Recovery Coaches help support NDIS participants live purposeful and meaningful lives. Their main responsibility is to understand the participant’s personal needs, aid them in their recovery and to give them mental health support. Reference: ndis.gov.au.
In most cases, Recovery Coaching comes out of the Support Coordination budget or those who have psychosocial support in their NDIS funding. For those who are interested in Recovery Coaching support, a participant can speak to a Support Coordinator or they can contact the NDIS planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) to find out more.
One of the service providers in Townsville, Queensland, Aaron Goldwater of Koru Coaching believes that Recovery Coaches typically wear different hats: confidantes, cheerleaders, allies, advocates, community organisers, motivators, mentors, companions, friends, among others. They essentially assess, create and work towards the participant’s goals.
Koru Coaching has started as a result of Aaron’s lived experience with the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety in 2012. Since then, Aaron has mentored people, coached at paralympic level, run a charity that focuses on using sailing and organised a mix of other activities.
The key for Koru Coaching (‘Koru’ means new beginnings) is to get people into a place where they are comfortable, and to keep building on strengths that they already have. The benefits of engaging a recovery coach can include building capacity and self confidence, meeting new people, working in a team environment, and building communication skills.
Some of their client case studies are as follows:
- A lady with complex PTSD has had multiple suicide attempts. She has also spent too many nights in acute care. Koru Coaching started working with her in July 2022. Back then, she has hardly talked and has been verbally non-responsive. During the initial chat, Koru has asked her what made her feel at peace. Her response was, “creating things and photography.” Koru assisted her in the purchase of a small camera, went to the beach to take photos, and taught her the basics of photography. One day she said, “can we go somewhere else like a waterfall?” This is when two things happened: she has started communicating and has not stopped since; and her photography skills have improved a lot. She now gets many photos printed on canvas. She proactively communicates verbally and via text. There have been no suicide attempts since and she smiles and laughs a lot now.
- The wife of a guy with multiple sclerosis left him alone. He is also left with his 2 year old daughter. Working with his Support Coordinator, the Koru team encouraged him to start sailing in their Koru yacht. Being on the water is his happy place. He now sails weekly, and sometimes with his daughter during weekends. He has now taken on the role of delivering safety briefings to newcomers and plays very active role on the boat.
To learn more about the benefits of Recovery Coaching through Koru Coaching, email them at aaron@korucoaching.com.au or call 0498 888 849.
