Supported Independent Living (SIL)
What is Supported Independent Living (SIL)?
NDIA funded SIL arrangements provide assistance with and/or supervising tasks of daily life in a shared living environment, with a focus on developing the skills of each individual to live as autonomously as possible.
SIL arrangements can suit a range of clients, including those who wish to live with friends or people they trust, where clients needs can be complex and other options are limited, or where it is a person’s own choice.
SIL arrangements include the support workers, and the skill & capacity builders, that clients may need live in a shared setting.
SIL arrangements do not include board and lodging or other day to day usual living expenses such as food and activities, or the capital costs associated with a participant’s accommodation.
Many clients with a SIL arrangement can also have a Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) package, which covers the cost of the physical accomodation.
SIL and Choice & Control
The NDIA is encouraging clients to select different providers for SIL and the SDA (or other housing arrangement) parts of their living arrangement. This can give clients greater choice and control of their lives - as it reduces reliance on just one provider.
My Supports SIL Innovation – a compelling choice for clients
The following are the key innovations which make My Supports a compelling choice for clients living in SIL arrangements:
1) Making SIL arrangements client centred – where supports are built around the needs and wishes of a client (and less the needs of a provider, a roster or a manager).
2) Choice and control of your own support workers – My Supports takes the time to understand client needs, and then search and match with the rights support worker for each client
3) Connecting with the community – My Supports approach is to connect to mainstream services and supports, with involvement of local people providing supports – which brings local connections and contacts
5) A pioneer of the new NDIA Individual Living Options (ILO) – My Supports can support clients explorer and consider this innovative new approach to living in-community, which can suite some clients currently in a SIL arrangement
6) We are a Disabled People and Families Organisation provider (DPFO) – we bring the lived experience of disability into services - 50% of our staff to have the lived experience of disability
Understanding disability and disability rights - in a SIL setting
Assistance getting the best NDIS plan – we bring all our experiences and understanding the disability experience, and getting the best NDIS plan or review possible
7) We support SIL arrangements via our small, local Neighbourhood Teams
Local connections - support by local people, to live more inclusively in local community
Flexibility to meet client needs – personal assistance, support for community activities, independence skill building, finding a job, finding a housing option
Highest standards in quality and safeguarding – all staff interviewed and screened, supervision by experienced sector professional, My Supports NDIS quality audited
Consistency of support, now and into the future - My Supports is an established national provider, and our teams can support clients over many years, or however long required – important when informal supports are in transition, or may not be there for all time