Active Support

Active Support is an evidence based approach to the design and delivery of community based support services for people with disabilities,especially for those with complex support needs.
It involves training staff in specific skills and organisational procedures that focus their work on the direct support of consumer participation in meaningful activity.

A fundamental reason for implementing Active Support is the well-documented low level of participation by people with disability in everyday activities that affect their quality of life.

Leveda was well aware that our clients with severe and multiple disability in particular spent much of their life waiting whilst support staff were busy doing things for people rather than with people.

Leveda received funding from the Julia Farr MS McLeod Trust to build the capacity of Leveda to ensure clients are engaged and participating in all aspects of their life. The focus of the project is to achieve organisational wide cultural change which focuses on building the capacity of all staff by training and supporting staff to change the way they engage and support clients. The funding is also to produce an Active Support Manual to assist other organisations implement Active Support.

There has been considerable increases in both client participation and engagement at home as well as an increase in the range and number of out of home activities clients are engaged in.

Karen Tohver is Leveda’s Active Support Project Officer and began working at Leveda in September 2008. Having a fulltime dedicated project officer has greatly assisted in the rollout of Active Support.

If you would like more information on Active Support please feel free to contact Karen at the Leveda Office on:

Tel: 8396 5699 or email: ktohver@leveda.org.au