Link February 2017 Volume 26 Issue 1 | Page 46

industry

in conversation : emma hinchey , CEO , community support incorporated

Tell us about Community Supported Incorporated . Community Support Incorporated is a registered charity , established in 1991 , to provide a unique and modern solution to the challenge of providing individualised support to people with disability .
Community Support was the forerunner of the NDIS model , giving individuals the ability to set their own support schedule to suit their needs and choices . We only provide one-to-one support to individuals in their homes and in the community . We support people to live their life , their way , through a flexible support model that allows people to have support in sessions as short as one hour at a time , and often up to multiple times per day .
Who do you help and how ? We provide support to people with both physical and intellectual disability , Autism Spectrum Disorder , Acquired Brain Injuries and mental health issues all over South Australia with over 500 support workers across metropolitan Adelaide and regional SA . We have offices in Adelaide , Mount Gambier and Whyalla . We also provide the ability for our clients to choose their own support worker . We are completely focused on serving the needs of our clients on an individual , personalised basis and provide individualised programs of one-toone support in the community and the home , promoting independence , skill development and community participation .
How long have you worked at Community Support Incorporated and how did you come to this role ? I joined Community Support in July 2016 to lead the organisation in preparation for the NDIS . I have been working in the disability sector since early 2012 and was drawn to the opportunity to help Community Support reach more people with their unique services . Community Support has 25 years of experience in delivering support on a one-to-one basis . All of our supports are unique to each client , with service delivery designed specifically to meet each client ’ s goals and needs . I am looking forward to working to bring our knowledge of personalised support to the NDIS participants .
What is the most rewarding part of your job and what do you hope to achieve in the future ? Having the opportunity to lead the improvement of the support available to people with disabilities is the most rewarding part of my job . I ’ m incredibly grateful to have the chance to help people live an independent and fulfilling life , in the way they choose . We are working to understand what our clients want and need from their support provider and to develop our services to meet those needs and wants . We want to innovate and create a service that inspires , motivates and enables people to achieve things that they previously felt were out of reach . We want to deliver outstanding service to more people than ever before and ensure that the achievement of client outcomes is measured , reported and delivered .
In your opinion , what are the top three issues facing the disability sector ? The biggest challenge is The change of focus from delivering pre-planned services designed to deliver the best outcomes for as many people as possible , to designing services that deliver the best outcome for each individual . We need to develop a new mindset and way of exploring what services need to be provided , with the people we are trying to support . We need to empower our customers to identify the way they want their support delivered . We need to actively listen and take action to deliver those services to the highest possible quality .
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