Looking for an NDIS support coordinator in Brisbane who knows the providers, the hospitals and the suburbs? MediHealth Connect support coordinators help participants across Brisbane understand their plan, find services with real capacity, keep those services working together and get ready for every plan review.
Support coordination is the part of an NDIS plan that turns funding into services that actually happen. Brisbane has more registered and unregistered providers than anywhere else in Queensland, which sounds like an advantage until you try to find a speech pathologist in Chermside with a spot before Christmas. Our support coordinators in Brisbane do that finding, connecting and following up on your behalf.
We sit down with you and go through the plan line by line: what each budget is for, what it can and cannot buy, and which supports need a quote or a report before the NDIA will fund them. You leave the first meeting knowing what you have.
Knowing who exists is easy. Knowing who has a vacancy, who is good with your particular needs and who actually services your side of Brisbane is the job. We keep that knowledge current and we make the calls.
Service agreements, schedules, provider changes, problems that need sorting out. We keep everyone pointing the same way so your therapists, support workers and nurses are not working at cross purposes.
Before each review we collect the evidence, write the progress report, talk through what to ask for and, if you want, come to the meeting. Reviews go better when they are prepared for.
The NDIS funds three levels of coordination, and Brisbane participants are often unsure which one they have. Level 1, support connection, is short-term help to get started with providers. Level 2, support coordination, is the ongoing service most participants receive and the one this page describes. Level 3, specialist support coordination, is for participants whose situation involves serious risk or several systems at once: hospital and mental health services, housing, child safety, the justice system, or a history of placements breaking down.
A specialist support coordinator in Brisbane works more intensively and with a smaller caseload than a level 2 coordinator, and is usually expected to have a relevant professional background. Complex needs support coordination of this kind is funded separately in your plan and has to be requested with evidence. If you think your circumstances call for level 3 support coordination, our specialist support coordination page explains how it works and how to ask for it, and our coordinators can advise on whether your situation is likely to qualify.
Some of the most valuable support coordination happens at the points where life changes shape. The NDIS calls this assistance with life stage transitions, and in Brisbane it usually looks like one of the following.
Our life stage and transition support page goes into each of these in more depth. For many participants, NDIS transition support is the reason they first sought support coordination and the reason they keep it.
There are a great many NDIS support coordination providers in Brisbane, and the differences between them matter. Here is what we would look for.
Local knowledge. A coordinator who works Brisbane every week knows which providers are taking clients, which hospitals discharge on which days and which suburbs certain services will not travel to. Someone coordinating from another state does not.
Independence, explained honestly. An independent support coordinator is one whose organisation delivers no other supports, so there is never a temptation to refer you inward. MediHealth Connect is not fully independent in that sense: we also provide community nursing and other services in Brisbane. What we do instead is manage the conflict openly. Your coordinator will always present you with several options, will never make a MediHealth Connect service a condition of anything, and will record how the choice was made. If you would prefer a coordinator whose organisation offers nothing else, we will tell you so and help you find one.
Responsiveness. Ask any prospective disability support coordinator how quickly they return calls and what happens when they are on leave. The honest answers tell you a lot.
The right level. If your needs are complex, check that the provider can deliver, or refer you to, specialist support coordination rather than stretching a level 2 service.
Our support coordination services cover Brisbane City Council's area. Coordinators are based on the side of the city they serve, and our office at Darra is available for meetings if you prefer not to meet at home.
Brisbane North: Chermside, Aspley, Stafford, Kedron, Nundah, Sandgate, Bracken Ridge, Zillmere, Albany Creek, Everton Park, McDowall, Bridgeman Downs
Brisbane South: Moorooka, Annerley, Holland Park, Mt Gravatt, Sunnybank, Carindale, Wishart, Eight Mile Plains, Runcorn, Kuraby, Acacia Ridge
Brisbane Inner City: South Brisbane, West End, New Farm, Fortitude Valley, Woolloongabba, Kangaroo Point, Spring Hill, Kelvin Grove, Paddington
Brisbane West: Indooroopilly, Toowong, Kenmore, Chapel Hill, Jindalee, Oxley, Darra, Inala, Forest Lake
Brisbane East: Wynnum, Manly, Tingalpa, Cannon Hill, Morningside, Bulimba, Balmoral
Because MediHealth Connect also provides community nursing in Brisbane, participants who need both can have a coordinator and a nurse who already talk to each other. A wound that is not healing, a medication change after a hospital stay or a new clinical need turns into a plan adjustment in days rather than months, because the two people involved sit in the same organisation. Participants who would like the financial side handled as well can add NDIS plan management in Brisbane, with the same commitment to keeping the roles separate and the choice yours.
If you are new to the scheme, our article on finding the right NDIS support coordinator in Brisbane sets out the questions worth asking any provider, including us.
Yes. You can change support coordinators at any time during your plan. You give notice to your current provider according to your service agreement, sign a new agreement with us and we ask the outgoing coordinator for a handover of your records and current arrangements. Your funding is not affected.
Yes. Our support coordinators cover the whole of Brisbane City Council's area, from Bracken Ridge in the north to Forest Lake in the south-west and Wynnum on the bay. Coordinators are allocated by area so that home visits are practical.
That depends on the number of hours funded in your plan, which the NDIA sets based on your circumstances. We agree with you at the start how those hours will be used across the plan, so that there is time for a plan review at the end and not just a burst of activity at the beginning.
Yes. Hospital discharge coordination is a large part of our Brisbane work. We liaise with the ward and the hospital social worker, arrange nursing, equipment and support workers, and where needed request an urgent plan review so that the discharge date is not held up by missing funding.
A support coordinator helps you find, set up and manage your services. A plan manager pays your providers and tracks your budgets. They are funded from different parts of your plan and you can have both. MediHealth Connect provides both in Brisbane, through separate teams, and you can use either without the other.
Not in the strict sense, because MediHealth Connect also delivers community nursing and other services. We manage that by always offering you a choice of providers, never tying one of our services to another and recording how referrals were decided. If you want a coordinator whose organisation offers no other services, we will help you find one.