The NDIA is committed to ensuring younger participants (under the age of 65) have more choice and control over where they live.
In September 2020, the Australian Government released the Younger People in Residential Aged Care Strategy 2020-2025 (the YPIRAC Strategy). Find more information about the Younger People in Aged Care Strategy and the NDIS.
One of the goals of the YPIRAC Strategy is to give younger people living in residential aged care a better understanding of the available systems, providers and supports that can help them meet their home and living goals.
As a provider, we need your help to ensure that NDIS participants who want to move out or avoid entering residential aged care understand how to explore and connect with home and living options that will support them to live independently, with the right supports.
Supporting participants to explore their home and living options
Through the YPIRAC Strategy, there may be an increase in the number of NDIS participants currently living in residential aged care who want to explore alternative home and living options and supports.
As a provider, this means there may be increased opportunities for you to provide home and living supports for younger people living with a disability.
Information for support coordinators
As a support coordinator, it is your role to connect with the participants you support who currently live in residential aged care.
This may include:
- assisting participants to understand the alternative home and living options to residential aged care
- supporting them to identify a home and living goal, if they want to
- connecting them with the home and living options and the right supports for them to move out or avoid entry to residential aged care. This could include supporting implementation of home modifications or other suitable accommodation.
If you support a participant living in residential aged care, or a participant at risk of entering aged care, it is important you connect with them to:
- see if they want to learn more about the other home and living options available
- help them learn more about alternative home and living options, if they want to
- see if they want to move out or avoid entry to residential aged care, then work together with the participant and the NDIA to explore their preferred home and living option and support them to achieve their home and living goal.
There are a range of alternative home and living options and supports, including home modifications, private rental, social housing, other group residential settings or Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).
If a participant is eligible for SDA, you can use our SDA vacancy finder to help you find and connect participants with available SDA homes in their local area.
You can also find out more about the range of home and living supports that the NDIS can fund and complete the Home and Living Supports Request Form (required to be completed by participants seeking alternative accommodation).
Helping participants avoid entering residential aged care
If you are supporting a participant and think they might be at risk of entering residential aged care now or in the future, please contact the specialist YPIRAC team by emailing [email protected].
The NDIA has a specialist YPIRAC team who can help support the participant to identify an alternative home and living goal.
Find out more about how we are supporting participants to find alternative accommodation to residential aged care.