Factors affecting engagement in NDIS psychosocial care identified via collaborative community-university partnership
A collaborative project model that empowers service users
St Mary’s House of Welcome has partnered with Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit (SESU) on a project to explore the drivers of, and barriers to, participant engagement with their program delivered to adults with a psychosocial disability.
St Mary’s House of Welcome has operated the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) program for many years from their Melbourne-based non-profit where they also provide food and essential services to people facing homelessness or other forms of disadvantage. Aware that their service users with a psychosocial disability have complex needs–often dealing with some combination of mental illness, homelessness, discrimination, physical illnesses and economic or social disadvantage–St Mary’s House of Welcome were keen to identify and address the complex barriers they face to improve engagement in the program.
ACU’s Professor Sara Bayes and Mr Ben Coyte worked collaboratively with St Mary’s House of Welcome staff to co-design and deliver the project. Service users were ‘participant-consultants’ who–along with St Mary’s House of Welcome staff–helped advise the ACU research team as they developed a framework to enhance future engagement in the program.
Key findings: Engagement is influenced by a complex mix of personal and structural factors
The final report, which was launched on Tuesday 30 May 2023 at St Mary’s House of Welcome, found that an appealing activity schedule and suite of activities and the support provided by staff were each factors driving engagement in the program. It was, however, a complex mix of personal and service level factors that affected engagement.
The greatest barriers to engagement were the difficulty of managing multiple appointments, memory problems, dealing with other competing life challenges, disruptions to relationships caused by changes in program staffing and perceptions of safety.
The study also found structural barriers to engagement engendered by the NDIS. The difficulty of obtaining NDIS funding for people with a psychosocial disability, the constraints of the NDIS funding model–which does not include the time needed to undertake planning with service users or other hidden (unbillable) work–impacted staff in their ability to facilitate activities.
Broadening the timing, location or diversity of activities to enhance accessibility, and providing the opportunity for service users to be employed and ‘give back’ to the community through St Mary’s House of Welcomewere identified by participant consultants as ways to increase engagement into the future.
Staff suggestions to remedy some of the NDIS structural issues include offering pre-funding to orientate service users to the Scheme prior to them receiving their funding, and convening peer support groups to help service users transition to being NDIS participants.
This study contributes to the evidence base regarding barriers to participation in psychosocial care programs–a little navigated area. This study will help St Mary’s House of Welcome and other NDIS providers to work with their staff and service users to optimise engagement in their programs.