Disability Support Link

Disability Support Link is a community-based organisation that provides a needs assessment and service coordination service for people with disabilities.

Disability Support Link aims to promote a person’s quality of life and create an environment that enables community participation and maximum independence.

Those requesting assessment must have a disability as defined by the Ministry of Health:

“... a person with a disability is a person who has been identified as having a physical, psychiatric, intellectual, sensory or age-related disability (or a combination of these), which is likely to continue for a minimum of six months and result in a reduction of independent function to the extent that ongoing support is required...”

Client groups

Disability Support Link is an assessment and service coordination service that assists in obtaining home support services for people with disabilities in the Waikato, King Country, Thames Valley and Coromandel Peninsula, and may include: Household assistance Personal care Day programmes, (non-therapeutic) Carer support Residential care and support Referrals to other support services.

Residential Care

Exclusions

Disability Support Link does not have the capacity to assist the following clients:

• those with short-term illnesses that will require support services for less than six months
• people will ACC-related conditions.
  

What is a needs assessment?

The purpose of a needs assessment is to gather relevant information about a client’s current abilities, resources, goals and needs, then determining which of these agreed needs is most important to the client. 

The assessment is client centred and comprehensive.

Needs assessors work in partnership with clients and where appropriate their partners/significant others. Disability Support Link welcomes the support of family/whanau for their client during the assessment.

Clients are asked to sign the completed assessment and are given a copy. Corrections to information can be made by the client.

An assessor will visit you to gather information about your needs, and after the assessment, a service coordinator will contact you to discuss a package of care related to your identified support needs.

What is service coordination?

Service coordinators have extensive knowledge of all options including public, private, voluntary and community services.

Your Service coordinator will advise which of your needs can be met by publicly funded services and will also consider ways of meeting needs which cannot be covered by these services.

Privacy and confidentiality will be safeguarded. You have the right to access all information arising from your assessment and service plan.

Review

Your services will be reviewed at least annually to ensure your needs are still being met. If they are not, the service coordinator will recommend an adjustment or arrange a reassessment.  Should your needs or circumstances change you may contact the service and ask for a review if you feel the services are not fully meeting your needs.

Referrals

Your enquiries are welcome, as is your referral.

Referrals can be made by clients, by their family/whanau members, GPs, a health professional, disability support groups and organisations or a friend.  Please see contact details below.

The client or caregiver’s consent must be obtained prior to making a referral. This is essential.

All referrals should go through the Referral Coordination Centre for clients aged over 65 years, all other referrals can be sent directly to Disability Support Link.

Appropriate advice and care

Disability Support Link has a commitment to providing competent and culturally appropriate assessors and service coordinators.

Please do tell us if you have a particular cultural requirement, e.g. Te Reo Maori, interpreter, translator etc.

Compliments and complaints

If you are dissatisfied with any of the Disability Support Link processes, please write to the manager Kim Holt.

Complaints will be investigated and responded to.

Contact details

PO Box 9201
Phone (07) 839 1441
Fax (07) 839 1225
Freephone 0800 55 33 99