The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funds support for people with permanent and significant disability, built on choice, control and working towards your own goals. But for many participants and families in Sydney, getting started can feel overwhelming. The terms are unfamiliar, the steps are complicated, and there is a lot of information to take in.
Lanara is a family-owned provider, co-founded by a father and son with over three decades of combined experience. Our tagline, Genuine Care. Thoughtfully Delivered. Uniquely Yours, sums up how we work: you shouldn’t have to work out the NDIS on your own, and your needs, values and goals should guide your support.
This guide explains how the NDIS can fund psychosocial and personal care support, how to choose a provider, and how to make your plan work for you. It is written for participants, families and support coordinators across Sydney.
Understanding Your NDIS Plan for Daily Living and Social Participation
Your NDIS plan sets out your goals and the funding for supports to help you reach them. A plan can have up to four support budgets. For psychosocial support and personal care, the two that matter most are Core Supports and Capacity Building Supports.
Core Supports help with everyday activities and getting involved in your community. For personal care, this could mean help with showering, dressing or cooking. For psychosocial support, it might pay for a support worker to help with daily tasks that feel overwhelming because of your mental health, such as grocery shopping, getting to appointments or keeping your home in order.
Core Supports funding is flexible. The NDIA says you can use the total amount in this budget across and within its support categories, so you can adapt your support as your needs change. For example, if you need more help with community access one week and less with household tasks, you can adjust your supports, as long as you stay within your Core Supports budget and only buy supports that are in line with your plan.
Capacity Building Supports help you build skills and independence over time. This funding is “stated”: it is set against specific support categories, and you can’t move it from one category to another.
For psychosocial disability, Capacity Building can fund psychosocial recovery coaching, where a coach works with you on your goals and on managing your mental health day to day. Other categories can fund things like social skills training and help to join community groups, therapies such as occupational therapy to build everyday skills, behaviour support, and help to find and keep a job. Since 1 October 2026, budgets for social and community participation and improved daily living skills are being reduced when plans are reassessed or new plans are approved.
When you get your plan, read it carefully, especially your goals, because funded supports need to be linked to them. If your goal is to “improve my mental wellbeing and community connections”, a support worker going with you to a social group fits that goal. If anything in your plan is unclear, ask your local area coordinator (LAC), your support coordinator, or your provider. We are happy to talk through how your plan could cover the support you want from us.
The Heart of Support: What is Psychosocial and Personal Care?
“Psychosocial support” and “personal care” come up often in the NDIS. Here is what they mean in practice.
Psychosocial support is recovery-focused support for people living with a psychosocial disability, which is a disability that can arise from a mental health condition. Clinical services like psychiatry and therapy treat the condition. Psychosocial support focuses on everyday life: building the skills and confidence to live the life you want, alongside your treatment.
In practice, it can help you manage daily challenges, build resilience and connect with people. It might mean a support worker who helps you set up a routine, goes with you to appointments, or encourages you to try a local hobby group, breaking big tasks into manageable steps along the way.
At Lanara, 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. They understand how mental health can change from day to day, and they focus on building trusting, consistent relationships.
Personal care is hands-on help with daily self-care. Needing it can feel like losing independence or dignity, but done respectfully it does the opposite: it helps you live safely and comfortably at home, present yourself the way you want to, and save energy for the things you enjoy.
Personal care can include help with showering, dressing, grooming, toileting and moving around, as well as meal preparation and other daily tasks. At Lanara, we take time to understand your routine and preferences, and we respect your dignity and privacy, so the support helps you stay independent and confident.
Both kinds of support rely on trust. They are about seeing the person, not just the disability.
How to Find and Choose the Right Support Provider in Sydney
There are many support providers in Sydney, and the one you choose will be part of your life, so it is worth taking time over the decision. These steps can help.
Step 1: Understand Your Funding and Provider Options
First, check how your plan is managed, because this decides which providers you can use. If your plan is NDIA-managed (agency-managed), you can only use registered NDIS providers. If you are self-managed or plan-managed, you can choose both registered and unregistered providers. Some smaller providers, like Lanara, are not registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, so we support self-managed and plan-managed participants.
Step 2: Seek Recommendations and Reviews
Ask your support coordinator, LAC or other NDIS participants for recommendations. Online groups for NDIS participants in Sydney can also share honest experiences, good and bad, that help you narrow your list.
Step 3: Do Your Own Research
Once you have a shortlist, look more closely. Read each provider’s website and About page. Do their values match yours? Do they explain who their staff are and how they work? Does the language feel warm and person-centred, or corporate? Small details can say a lot about a provider.
Step 4: The Interview – Asking the Right Questions
Talk to the providers on your list before you decide. It helps to prepare questions, such as:
- About their staff: “What qualifications and experience do your support workers have?” At Lanara, every support worker holds a university degree in psychology or a related discipline.
- About their approach: “How do you work with people?” Listen for “person-centred”, “strengths-based” and “trauma-informed”, and ask for a practical example of what that looks like.
- About consistency: “Will I usually see the same support worker?” A trusting relationship matters, especially for psychosocial support.
- About communication: “How will we keep in touch, and how often?” Check that it suits you.
- About your needs: “I need support with [your specific need]. How would you approach that?” This shows how practical and flexible they are.
Step 5: Trust Your Gut
In the end, the right provider is the one that feels right. Did you feel heard and respected? Were they interested in you and your goals? The right provider will have the qualifications and services you need, and will also leave you feeling confident and at ease.
Choosing a provider is a big decision, but taking it step by step makes it much less stressful.
Maximising Your NDIS Funding for Personal Care and Psychosocial Support
Getting a plan is a big step, but it is only the start. Making the most of it means preparing for planning conversations, explaining your needs clearly, and choosing how your plan is managed.
Planning is changing. From April 2027 the NDIA begins introducing a new way of planning, and adults will move to it gradually. Until then, the tips below apply to current planning meetings, and most will still help afterwards.
Preparing for Your NDIS Planning Meeting
Your planning meeting is your main chance to shape your plan. Think of it as a conversation about your life, your goals and your needs. To prepare:
- Think about your goals. What do you want to achieve? Goals can be anything from “I want to shower independently” to “I want to join a book club to make friends”. Write them down and why they matter to you.
- Describe your current situation. What does a typical day or week look like? What help do you get now, from paid supports and from family and friends? What do you find hard? The more detail, the easier it is for the planner to understand your needs.
- Gather your evidence. Collect reports and letters from your doctors, therapists and other health professionals. A functional capacity assessment from an occupational therapist can be especially useful, because it describes how your disability affects daily life.
Advocating for the Support You Need
In your planning meeting, explain your needs clearly and connect them to your goals, or bring someone who can help you do that.
- Be specific. Instead of “I need help with my mental health”, try: “Because of my anxiety, I need a support worker for 10 hours a week to help with grocery shopping and appointments, which I can’t manage alone right now. This will help me reach my goal of living more independently.”
- Use the NDIS language. The NDIS funds supports that are “reasonable and necessary”. Explain why a support suits your disability and why you need it to reach your goals and take part in the community.
- Ask for what you need. If you think you need a support, such as a psychosocial recovery coach, ask for it and bring evidence. If the NDIA says no, you have 3 months to ask for an internal review of the decision. If you still disagree after that, you can apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Understanding Your Plan Management Options
Once your plan is approved, you choose how your funding is managed. There are three options:
- NDIA-managed (agency-managed): the NDIA pays your providers directly. It is the simplest option, but you can only use registered NDIS providers.
- Plan-managed: a plan manager pays your invoices and tracks your spending. You can use both registered and unregistered providers. From October 2027, plan managers will come from a trusted NDIA panel.
- Self-managed: you manage your own funding, pay providers and keep records. This gives you the most choice and control, and you can use any provider, registered or not. Participants will need to keep records for 3 years, and from December 2026 claims must be made within 90 days of the support.
You can also combine options, for example self-managing your Core Supports and having your Capacity Building Supports plan-managed. The right choice depends on how much control you want and how much paperwork you are happy to do. A support coordinator can help you decide.
Making the most of your plan is ongoing: stay informed, keep good records, and speak up about what you need.
The Lanara Difference: Genuine Care, Thoughtfully Delivered
Lanara provides psychosocial support, social participation, personal care and daily living assistance. We support self-managed and plan-managed NDIS participants, as well as private clients.
As a family-owned and operated provider, we take our work personally. We get to know each person, listen to what matters to them, and build relationships based on trust, consistency and respect.
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. That background helps them understand mental health and behaviour, and support you in a way that goes beyond basic care: helping you build skills and confidence, not just getting tasks done.
We work in a person-centred and trauma-informed way. Many people we support have experienced trauma, so we focus on safety, trust and collaboration. Person-centred means your goals, preferences and values guide your support, and we go at your pace.
Whether you want psychosocial support for your wellbeing and community connection, or personal care to help with daily living, we aim to deliver it with dignity, compassion and respect, focused on your strengths and goals.
If you are looking for a support provider in Sydney, contact us for a confidential, no-obligation conversation about how we can support you. We support adults across six areas of Sydney, from the Inner West to the Eastern Suburbs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Do I need a formal diagnosis to receive psychosocial support?
A: A diagnosis of a mental health condition is usually part of the evidence you give the NDIS to show a psychosocial disability. But psychosocial support itself focuses on how your mental health affects daily life and what support you need, not just the diagnosis.
Q: Can I choose my own support worker?
A: Yes, you have a say. The relationship with your support worker matters a great deal, so we match you with someone who has the right skills and an approach you feel comfortable with, and we involve you in the choice.
Q: What if I’m not happy with my support worker?
A: Tell us. We will listen without judgement and work with you to find a support worker who suits you better. You should always feel safe, respected and understood.
Q: How is NDIS personal care different from aged care personal care?
A: The tasks can be similar, but the funding and focus are different. The NDIS is for people with permanent and significant disability, and you need to be under 65 when you apply. It focuses on independence and your goals. Aged care is a separate Australian Government system for older people. Since 1 November 2025, most in-home aged care has been funded through the Support at Home program.
Q: Can I use my NDIS funding to pay for a support worker to go on holiday with me?
A: Sometimes. You may be able to use NDIS funding for the disability support you need while on holiday, but you would generally be expected to pay the support worker’s travel, accommodation and meals yourself. The support must relate to your disability and be “reasonable and necessary”. Talk to your planner or support coordinator well before you go.