Living with Disability Research Centre Research Seminar Series

This seminar will mainly talk about ‘Planning with and supporting people with acquired disabilities’ and feature presentations by two researchers from the partner organisation, the Summer Foundation – and will be held on Wednesday, 13 October 2021 at 03.00 PM.

The first presentation is about “They treat you like a person, they ask you what you want: Exploring factors that influence the quality of paid disability support”, by Megan Topping, PhD Candidate, Living with Disability Research Centre and Summer Foundation.

Adults with acquired neurological disability often require paid support provided by a disability support worker to live an ordinary life. Despite the importance of the support worker role, little is known about what influences the quality of support. This presentation will explore the factors that influence the quality of paid disability support from the perspective of adults with acquired neurological disability. Twelve adults with acquired neurological disability participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Preliminary analysis of the interview data reveals multiple interrelated factors that influence the quality of support, with a central focus on the interactional space between the person with disability and their support worker. Primarily, the support worker recognising the person with disability as an individual with unique needs and preferences is key to providing quality support.

The second presentation is “Hospital to home: Evaluating the discharge planning process for people with acquired disability and complex support needs” by Dr Lee Cubis, Senior Research Fellow, Summer Foundation.

Improving the pathway from hospital to the community is key to reducing the number of younger Australians stuck in hospital or discharged to aged care. However, returning to the community after acquiring disability requires effective coordination between the health system and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This presentation will describe a scoping review investigating hospital discharge for people with disability and complex needs.  Three interrelated principles depicted the importance of coordination and continuity, preparation for discharge and involvement of the person with disability and close other. In a second study, hospital discharge trajectory data (n = 318) for people with disability and complex needs collected from 10 hospitals in Australia has provided valuable information about hospital and NDIS timeframes associated with effective discharge. This data provides potential solutions to improve discharge outcomes for this population.

Find more information here.