life expectancy has jumped by almost 14 years for males and 11 years for females
By 2066, the size of the population aged 65 years and over is projected to grow by 264 per cent, and the population aged 85 years and over is projected to grow by 506 per cent during the same period
By 2066, there will be 1.9 million people aged 85 and over, up from 580,000 today.
People are staying in their homes for longer. Between 2017 and 2025, the number of people utilising structured Home Care Packages grew by over 300%
By contrast, permanent residential aged care grew by less than 10% over that same eight-year period.
Australians are living longer than ever, and in their own homes for longer… but not all of those extra years are healthy ones.
The time people spend in both good health and poor health is rising, and the growing number of years lived with illness is driving up demand for, and spending on, health and aged care services. Several factors are behind the shift.
Chronic disease and lifestyle are key culprits, with around 61 per cent of Australians now living with at least one chronic health condition. For people in regional and remote communities, the picture is worse, with many facing unequal access to healthcare and support services. Policies that champion lifelong health, disease prevention and fair access to care could help Australians live not just longer, but better.
This International Day of Older People, we are celebrating the people, places and services that help older persons to stay active and connected in the community – while shining a light on the barriers that can make them harder to access.
Our new suite of Aged Care Courses provides aged care workers with the knowledge and skills to support older persons both living in the community and in residential aged care.
Our courses shift the focus from rigid checklists to the individual, in line with the new Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, ensuring older Australians receive safer, more dignified care that prioritises their rights, nutrition, and personal choices.
Australians are living longer than ever. Making sure those extra years are lived well, with the right to be heard and to make their own choices, starts with the people who support them every day.
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.
From 1 October 2026, the NDIA will begin reducing participant budgets in two support categories under the new NDIS laws.
These changes are:
Social, Economic and Community Participation, and
Improved Daily Living Skills.
Reductions apply as plans are created or reassessed from 1 October 2026, or renewed from 1 February 2027. Over the next 12 months, the change will roll through your participant base plan by plan. Some of the participants you support will feel it next month. Others won’t feel it until well into next year.
The NDIA has been clear that the impact will differ for every participant, because every plan is built on individual goals, circumstances and support needs. No flat percentage will let you forecast the effect. You’ll learn it one plan at a time.
What’s protected?
Some supports within these two categories won’t be affected. These include employment supports, disability-related health supports, high intensity supports, and intensive and complex behaviour supports.
Outside these categories, the NDIA has confirmed other parts of participant plans won’t change. That includes essential day-to-day supports like help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry and cleaning, as well as nurse care, medication support, home and vehicle modifications, personal mobility equipment and specialist disability accommodation (SDA).
The NDIA has said a full list of unaffected supports will be published shortly. Until it is, treat anything outside the confirmed list with care and avoid telling participants their supports are safe unless you know it.
What this means for your service
If a large share of your revenue sits in community participation or daily living skills, now is the time to look at the numbers. Group programs, community access, life skills, and capacity-building services are the most exposed. A program that runs well at ten participants may struggle at six, and that drop could arrive gradually and unevenly across the year.
Here are a few practical steps worth taking now:
Map your exposure. Identify which participants are funded through the affected categories and when their plans are due for reassessment or renewal. That gives you a rough timeline of when the change will reach each person.
Review your service agreements. Check your notice periods, cancellation terms and the process for adjusting supports when funding changes. Participants will need clear, written information about any changes to their services.
Prepare your frontline staff. Support workers are often the first to hear a participant’s worry. Give them accurate, simple information and a clear path for passing questions on.
Plan for workforce and rostering changes. Reduced hours across several participants can add up quickly. Early planning gives you more options than a sudden restructure.
Talk with support coordinators. They’ll be managing these conversations across multiple providers and will value knowing what you can and can’t adjust.
Throughout all of this, your obligations under the NDIS Code of Conduct and the Practice Standards don’t change. Participants have the right to make informed choices about their supports, including choosing to spend a reduced budget elsewhere. Advice should be honest and in the participant’s interest, not shaped by what keeps your roster full.
Reviews, reassessments and variations
This change isn’t a reviewable decision. Unfortunately, participants can’t challenge the reduction itself through an internal review.
Participants can still request a plan reassessment or plan variation if their circumstances change. The NDIA may consider a reassessment where there has been a significant and ongoing change in a participant’s
ability to complete daily activities
living arrangements
education or employment circumstances, or
available informal supports.
Your role in this is important. Clear, accurate progress reports and case notes often show how someone’s needs have changed. Keep your documentation current and specific.
A word of caution, though.
A reassessment request should reflect a real change in circumstances. Encouraging participants to request one simply to recover lost funding puts them in a difficult position and puts your service at risk.
A new pathway for 24-hour support
The NDIA will introduce a new plan variation pathway for participants with high support needs who require 24-hour disability support. Details haven’t been released yet. If you provide SIL or other round-the-clock supports, watch for this closely, as it may shape how these participants can respond if their plans change.
We hope this information helps you prepare for the changes ahead.
We will keep you updated and break down the latest news and explain what it means for you, as a provider, as it arrives at our desk.
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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.
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.
Our unique Training Matrix Report puts audit-ready evidence at your fingertips.
As a Disability Support or Aged Care provider, accurate, detailed training records are non-negotiable. Audits require clear proof that every team member has completed the right training, on time, and that records are complete and current. Manual spreadsheets, chasing certificates, and worrying about whether everything is up to date create unnecessary stress and waste time.
With NGO Training Centre’s world-class LMS and mobile app, that burden ends. Robust, simple, comprehensive, real-time reporting is available instantly on any device, anywhere, anytime. You will never have to keep a training log again.
The Feature Providers Love Most: The Training Matrix Report
Our customers consistently praise the Training Matrix as the standout tool. This report turns compliance from a headache into a simple, visual, one-click process.
In the Training Matrix, you see every learner listed down the left-hand side and every course across the top. Colour coding shows status at a glance:
Blue = Enrolled but not started
Yellow = In-progress indicators
Green = Completed
In one simple view, you know exactly where every person stands on every required course. No more digging through folders or cross-checking spreadsheets.
Filter instantly by groups, teams, locations, roles, or any structure that matches your operations. Need to check SIL compliance training only? Or induction pathways for new hires starting next week? Apply the filter and the Matrix updates in seconds.
When audit time arrives, simply export the Matrix to Excel. Many providers hand (or email) this clean, professional document straight to their NDIS or Aged Care auditor. It is comprehensive, accurate, system-timestamped, and always up to date because the LMS records every completion the moment it happens.
This single report eliminates the need to maintain separate training logs. The evidence is generated automatically, visually clear, filterable, and export-ready. Auditors see exactly what they need, and you can be confident nothing has been missed.
Watch a Training Matrix overview video below, explained by our Customer Experience Specialist, Chris:
Supporting Reporting Tools That Keep Everything Current
While the Training Matrix is the highlight, the full reporting suite works seamlessly alongside it:
Overview – Active users, logins, and course completions with time filters (today, week, month, year). The Training Progress Report downloads as a spreadsheet and can be scheduled to arrive in your inbox automatically.
Infographics – Participation rates, engagement, progress, completion rates, training time, pass/fail results, and gamification metrics, with easy period-to-period comparisons.
Timeline – A complete activity log of every login and course completion, searchable by user and event type.
All of this is available through a simple, intuitive interface and our excellent mobile app, so managers can check the Matrix or download reports on the go.
Watch Chris’ full reporting walkthrough to see how our easy-to-use LMS makes tracking and reporting simple, with a closer look at the Overview, Infographics, Training Matrix and Timeline tools:
High-Quality Training + Effortless Compliance
These powerful reporting tools sit inside an LMS experience designed specifically for Australian Disability Support and Aged Care providers. Pair them with our broad range of high-quality, engaging, competency-based online courses and your team builds the skills they need while the system quietly handles the records for you.
The result is straightforward: less administrative work, greater confidence, and audits that become evidence reviews rather than stressful scavenger hunts. Your life gets easier. Your team stays capable and compliant, and you free up valuable time to focus on what matters most: delivering quality support to the people who rely on you.
Ready to experience the Training Matrix and the full reporting suite for yourself? Book a quick demo here to see exactly why providers love it!
Contact us today for a demonstration or trial, and discover why so many providers say the Training Matrix is the feature that finally makes training compliance simple.
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.
September is World Alzheimer’s Month, and September 21st is World Alzheimer’s Day.
It is an international campaign to raise awareness of dementia and challenge stigma. Each year, Alzheimer’s and dementia associations, along with those involved in treating, caring for, and supporting people living with dementia worldwide, unite to organise advocacy and information events, as well as Memory Walks and fundraising days.
Alzheimer’s Disease International’s (ADI) global campaign message this year is
“The Earlier You Know, The More You Can Do: A Dementia Diagnosis Matters.”
This year focuses on early diagnosis, and for providers, it reframes diagnosis not as a clinical endpoint but as a trigger that can kick-start supports, funding pathways, and care planning for individuals.
More than 55 million people live with dementia worldwide, with a person developing it every 3 seconds, and that’s not just in ageing individuals. Numbers are projected to reach 78 million by 2030.
For providers in the aged care and disability sector, the biggest gap is what happens after diagnosis. About 85% of people living with dementia don’t have any post-diagnostic support at all. We need stronger post-diagnosis support models, not only to improve care but also to save costs by delaying hospital and residential admissions and helping people stay at work, education and in their own homes longer. That sits at the heart of quality and safeguarding expectations across the aged care and NDIS sectors, and it will remain a national priority.
One thing I’d like to mention is stigma. Whilst we see stigma as such a barrier across so many conditions, it’s mind-blowing to learn that around 65% of health and care professionals still believe that dementia is just a normal part of ageing. This is just not the case. On top of that, 46% of people with dementia and their carers say they have fear of diagnosis and stigma as reasons why they don’t get support, and 35% of carers actually have hidden a family member’s diagnosis for that reason.
Now more than ever, we must ensure the workforce and providers support staff to recognise early signs, talk about dementia without stigma, and connect people to assessment and supports early.
My KEY message to providers:
Use this month to ensure all your staff receive dementia training, whether in aged care or disability. Review how your intake and care plans respond to a new or suspected diagnosis, and make sure supports are built into the service, not an afterthought.
The NGO Training Centre provides quality courses for both the disability and the aged care sector, with our aged care training providing a lived experience of a carer supporting her own father with dementia. You can view a clip of this video here.
Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) has a free campaign toolkit with ready-made social cards, posters, and messages that you can adapt for your staff, participants, and their families.
On September 21, the World Alzheimer Report 2026 will be released.
Be sure to send it to all of your staff to learn more about Alzheimer’s and dementia and how they impact the world and the community.
You can make a real difference in the lives of people living with dementia, so why not start today?
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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.
The Australian Government has confirmed that support coordination will move to a new commissioned model from 1 July 2028.
What’s happening
The Australian Government has confirmed that support coordination will move to a new commissioned model from 1 July 2028.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the NDIA have released a consultation paper on the new Support Coordination and Connection (SCC) service, and they want to hear from providers and support workers before the design is settled.
Submissions are open now and close on 2nd October 2026.
Right now, participants use funding in their own plans to access support coordination from an open market of around 11,000 support coordinators. Under the proposed model, the NDIA would directly commission organisations to deliver SCC services across defined regions, and participants would no longer hold that funding in their plans.
The reform responds to long-running concerns about inconsistent quality, unclear role boundaries, conflicts of interest where one organisation delivers both coordination and direct services, thin markets in regional and remote areas, and the limits of the current hourly fee-for-service model.
The proposed service sits at two levels. These are:
SCC is for people who need ongoing help to connect with and coordinate their supports.
SCC+ is for a smaller group of people with very complex circumstances, higher safety considerations and a higher risk of losing connection to services.
The paper is also clear about what the service would not do – workers would not make decisions for people, manage their money, provide advocacy, or deliver crisis response.
What it means for providers
The biggest shift is from an open market to a commissioned one.
The NDIA’s early preference is a lead organisation model, where one organisation per region is responsible for delivering or coordinating all SCC services in that area. That would mean fewer approved providers, a formal procurement process expected before mid-2028, and contracts carrying consistent national standards, performance reporting and a defined governance framework.
The paper flags partnerships and sub-contracting as ways specialist and community-controlled organisations could stay involved, particularly in thin markets and for culturally specific support.
What it means for the workforce
The NDIA has said it recognises the expertise, skills, and relationships held by current support coordinators and psychosocial recovery coaches, and continuity of trusted relationships is a priority for the transition.
Some current organisations will become SCC providers and others will not, and there may be opportunities for current staff to move into SCC worker roles. Psychosocial recovery coaches are likely to have a pathway into SCC work for people with psychosocial disability.
Nothing changes before 1 July 2028, and current arrangements continue until then.
Have your say!
This is early thinking, not a final design.
The consultation questions ask directly about workforce, quality, safeguarding, regional access and what would make transition smooth. If you coordinate supports, or work alongside people who do, your living experience of the current system is exactly what the department is asking for. You can make a written submission or submit a video, including in Auslan.
Submissions close 2nd October 2026. You can make your submission through the Department’s consultation page: Make a submission on the SCC reform
This is IMPORTANT! NOW is the time to have your say.
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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.
