NDIS behaviour support for adults
Adult behaviour support, built around the life you want.
Currently accepting adult referrals
Behaviour support is not only for children. For an adult it is about quality of life: more say over your own days, skills you actually want, and the people paid to support you working in a way that suits you rather than the other way round.
NDIS registered provider of specialist positive behaviour support. Clinics at Salisbury and North Adelaide, with outreach into homes across metropolitan Adelaide.
What it actually is
It starts with the person, not the behaviour.
Positive Behaviour Support works by understanding why something is happening, then changing what can be changed around a person so that life gets better. It is not about compliance, and it is not about making somebody easier for services to manage.
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Behaviour makes sense in context
Distress, withdrawal, anger or refusal are usually saying something about pain, a setting, a relationship or a lack of control. We start by working out what.
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Quality of life is the goal
Not fewer incidents for their own sake. More of the life a person actually wants: their own routines, their own choices, relationships and things worth getting up for.
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We change the environment first
Most of what drives behaviour sits in the surroundings: the predictability of a day, how requests are made, how much say somebody has. That is usually where the change comes from.
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Skills the person wants
Communication, coping, managing money, using transport, saying no. Skills chosen with the person rather than assigned to them.
Who we work with
Adults in a range of circumstances.
- Adults living in supported independent living or other supported accommodation
- Adults living at home, often with ageing parents as their main carers
- Young adults aged 18 to 25 in transition: leaving school, leaving care, or moving out of home
- Adults with psychosocial disability, where mental health is the main driver
- Adults with intellectual disability, autistic adults and adults with complex communication needs
- Adults whose support needs sit across several systems at once
If you are not sure whether we are the right fit, we invite you to ring and ask.
Your rights, and what stays yours
You are an adult, and the plan should say so.
A behaviour support plan written about an adult can very easily become a document about keeping other people comfortable. That is not what it is for, and it is not how we write them.
- Your goals drive the plan, not the preferences of the services around you
- You are entitled to take ordinary risks and make decisions others disagree with
- Where you have a guardian or administrator we work with them, and still start from what you want
- You can ask to read anything written about you, and have it explained
- You can ask for a different practitioner, or change provider, at any time
- Any restrictive practice in place must be reported, justified, and worked towards being removed
If you run or manage supported accommodation
We train the roster, not just the plan
A plan that depends on one staff member remembering it will not survive a roster. We train the whole support team, brief new staff as they come on, and write for handover so the same approach carries across shifts and houses. Where the support workers are ours, our practitioners train them directly. Where they are yours, we train them the same way.
AkindaCo also has its own in-house support work team, made up of allied health therapists in training, alongside recovery support coaches and an in-house therapy team.
- The whole team trained, not one shift
- New staff briefed as they join
- Written for handover, in language support workers can use
- Restrictive practice reduction planned with you and the prescriber
- Happy to work with an existing support worker team
If you are a family member
You have probably been doing this a long time.
Families supporting an adult have usually been at it for decades, often with less help than they had when their person was a child. Two things come up again and again, and we take both seriously.
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What happens when I am gone
Ageing carers carry this constantly. Building a support team that knows what to do, and writing it down properly, is part of the answer rather than a conversation to avoid.
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Being believed
You know things about your person that no assessment will surface. We treat what you know as evidence, not as background.
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The whole family, not just the participant
Our practitioners bring family therapy and systemic training, which matters when the strain sits across siblings, partners and parents as well as the person themselves.
Our practitioners
Experienced clinicians, working as a team.
- Backgrounds across allied health, nursing, disability and psychotherapy, including adult psychiatric units and complex mental health
- Every behaviour support practitioner holds an allied health qualification
- All systemically trained, with family therapy experience
- A choice of male and female practitioners across a range of ages and backgrounds
- Registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to deliver behaviour support
- Members of Behaviour Support Practitioners Australia, working to their guidance and recommendations
Funding
What it costs, and how it is paid.
At the start of service delivery we provide a funding implementation plan, so you can see exactly how the funding will be spent across the whole plan period before the work begins.
Where we work
Two clinics, and outreach across metropolitan Adelaide.
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Salisbury clinic
26 Commercial Road, Salisbury, opposite St Augustine's School.
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North Adelaide clinic
Suite 21, 183 Tynte Street, North Adelaide.
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We come to you
In your own home, in supported accommodation, at day options, in the community and online. Behaviour support has to happen where life happens.
Getting started
Start with a conversation, not paperwork.
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A free 15-minute call
The first 15-minute phone call is free, and its only purpose is to work out whether this is the right kind of support. You do not need a referral, and you do not need your NDIS paperwork in order before you ring.
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Or send us the details
If you would rather write than talk, or you are a coordinator or provider making a referral, use the enquiry form on the AkindaCo site and choose Positive Behaviour Support.
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We talk it through
We come back to you about timing, funding and the right practitioner match, and answer anything you want to ask before committing to anything.
You can also ring (08) 7081 5886 or email hello@akindaco.com. Support coordinators may prefer our referrals page, which carries the funding and referral detail in one place.
Questions
The things people ask us first.
Is behaviour support only for children?
No. Positive Behaviour Support is funded and delivered for adults as well as children. For adults the work usually focuses on quality of life, choice and control, the skills a person wants, and the way paid support around them is delivered.
Who decides what goes in the plan?
The person does, as far as they are able and want to. Where someone has a guardian or an administrator we work with them too, but the participant's own goals and preferences drive the plan rather than the preferences of the services around them.
Can you work with adults in supported independent living?
Yes, and it is a large part of our adult work. We train the whole support team rather than one staff member, brief new staff as they join, and write plans for handover so the same approach carries across shifts and houses.
What happens if restrictive practices are already being used?
We identify and report them, and we plan for their reduction and elimination. Restrictive practices are never a reason to decline a referral, and reducing them is part of what behaviour support is funded to do.
Do you work with the whole support team, or just the person?
Both. Very little changes if the plan sits with the participant alone. We work with the people around them: family, support workers, accommodation providers and other clinicians.
How quickly can you start?
We are currently accepting adult referrals. Timing depends on location, the nature of the referral and which practitioner is the right match, so ring us and we will give you a clear answer.