As a support coordinator, you connect a participant’s NDIS plan with the services that put it into practice. That means finding providers who are not just available, but capable, reliable, and able to handle complex needs. With psychosocial support the stakes are high: a provider who understands mental health and trauma can be the difference between a plan that works and one that stalls.
When you make a referral, your professional reputation goes with it. You need a provider who communicates clearly, acts professionally, and delivers good, person-centred support. Lanara is a Sydney provider focused on psychosocial support and personal care, and every one of our support workers holds a university degree in psychology or a related discipline and has completed mental health and trauma-informed training.
This guide explains how our psychology-informed approach works for participants, how we communicate with support coordinators, and what to expect when you refer.
The Challenge of Finding Quality Psychosocial Support
Support coordinators often tell us how hard it is to find good psychosocial support. There are many well-meaning providers, but specialised knowledge is uneven. Participants with psychosocial disability need support workers who understand that mental health fluctuates, how trauma shows up, and the early signs that someone is struggling or pulling away.
Without that understanding, trust breaks down, participants disengage, and plan goals are missed. For you, that means managing crises, mediating conflicts, and searching for replacement providers, which takes up your time and sets the participant back.
Lanara was set up to close this gap. Good psychosocial support takes more than willingness to help. It takes formal education, psychological insight, and a trauma-informed way of working.
The Lanara Difference: A Psychology-Informed Approach
Our service is built on who we employ. Every one of our support workers holds a university degree in psychology or a related discipline, and that shapes how they work with participants every day.
What “Psychology-Informed” Means in Practice
A psychology-informed support worker looks past the behaviour in front of them to what might be driving it.
Say a participant is reluctant to go to a planned community activity. One approach is to push them to go; another is to cancel and try another day. A Lanara support worker will gently try to understand why. Is it social anxiety? Sensory overload? Something that reminds them of a past experience? Knowing the reason lets them adjust on the spot, with the right reassurance or a change to the plan.
Trauma-Informed Care as a Standard
“Trauma-informed care” gets used a lot in the sector. At Lanara, every support worker has completed trauma-informed training, and it shows up in daily practice: creating physical and emotional safety, building trust gradually, and avoiding re-traumatisation.
That means you can refer participants with complex trauma histories knowing they will be supported by people who understand why safety and predictability matter.
How We Make Your Job Easier
Your time is limited. You need providers who are proactive, communicative, and reliable, and we see our relationship with you as a partnership focused on the participant.
Clear, Consistent Communication
A common frustration for support coordinators is hearing nothing from providers. You cannot monitor a participant’s progress if you are kept in the dark.
We keep you informed from the moment a referral arrives. With the participant’s consent, we agree with you how and how often you would like progress updates, linked to the participant’s NDIS goals. If there is a problem, a change in circumstances, or a real achievement, you will hear from us promptly.
Thorough Discovery and Briefing Process
When you refer a participant, we take time to understand their history, current needs, preferences, and NDIS goals.
We brief the support worker before they meet the participant, so they arrive prepared. That preparation helps ease the anxiety many people feel about meeting a new support worker and gives the relationship a good start.
Reliability and Professionalism
Lanara is family-owned and operated, and we take the quality of our service personally. We expect our support workers to turn up on time, follow through on commitments, and treat every participant with dignity and respect.
Consistency matters for people with psychosocial disability, and frequent changes of support worker can be very disruptive. We aim for each participant to have the same main support worker, and we work to keep our team stable so participants can build long-term working relationships.
We work with participants’ plan managers to keep invoicing clear and straightforward, so the focus stays on the participant.
The Scope of Our Services
We bring the same psychology-informed approach to every service, with the aim of building independence and confidence.
Psychosocial Support
Our core service. We work with participants on managing daily stressors, emotional regulation, self-esteem, coping strategies, and difficult social situations.
Social Participation
Isolation is a major challenge for many people with psychosocial disability. We support participants to take part in their community on their own terms, whether that is a local event, a club, or simply feeling comfortable in a café.
Personal Care and Daily Living Assistance
Mental health and physical wellbeing are closely linked. We provide dignified personal care and practical daily living assistance, from grooming and hygiene to meal preparation and household organisation, always with respect for the participant’s choices.
Navigating Complex Presentations: What Lanara Can Support
Support coordinators often ask what presentations we work with. Our psychology-informed model suits participants with complex and co-occurring needs.
We support people living with conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We also support participants with dual diagnoses, where a psychosocial disability occurs alongside an intellectual disability, autism, or an acquired brain injury.
We also work with participants who have had difficult experiences with previous providers. Trust takes time to rebuild, so we let the participant set the pace and focus on being consistent and patient.
Supporting Participants Across the NDIS Journey
Participants’ needs change over time. We support people who are using NDIS support for the first time as well as people who have been in the scheme for years and are ready for new goals.
For people new to support, the start can feel overwhelming. Many are anxious about having someone new in their home or about accepting help at all. We build rapport gradually and make sure the participant feels in control.
For people further along, the focus shifts to building skills and independence. Our support workers look for and build on each participant’s strengths, so they can take on more of daily life themselves over time, in line with the NDIS’s aim of greater independence and community participation.
We aim to be a long-term partner in your participants’ progress, not a short-term fix.
What to Expect When You Refer to Lanara
We want referring to be simple. This is what happens:
We contact you within one business day of receiving your referral to acknowledge it and start intake. We then arrange a no-obligation conversation with the participant and, where appropriate, their family or carer, to understand their needs and check that Lanara is the right fit.
Next, we match the participant with the most suitable support worker, considering their personality, preferences, and needs, and brief that support worker before the first visit.
Once support starts, we keep in touch with you, with the participant’s consent, sharing progress updates and raising any concerns promptly. We are happy to talk about a participant’s progress or adjust the support as their needs change.
Frequently Asked Questions from Support Coordinators
Q: What areas of Sydney do you service? We support participants across Sydney’s Inner West, Inner City and South Sydney, Canterbury-Bankstown, St George and Bayside, Burwood, Strathfield and Canada Bay, and the Eastern Suburbs. See our service areas for suburb lists, or contact us to check a specific location.
Q: How quickly can you begin supporting a new participant? We aim to start as soon as we safely can. Timing depends on the participant’s needs and the availability of the right support worker. We will give you a realistic timeframe upfront and keep you updated during onboarding.
Q: What happens if a participant’s needs change significantly? We adjust our support as needs change. If a participant’s circumstances change, we will work with you and the participant to review the support arrangement. If the change is significant and ongoing, the participant, their nominee, or their child representative may need to ask the NDIA for a plan reassessment, and we can share relevant records with their consent.
Q: How do you handle situations where a participant is in crisis? We are not a crisis service and we do not replace clinical care. Our support workers understand the early signs of distress and first try to help the participant feel calmer and safer. They contact our management team straight away, and we decide together on the next step. If there is immediate risk, they call emergency services first. We let you know promptly about any incident and, where needed, help connect the participant with their treating team or crisis services.
Q: Can I speak with the team before making a referral? Yes. We are happy to talk with support coordinators and allied health professionals before a referral, by phone or video call. Get in touch through our website, by email, or by phone.
A Partnership Built on Trust
Trust is earned through qualified staff, clear communication, and consistent support. We work to earn it with every referral, treating each participant as a whole person with their own strengths, challenges, and goals.
If you are a support coordinator looking for a reliable, psychology-informed provider in Sydney, contact us to talk about how we can support your participants.