High intensity support in Melbourne for complex health needs.

High intensity daily personal activities are tasks that carry real risk if done wrong and need specific training and clinical oversight. The NDIS Commission's skills descriptors cover complex bowel care, enteral feeding, severe dysphagia management, tracheostomy care, urinary catheter management, ventilator support, subcutaneous injections and complex wound care. Epilepsy and seizure management and diabetes management are usually planned alongside them. Your plan states whether your supports are funded at the high intensity rate.

A registered nurse. Workers arrive with the relevant training, then the nurse assesses and signs them off on your specific tasks, in your home, before they work alone. Competency is refreshed on a schedule and whenever your treatment changes. The Commission's skills descriptors set the standard, and you can ask to see each worker's sign-off record. A worker who is not signed off does not do the task.

Yes, where your plan funds it. We build a roster with enough trained workers that sickness and leave do not create gaps, with active overnight or sleepover shifts as your health needs require. In supported independent living this is the roster of care the NDIA approves. We tell you honestly how long it takes to recruit and train a full team before we commit to a start date.

It is decided in advance. Your health plans say what a worker does if a seizure does not stop, a feeding tube blocks, a tracheostomy tube dislodges or your blood sugar is dangerously low, when to call an ambulance and who else to call. Workers practise this during training. After any incident a nurse reviews what happened with you and the team, and updates the plan if needed.

Yes. It is why high intensity support sits in our complex mental health stream. Many of the people we support live with a psychosocial disability and a physical health need, and providers often manage one but not the other. Our workers are trained in both, our behaviour support practitioners and nurses work together, and we do not end a service agreement because someone is having a hard month.

Yes. If you are happy with your workers and only the training and oversight are missing, our community nurses can assess, train and sign them off on your tasks, write your procedures and provide ongoing clinical oversight, without you changing providers. That is claimed from the nursing funding in your plan. Our community nursing page explains how it works.

Community nursing is a nurse doing clinical tasks and writing the plan. High intensity support is trained support workers doing the day-to-day tasks under that plan, with the nurse overseeing rather than attending every time. Most people need both: the nurse for assessment, training and review, and the workers for the daily routine. Keeping them in one organisation means changes reach the roster quickly.

Yes, and starting early is what makes it work. We join discharge planning, get your clinical history with your consent, write the procedures while you are still on the ward and train the team before the discharge date. Where supported independent living or medium-term accommodation is needed, we line it up at the same time. Our hospital discharge support page explains the steps.