Learning to Do More of It Yourself
Practical support to build everyday skills, from cooking and budgeting to catching the bus and organising your week. Not someone doing it for you, someone helping you learn to do it. We support participants across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside.
Support that aims to be needed a little less each month.
What is development of life skills?
Development of life skills is support to build the practical skills of everyday life, so that over time you can do more of it on your own.
How it works
A support worker works alongside you on real tasks in real situations: cooking an actual dinner, doing an actual shop, catching an actual bus. You do as much as you can, they help with the rest, and the balance shifts as things get easier. Learning by doing, at a pace that suits.
The difference between doing and learning
Some supports are about someone doing a task for you, which is exactly right when that is what you need. This one is different. It is about learning the task, so the same job takes less help next time. That is why this funding usually sits in the capacity building part of a plan rather than core supports.
What we do, and what we don't
We provide skill-building support work. Some things funded in this category are delivered by allied health professionals, like occupational therapy or speech therapy, and those are not services we provide. If that is what someone needs, we will say so plainly and help you work out where to look.
How this is different from our other supports
Participate in Community is support to take part in social and community life now, rather than building skills for later. Group & Centre Activities are shared activities in a group setting. If you are not sure which fits, call us and we will help you work it out.
Skills this support can help build
Everyone starts somewhere different, so the mix is built around what would actually make a difference for you. Not sure where to start? Tell us what part of the week is hardest and we will work back from there.
Cooking and meals
Planning meals, shopping for them, following a recipe, and cooking safely. Starting with a few dinners you like and can make again.
Money and budgeting
Working out what comes in and goes out, paying bills on time, using banking apps, and making decisions about spending with more confidence.
Getting around
Planning a route, reading timetables, buying a ticket, and building up to travelling somewhere familiar on your own.
Looking after your home
Cleaning, laundry, keeping on top of the place, and the small maintenance jobs that are easy once someone has shown you.
Routines and organising your week
Getting the day started, keeping track of appointments, remembering the things that are easy to forget, and finding a system that sticks.
Personal care and everyday health
Building routines around showering, grooming, medication reminders and appointments, in whatever way suits.
Needing a bit less help each month
The direction of travel is fewer prompts, less supervision, more done on your own. That is the whole point of this support.
Doing things in your own way
There is rarely one right method. The aim is a way of doing it that works for you and that you will keep using.
More say in your own day
Skills change what is possible. Cooking means choosing what you eat. Managing money means deciding what to spend it on.
Being ready for what is next
Leaving school, moving out, living more independently. Big changes are easier when the everyday skills are already in place.
Confidence that carries across
Learning one thing well tends to make the next thing feel possible. That is often the part families notice first.
What this support can help you work towards
Your goals set the direction, and the support is planned around them. Progress here is usually made in small steps rather than big ones, and small steps add up faster than people expect.
How to get started
You do not need a list of goals or a clear idea of where to begin. Usually there is one part of the week that is harder than the rest, and that is a good enough place to start.
Get in touch
Call or send an enquiry. Tell us who the support is for, the suburb, and what you would like to be easier. That is enough to start.
Talk it through
We will talk through what the person can already do, what they want to be able to do, and what gets in the way. Then we pick one or two things to begin with rather than everything at once.
Start and adjust
Skills build through repetition, so we keep at it and check in on how it is going. When something is working, we step back. When it is not, we try a different way.
Where this sits in an NDIS plan
Skill-building support like this usually sits in the capacity building part of a plan, often under the category the NDIS calls Improved Daily Living. Two things worth knowing: not every plan includes this funding, since plans are built around individual goals, and capacity building funding is a stated support, which means it is set aside for that purpose rather than moved around freely.
Every plan is different, so nothing here is a promise about your funding. It is worth checking what your plan allows before booking anything. Your support coordinator or plan manager can confirm it, or call us on 1300 544 958 and we will help you make sense of it.
Other supports that might suit
Skill building often works best alongside other supports. These are the ones people usually look at with it.
Participate in Community
One-to-one support to get out and take part in social, recreational and community life, with a worker alongside you rather than building skills for later.
Group & Centre Activities
Shared activities with other participants, where support is shared across the group rather than one worker to one person.
Everyday NDIS Core Supports
Practical help with daily living, personal care and household tasks, for the parts of the week where having someone do it with you or for you is what is needed.
Life skills support across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside
Hope & Integrity is based in Logan, and our support workers live and work across the region. For this kind of support that matters practically: skills are built in the places you actually use, your kitchen, your local shops, your bus route, rather than somewhere unfamiliar.
Areas we support:
Start with a simple conversation
Tell us what part of the week you would like to be easier, and who the support is for. We will talk through where to start, what is realistic and how it would actually work. No pressure, and if a different support would suit better, we will say so.
Supporting participants across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside · Open Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Questions about development of life skills
The questions participants, families and support coordinators ask us most.
What is the difference between this and regular support at home?
It comes down to doing versus learning. With everyday support, a worker helps with the task or does it for you, which is exactly right when that is what is needed. With life skills support, the goal is for the person to learn the task, so it takes less help next time.
In practice the two often run alongside each other. Someone might have help with the parts of the week that are genuinely difficult, while working on one or two skills they want to build.
Do you provide occupational therapy or speech therapy?
No. We provide skill-building support work, not allied health services. Some supports funded in this part of a plan are delivered by therapists, and if that is what someone needs, we will tell you plainly rather than stretching to fit.
Where a therapist is already involved, our workers can support the person to practise what has been recommended, in everyday situations.
How long does this kind of support usually last?
It varies, and honestly it should reduce over time. Capacity building funding is generally intended to be time-limited, with the idea that less of it is needed as skills grow.
Some skills come together in a few months. Others take much longer, or plateau somewhere that still works well for the person. We would rather be straight with you about that than promise a timeline we cannot control.
What if the person has tried this before and it did not work?
That is common, and it is usually worth another look rather than writing it off. Sometimes the approach did not suit, sometimes the timing was wrong, sometimes too much was attempted at once.
We would ask what was tried, what went wrong and what the person themselves thought about it. That last part gets skipped more often than it should.
Is this support only for young people?
No. People build skills at every age and for all sorts of reasons: leaving school, moving out, a change in circumstances, or simply deciding now is the time. What matters is what someone wants to be able to do, not how old they are.
Still have a question?
Call our local team on 1300 544 958. We will answer it plainly, even if the answer is that we are not the right fit.