A Day in the Life of a Support Coordinator

Have you ever wondered what a NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) Support Coordinator does? We’ve done the heavy lifting and chatted to Tamara, an Aruma Support Coordinator about her daily work life. Read on to hear what Tamara gets up to in the job she loves.

Written by Tamara

The day begins at 8 am – checking emails, looking back over the last few days, and making sure I catch anything urgent.

Looking at my calendar, the day ahead will be full of meetings, unplanned reviews, scheduled reviews, preparing for NCAT hearings, AAT appeals, and constant calls to the NDIS.

Even though it’s first thing, the phone hasn’t stopped, there are voicemails in the inbox. I question if I should be called ‘go go gadget.’

Through the morning rush, I have a win and find out that my customer, Alex (whose goal was to communicate) can now use the communication Assistive Technology (AT) device that I helped organise and learn to use by linking him with a great speech therapist.

This is music to my ears. I have had an impact on someone’s life.

That coffee I made at 7:50 am is now cold but with huge smiles, I know why I love my job and take another sip.

Back to the schedule.

First meeting of the day kicks off, and I’m ready to focus!  I follow up with the meeting minutes, document, set up the next tasks and email the five people I need to update.

My customer, Bob, has a new NDIS plan and I juggle phone calls and emails from his services who tell me their services will end unless there is a new service agreement in place. I didn’t know he had a new plan as it wasn’t due yet, but for some reason, the NDIS made a new one. I spend the next hour seeking answers. Bob can’t be without his support or is at risk.

I add another task to my already busy calendar, move things around and push on ahead!

It’s now lunchtime.

With my task-list growing, today I eat and type one-handed, life can’t stop.

A SIL service (Supported Independent Living) has sent an urgent email. Their resident, Joel’s bed has wires hanging out. I ask for photos and suppliers’ details, send the email, flag it as urgent, and then go back to find their details. That’s when I realise Joel has no budget. It’s a call to the NDIS… where I wait 10 minutes on hold whilst emailing. We are good at multitasking.

Next is back-to-back meetings with the team manager followed by checking on service agreements, checking plan managers’ statements and more.

It is now late afternoon – the end of the day is near, so I tackle a few more emails and make a few more calls… putting out some spot fires.

Getting to the end of a busy day, that hairdo that was slick at 8 am is now falling out, bits falling in my face… I look like I’ve run a marathon.

4pm has come around and I quickly look at tomorrow’s list and get ready to tackle all the tasks from today that I couldn’t get to. Plus! All the emails I will wake up to at 8 am tomorrow.

Tamara’s final thoughts on Support Coordination… my job isn’t always about showing up and following a schedule. It’s about being resilient, having good time management, communication, and listening to my Participants. It’s the small wins, the rewards, and the impact we make on people’s lives, that I can play a huge role in.

It’s the appreciation and the connections you make, that make Support Coordination, the job I love.

Check out Support Coordination at Aruma

Please note – no real Customer names were used throughout this article.