Our Current Covid Response

Ability Consultants is continuing to remain fully compliant with all current Public Health Orders relating to our work in NSW and QLD. This includes the 23 December 2021, NSW Public Health Order.

We work to find resourceful ways to support freedom, social connection and wellbeing for people with a disability, and this matters more now than ever.

Please be patient with us if our wait time and response times may be extended due to the impact of Covid-19 related illnesses and isolation orders.

We will continue to provide safe and effective Positive Behaviour Support services during these challenging times.

• When Health Orders allow we provide face to face visits in the majority of services--this is the type of work we will always seek to provide.
• Telepractice is how we provide a full range of Positive Behaviour Support services when face to face is not an option.
• We monitor Health Directives and conduct individualised risk assessments prior to visits.
• Face to face visits happen at a safe, respectful and supportive place and time, for you.
• Your practitioner will ask to complete a safe-visit checklist with you prior to the visit to help manage health and safety.
• During essential visits, we use masks, temperature testing, digital check-ins and PCR/RAT tests where required.

We’re passionate about preserving quality of life and will do all we can to keep our service open to support our clients and future referrals.

Our admin team is busy and eager to help you with your referral. 

David Ackling-Jones

CEO.

1300 694 625  [email protected]

Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Talking to Strangers’: what we assume and why it matters

At Ability Consultants we have spent a whole bunch of time and effort thinking about and building a structure around what Positive Behaviour Support is and can be. We focus on the who, what, when and how we can deliver better support, better plans, better strategies. That’s what excites me about work in this team – we care about what we do.

But I recently re-read Malcolm Gladwell’s social psychology analysis ‘Talking to Strangers’ – it talks in detail about WHY we seek to understand strangers and the assumptions that all too often trip us up along the way.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your community. We hope you get a chance to rest and recharge your batteries with your loved ones over the holidays.

Ability Consultants will remain open over the festive period, except for public holidays and weekends.

Ability Consultants’ response times will be a bit slower than usual, while members of our team take a break and spend time with family. We will continue to update our wait time weekly, on our website.  If there is an emergency please call emergency services.

Wishing you a peaceful, and joyful festive season, from all of us here at Ability Consultants.

David Ackling-Jones

CEO.

Loving your job as a contractor

I never wanted to be in private practice. As a bleeding heart lefty with rampant imposter syndrome, the idea of directly charging people for my services really stuck in my craw. How would I even set a fair price for what I do? How could I bring myself to put my hand out for payment at the end of the session when the people I’m working with might be having a really tough time? 

This is my tale… the battered old warhorse finding new life on the fertile grounds of Ability Consultants. It can be done. I hope this story helps others who might have had a similar journey, or who are looking for hope in a world that seems to value only the dollar. I’d love to chat with you if your experience has been the same as mine or if you’re struggling to find a workplace you can call home.

In Loving Memory of Dr David Manchester

David, thank you for joining our team of behaviour clinicians 12 months ago.

You passed away on 26 September, 2021, but you will always be our leader, and we will forever be honoured to be a part of your team. I don't believe our bonds to the people we care about end when they pass on, so forgive me for speaking in the present tense, about your impact on me, and the small window into your life I was fortunate to see through, as your colleague and friend.

Your loss is being deeply felt among your enormous international network, as a researcher, trainer, consultant and clinical leader in the areas of neuropsychology, clinical psychology, brain injury, motivational interviewing, positive behaviour support, advocacy, rehabilitation and disability. This is not to mention your loving family and circle of dear friends we met for the first time, at your Memorial Service on Wednesday this week.

I met you as Practice Leader of Psychology at the Department of Aging Disability and Homecare well over a decade ago. In that role, you enabled many of us to begin our careers in Behaviour Support. You established ethical and professional standards and helped us to always focus on making life better for our clients. Over the past year, you added to that legacy by leading our team in the creation of the Centre of Excellence in Positive Behaviour Support Leadership program. This program is nurturing the next generation of practitioners and mentors in our team.

We were blessed to witness your strength of character, incisive mind, and humility. You made each one of us feel listened to and validated, and you gently guided us toward being better practitioners and people. Your wisdom and respect were evident in the fact that you never used your encyclopaedic knowledge or your insight to force any of us into better thinking--instead, you left us feeling that our thoughts were intrinsically valuable and that you were always learning, even from us. 

Your kindness and thoughtfulness as a sensitive and compassionate friend will also be missed by those of us lucky enough to have been some part of your life outside of work.

With love, respect and deep gratitude,

David Ackling-Jones and the Ability Consultants Team.

We’re Seeking Psychosocial Recovery Coaches

Why?

The NDIS included Psychosocial Recovery Coaching (PRC) in the July 2020 NDIS Price Guide. Our problem is finding practitioners and organisations able to provide this service under the NDIS.

Recovery Coaching and Positive Behaviour Support can be powerful allies in making life better for people. As specialist therapists we are eager to refer to and support any organisation or practitioner who is providing person-centred PRC.

The medical system, on its own, is frequently limited in its capacity to help people recover mental health and their quality of life. That’s where the NDIS can help.

Psychosocial Recovery is about social reconnection and the development of empowering skills that restore freedom, meaning and function. It’s a powerful, consumer-led, person-centred, and participatory model of support.

Who’s PRC for?

Psychosocial crises are part of ordinary life. We all need a coach, or a wise friend to mentor and guide us through a period of grief, overwhelm, learning, social adjustment or personal growth.

PRC is for people who are accessing NDIS because of chronic psychosocial impairments.

What’re the barriers to PRC?

Here are some barriers we see:

• PRC is a new thing in the NDIS. It’s a change. Change takes time to understand.
• The NDIS does not tend to fund PRC for people with Support Coordination in their NDIS Plan. It’s PRC or Support Coordination. Rarely both.
• To become a PRC you need all the knowledge and skill of a Support Coordinator (e.g. what’s the difference between SIL, SDA, and Short-term Accommodation?) AND experience in Mental Health support.
• PRC is paid by the NDIS at an hourly rate about 20% less than Support Coordination.

What’s the opportunity here?

• When the NDIS announced last month they were no longer going to allow Support Coordination to be funded from Core, this was a worry. Who will guide Participants (without a Support Coordination budget) through the NDIS jungle now?
• What if all the mental-health savvy Support Coordinators were enabled to do a bit of PRC?
• This would preserve Support Coordination for many clients
• Support Coordination service providers could continue to employ and recruit staff
• Behaviour Support Providers could refer a lot of work to PRC services
• At the right volume, PRC could be part of a sustainable business model for providers, in spite of the lower hourly rate compared to Support Coordination
• Coaching is a mutually gratifying and rewarding role, likely to promote high levels of engagement among workers and Participants alike.

Who could Benefit?

• NDIS Participants with Psychosocial disabilities
• Disability workers, Mental Health workers, and Support Coordinators
• Providers of Support Coordination who wish to diversify their service offering and stay ahead of change

Please Contact us if...

• You are in a Support Coordination agency or in a team of Disability or Mental Health Support Workers,
• You have ideas on how we can make Psychosocial Recovery Coaching more easy for people to access, or
• You know lots about PRC (we do not), and are you willing to educate us more?

Please reach out to us at [email protected]

Cheers,

David Ackling-Jones

How to Connect with Elders | Maurie Voisey-Barlin

Thanks for tuning in to this first AC Podcast, I hope you enjoy it. It is a bit rough, but we'll get there.

Meet Maurie Voisey-Barlin!

Moz is a Creative Engagement Specialist. He's the inventor of Window Therapy and founder of the Outside-In Collective.

During the Covid lockdowns, he was told he couldn't visit his Elders. So he started performing interactive 1:1 sessions through people's windows.

Moz is a true hero to me. He brings laughter and connection to his beloved Elders. He's changing the world of aged-care, one relationship at a time.

Listen in for the story of Rechtub from Junee. How was Moz able to connect with the person behind the behaviour? Pure genius.

If you are keen to learn from Maurie Voisey-Barlin , he is running some professional development sessions soon, so be sure to get in touch with him.

Thanks Moz, it was an honour to chat with you.

Cheers,

Dave.

Working on the Operations Team

Working on the Operations Team here at Ability Consultants has been a wonderful breath of fresh air and change of path. After 25 years working, training, recruiting and life coaching in the field of sales and marketing, I was ready for a change and desiring to help others on a larger scale.

Taking action on a movement for housing change

I work for the Summer Foundation’s Sydney Housing Matching Team. Our team is focussed on meeting NDIS participants who could be eligible for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding from the NDIS.

I am also a family member of someone who needs significant support in their home. Putting my family member hat on for a moment, I have reflected on the lack of opportunity prior to the NDIS and the hard slog of trying to create something out of nothing. What an incredible privilege to meet people now and have new possibilities to offer.

Are you a person who may benefit from learning more about housing and SDA?

Do you work with individuals or families who could connect with us?

People with disability, families and carers in Sydney and NSW can contact me directly at [email protected] or 0455 110 678.

How a Movie can Stir up Feelings and Memories

When I first received an invitation to view the film ‘Crip Camp’, I was a bit put off by the name. However, as it was the beginning of the disability rights movement and the independent living movement in the United States, and the relationships and shared determination of the people who first met at Camp Jened in the ’60s and early ’70s, I decided to go ahead and watch it.

The movie that was only put together this year brought back many memories of my own involvement, over the years, with people with disabilities and their struggle for rights and to have the same opportunities to live life like everyone else does.

Let’s go back to the name and reflect on the language used to describe some people with disabilities, such as cripples, spastics, retards and subnormal. If you go back even further people would have been called, feeble-minded, insane, lunatics and imbeciles. In Australia organisations have now changed their names, but did you know that Northcott was called The NSW Society for Crippled Children (established in 1929 and like referenced in the film set up primarily as a response to the Polio outbreak), The Cerebral Palsy Alliance was known as the Spastic Centre (Miss Australia Quest/Competition from 1957 to 2000) and Achieve was the SCWA (Subnormal Children’s Welfare Association established in 1952).

The Beauty from within - don’t judge a book by its cover!

How often do we make assumptions about people from just looking at them or allow other people's opinions to cloud our judgement?

This continues to happen throughout life - in our personal lives, work situations, with our parents, family and friends, at school as students or as parents, and of course the influence of the media and politics.

You may have experienced a new boss and being told by others that they are difficult and unfair and then finding out that in fact you get on really well, share similar values and find them a pleasure to work with. Can you relate to being an anxious parent standing in the playground at the beginning of a new school year waiting to see who your child gets as their year Two teacher? Hearing the name of the teacher that many have warned you about, and then, your child’s name is called out and you dread the coming year, only to find that your child really loves being in that teacher's class and thrives throughout the school year.

How many times, when asked what sort of work you do and you say that you work with people with a disability, do you get the response ....”oh you so good, you must be so patient, I could never do that”. 

What are people referring to here?

Tick Number One

As a carer you need to firstly care for yourself!

For some of us, during Covid 19, practicing social distancing and only going out for essential trips, life became a lot simpler. But, as a carer, particularly of someone who may not understand why this is happening, I can only try and imagine how difficult and demanding this must be.

All people in a caring role are heroes. With day programs and supported employment programs disrupted, all carers have been finding the current arrangements particularly challenging. Those employed by organisations providing accommodation service as carers have often found themselves in the situation of having all the clients at home 24/7.

Carers who are looking after a loved one within the family home, are not provided an opportunity to have any or much ‘me’ time. It is very important for these carers to look after themselves so that they remain healthy and able to continue in that very special caring role.

You might have found some of the other blogs on our website, about activities useful in finding some things that spark an interest in the person you care for. If you haven’t, take a look, you might even find some of these could be beneficial for you.

I know it’s hard: when you get the opportunity to have a few minutes to yourself, you are probably using it to do housework, laundry, cooking or shopping.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT to take some time out for yourself

5 Questions that Can Clear Away the Gloom

This post is personal. It is about how I shifted my gloomy mindset today.

It is a mission to stay healthy and aligned amid so much uncertainty and disruption. So, today I did an exercise from a great book, Inner Child Journeys, by the psychologist Robin Grille. It occurred to me that this exercise, relevant to my role as a parent, could extend to my work role, also. That's why I am sharing it here. 

Dealing with Isolation: for people in Supported Living

Here are some general recommended practices, for carers, support workers and parents supporting people with disabilities who are socially isolated due to the Corona Crisis.

Anxiety Tools for Parents and Carers during Covid-19

We know at AbilityConsultants that being a parent or carer of someone with special needs is highly rewarding, but at times can also be challenging. Often, when something stressful happens in our own life, it can affect our work and our ability to look after others.

With the ongoing situation of COVID-19, most of us will feel anxious to some degree, even those who typically do not tend to feel that way. We wanted to remind you that it is OK to reach out to access support at the moment for yourself to be able to look after others. And feel free to consult your assigned Behaviour Support Specialists for additional support in these unprecedented times. Here are some self-help tools.

17 Stimulating Activities During the Corona Crisis

Right now, we are stuck at home and at risk of being bored. Someone said, "Boredom is usually the thing that happens, right before you do something truly creative."

Some of these activities may match your abilities, likes and interests. Maybe none of them. Maybe this list makes your boredom worse! If that's the case, I hope the boredom sparks your own creativity, and you develop a unique set of stimulating activities for you.

Let us know!

How we Provide Positive Behaviour Support by Telepractice

Before I started at Ability Consultants I worked for a school. Everything I did was done face to face, and it worked fine for me. When I moved across, I was given a Zoom account, which included a phone number, and released into the world as a tele-practitioner. In fact, the first client I was given at Ability Consultants is someone who lives in a different state to me, and I’ve never met them in the flesh. This service has worked fantastically well to date. The client is a very smart person looking to explore how to apply elements of Positive Behaviour Support in their life to help solve some of the problems they’ve been facing. In this particular situation, meeting on a digital platform has probably worked better than it would have to try to meet face to face. Many of our clients have diagnoses which predispose them to difficulties around social anxiety and social communication difficulties, and many of these people also have an interest and preference for technology. Meeting via Zoom allows clear, direct, focussed, 1:1 communication using cool technology, which is just perfect for situations like this.

Since the COVID-19 restrictions have come into place, Ability Consultants have quite rightly made the decision that we shouldn’t be meeting people in their normal environments in the community for the time being. 

What's it like being an Ability Consultant?

What is it like to be an Ability Consultant?

Well, I can tell you that no day is ever the same.

Here’s what some of our staff have to say ...

Resilience

I continue to marvel at the resilience of the people we support.

Over the past 40 years working in the disability sector, I have watched, particularly in group homes:

• A constant coming and going of support staff
• Support programs that are taken away, then reinstated, only to be taken away again
• Communication supports, such as chat books removed or symbols not replaced, because ‘the client always destroys them’
• Boards posted on the wall of the group home, such as a ‘who’s on shift’, taken down as it is not considered appropriate in a home.
• Attitudes from some staff that any display of challenging behaviour should have a consequence
• Loss of contact with family and friends
• People not recognised as sexual beings
• Illness or death of a co-resident and a dismissal of the persons need (or ability) to grieve

WOW… I wonder how I would cope? How would you cope?

6 Things that make a Positive Behaviour Support Plan Great

Starting out as a Behaviour Clinician in 1987, I have seen a wide variety of Behaviour Support Plans. Way back then the training was called the "Program Officers Course." The course was only open to nurses with Mental Retardation, Psychiatric, or Geriatric registration by the NSW Health Commission. It required attending 12 weeks of training, living-in at Stockton Hospital and staying in the Nurses Home, Monday to Friday. 

Since this time, I have seen a wide variety of Behaviour Support Plans. Here is a list of 6 things I believe make a Behaviour Support Plan great.

Things have changed...

As the saying goes…”it’s not rocket science”

Being able to communicate, socialise, participate in meaningful activities and enjoy physical activity are essential for a good and satisfying life.

I have worked in the disability sector for a very long time, mostly in Government. Whilst I recognise that much of what went before the NDIS was certainly not perfect and that a lot of people seemed to get a rolls royce service, I do believe that there was an ability to try and get it right for clients and that clinicians advice was respected, particularly when it came to clients with challenging behaviour. It wasn’t always easy to get support or funding, however there was a better understanding of the reasoning and the experience of the cost long term if resources were not funded adequately from the start. There was also an ability to provide uninterrupted service.

Over the past 2 years working in an NDIS environment managing a team of clinicians, therapists and case managers the pain points seem to be many.

Connect with us

What does it take to be an Ability Consultant?

We are clinicians focussed on serving people with disability. 

We have all worked for several years in the field, and are on a journey of professional growth. We are question-askers, learners, communicators, evidence-seekers, and we openly share our ideas and skills.

We are human, and we live to build human connection into everything we do.

We are psychologists, behaviour analysts, and allied health professionals with strong ethics and person-centred values.

We are all from different backgrounds, and we love this diversity. 

We all believe Behaviour Support can be done differently, and more effectively in an atmosphere of openness and continuous improvement. We seek feedback and celebrate the opportunity to learn.

We have a supportive culture. We are people who focus on supporting others on the team.

Many of us have young families. We thrive in a role where we have complete flexibility of time and location. We can work at a time and a place that balances with our life and where there is no pressure to work more or less than we need to.

We are a team of leaders. Clinicians with the maturity and skill to work as independent specialists, focussed on client outcomes. We love having this level of autonomy, and value the daily challenge.

We commit to clinical and operational supervision and keep an individual learning plan in place. We work in an organisation that funds our conference attendance, research activities, courses, and individual learning opportunities.

We value our streamlined administration systems and our wonderful admin team, who enable us to focus on providing therapy rather than doing hours of NDIS paperwork.

If this sounds like you, check out our Careers page. We put a new ad on seek yesterday.

Brainstorming Ideas for our Ad

I am struggling.

We are Gold Sponsor of the Australian Association for Behaviour Analysts (AABA) conference at the end of this month. We need to provide an A4 advertisement for the back page of the booklet.

There is so much I want to say. but how to organise it all in my head? Hope writing this blog post helps...

---

First question: "Why?" Why does Ability Consultants exist?

• NDIS participants shouldn't have to wait for months for effective therapy and support.
• People affected by disability shouldn't be punished or restricted
• The most empowering and enabling evidence-based behaviour therapy should be freely accessible
• Behaviour therapists should be free to focus on clinical services, not doing hours of admin

Second Question: "How?" How do we make a meaningful difference?

• We make it easy for behaviour therapists to work in a compliant and client-focussed way under the NDIS
• We make it easy for NDIS participants in need of Behaviour Support to engage quality services
• We support learning and growth within the Behaviour Support workforce, internal to our organisation and more broadly
• We honour and build awareness of ABA as a foundation for person-centred and empowering Behaviour Support

Third Question: "What?" What services do we provide?

• For NDIS Participants of all ages, we provide Positive Behaviour Support, and Psychological assessment and therapy services
• For Behaviour clinicians seeking to work in the NDIS, we provide a complete admin solution that frees them to focus on clinical work

---

I want to waffle-on and provide more details, but I think that sums up the Whys, the Hows and the Whats.

I will circulate it now to the team for feedback.

Visit our new Penrith Office

Spare a thought for Daniel (Team Leader Western Sydney)... Many of his current clients live on the Northern Beaches. He drives down every day from Hazelbrook, in the Blue Mountains.

So, we have opened an office in Penrith to connect with more local customers.

It is at 95B Station Street, Penrith. Phone 1300 MY GOAL, to meet us there.

We have a growing team of experienced Behaviour Support Specialists who live all over Sydney. Until recently we only had Ability Consultants listed as a Northern Sydney service on the NDIS website. My fault, sorry, Daniel and team.

Please make a referral today, if you need Specialist Behaviour Support, especially if you are in the Western Sydney or Blue Mountains area.

Building the Aircraft while Flying

Doing new things is good, but we didn’t know what the hell we were doing when we started all this.

We were overwhelmed with the complexities of the NDIS. We had to adapt our practice to the new technical environment. We are people-people, not techies.

We realised most people feel the same way. Being behaviour technicians, at least we had the advantage that we love data.

So, we built our own software. And it worked.

We now run our whole organisation on it. It talks to the NDIS, so we can focus on serving people. It’s allowed us to grow.

(We have used a great app builder called Appsheet to create our administration tools on the fly. We highly recommend it.)

But, the software is grounded for maintenance today. It's Mothers Day and we're busy debugging the software, instead of playing with family.

Our aircraft will fly better when we wash the bugs off the windshield. We’re chatting with some developers who'll help with this ongoing job. Just need to let it go.

We are hiring!

Too many NDIS Participants are living a crappy life. Their support needs are not understood. Some of these people have had to wait for months for a Behaviour Support service.

We believe it is urgent we attract and nurture more brilliant behaviour support clinicians into the NDIS.

Our vision is life-changing NDIS Behaviour Support services that are easy to access. We've built a reputation for delivering outcomes in an urgent way.

As new referrals stream in, we need to grow our team, so our current waiting list standard (3.5 weeks) can be maintained. We think this is vital.

We focus on the growth and wellbeing of our team. This attracts great clinicians and maintains the high quality of our service.

Today, we've advertised three positions on our Careers page.

Our new Baulkham Hills office

You might have seen we have an office in Mosman, and wonder if we serve your part of Sydney. We have Behaviour Support Specialists spread all over Sydney. Probably in your local area.

Four of our staff, Claire, Monique, Felicity and Lily, live in the Northwest: so, our first new office is at Level 5 Nexus Norwest, 4 Columbia Court, Baulkham Hills, 2153.

We hope this leads to more local referrals and less travel time for Claire, Monique, Felicity and Lily.

If you live in the Hills, please give us a ring (1300 MY GOAL), and organise a catch up at our new office.

Looking forward to our team meeting 1 May, at the new office with all of the team.

By the way, we still have our Mosman Office, and we plan to open more offices, to cover other local parts of Sydney, in the near future, so stay tuned.

Confused about Restrictive Practices?

A great new resource came out this week for people with Restrictive Practices.

When the NDIS safeguarding laws arrived in July 2018 there was a lot of reading to be done.

Finally... here are your Cliff Notes on Restrictive Practices in NSW. Thanks, FACS!

Watch this video and in 4.5 minutes, you'll know what a Restrictive Practice is, and what you need to do.

Sneak preview: you'll need a registered behaviour support clinician to write an Interim Behaviour Support Plan, and you'll need to do this within a month if there is a Restrictive Practice.

If you are in the greater Sydney area, please make an online referral today and we will see you in less than a month.