Translate your ‘real life’ goals into NDIS speak to get the supports you need

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Kinora is a supportive online community with a mission of working towards better outcomes for everyone navigating the NDIS.

As part of your NDIS journey, you’ll be asked to create goals in your planning meeting

When it comes to finding supports that apply to you or your loved one, you may have a good idea of what support services you need (or maybe not) and you may think that the most direct route to receiving those supports would be creating goals centred around those services.

However, if you focus on the outcomes you’re looking for, such as more independence, greater knowledge, higher quality of life, better communication skills, confidence, then you’re more likely to open yourself up to broader therapy options and supports that you may not have even heard of yet.

If you haven’t already, have a look at our SCOPE Goals worksheet that, we hope, will help you find new ways to think about writing your NDIS goals:

Here are a few scenarios to give you an idea on how to reframe your goals to open up its SCOPE and facilitate greater choice and opportunity.

Case Study 1: Sam

Sam is 9 years old, goes to mainstream school, has a diagnosis of ASD2 and exhibits some challenging behaviours, speech and communication delays plus some social struggles at school and in general.

Rather than goals like:

“Sam’s Mum would like Sam to receive support and treatment from an Occupational Therapist and a Speech Therapist,”

Try instead:

“Sam’s Mum would like to see improvement in Sam’s expressive and descriptive communication, to help Sam let people know his wants and needs.”

“Sam’s Mum would like to seek support and therapies to assist Sam in learning methods and techniques to self-regulate his emotions and increase his social skills.”

“Sam’s Mum would like support to encourage Sam to participate in friendships centred around his hobbies within the local community.”

“Sam’s Mum would like support to ensure that Sam’s time at school is as stress-free as possible for Sam and his peers with a focus on enjoying learning at his pace.”

Some points about Sam’s situation:

• it’s common practice for goals for kids to be written in third person (Sam needs… he would like…) as opposed to first person (I need… my goals are…) and goals are generally written by the participants primary care giver, with input from all their support people such as family, providers and health care professionals.

• With Sam being a child and his plan being managed by his Mum, his plan (and other children like him) would rarely include Support Coordination, so an emphasis on self-advocacy and being aware of what’s available to Sam and his family, though funded supports, is key to getting the most out of goals and his plan.

Case Study 2: Kevin

Kevin, 52, has reduced mobility on the left side of his body due to multiple conditions. He’s very social but gets frustrated that he can’t get around as easy as he’d like to. His wife has suggested he gets physiotherapy treatment to improve the strength on the left side of his body.

Rather than,

“I would like to access physiotherapy treatment to increase strength on the left side of my body,”

Try instead:

“I would like to access supports and allied health services to create a health and wellness program that will increase my overall body strength and mobility and improve my general health. This will lead to greater independence and higher quality of life.”

“I would like to access supports and services that will allow me to maintain my social life, like meeting friends and family, engaging with my hobbies within the local community, which will greatly improve my quality of life.”

Notice how Kevin’s goals are written in first person, from his perspective. Also, with his first goal, rather than reducing the scope to only physiotherapy, he now has the option to seek out an exercise physiologist to create a strength and conditioning plan, receive treatment from a physio (or any other allied health professional he deems will improve his strength and mobility plus any supports to allow him to get to appointments.

With the second version of the goal he includes the reason he wants to improve his independence. A broader goal like this means he doesn’t have to wait until after he has gained more strength to become more social, he could hire a support worker to assist him to connect with people. Also, if he has capital budget or flexible core budget, he could have budget for some assistive technology to help him move around.

Case study 3: Lucy

Lucy, 24, has cerebral palsy and a number of auto immune conditions. She lives at home with her parents and sister who all work full time. She’s got a part time job but has real difficulty getting herself ready in the morning and eating properly as she has so many restrictions. Her family is always happy to help but she’d like to not rely on them to get herself sorted each day.

Rather than

“I’d like support to get myself ready in the morning for work,”

Try:

“I would like access to in-home and community supports to assist with personal care, house keeping and meal preparation to increase my independence, improve my nutrition and boost my overall health.”

With these goals Lucy could access a support worker to help with her personal care, home duties and meal preparation, but could potentially access other supports such as cooking classes, meal delivery services (for when she doesn’t have support), or cleaning services if no other, more cost effective solutions are available to her.

They’re all about you and what you want out of life.

You are an individual, with your own needs and aspirations. There's no-one else out there quite like you, so your NDIS goals reflect that!

Ensuring your NDIS goals are written to encourage opportunities rather than specific supports or services will create a supportive and holistic plan for the life you want to lead.

Start a goals discussion on Kinora to see what’s possible.

If you’d like some feedback or ideas for your goals, log in to Kinora and start a conversation! Our incredible community and our supportive Kinora Coaches are in your corner, waiting to assist.

It’s FREE and we’d love to hear from you.