As an allied health professional, your clinical work is the foundation of your clients’ recovery and capacity building. Whether you are an occupational therapist completing a functional capacity assessment, a psychologist delivering cognitive behavioural therapy, or a GP managing a mental health treatment plan, your time with the client is structured and clinically focused.
What happens between appointments matters just as much. A good support worker helps the client use your strategies in daily life, notices how they are going, and gives practical support towards their goals. A poorly matched support worker can undo progress, miss early signs that someone is struggling, or lead the client to disengage.
Lanara provides psychosocial support, social participation, personal care, and daily living assistance in Sydney. 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 we work with allied health professionals: how our support fits with your clinical work, how we communicate, and what to expect when you refer.
The Gap Between Clinical Care and Daily Support
A common frustration for clinicians is the gap between their recommendations and the support a client actually gets at home or in the community. You might spend weeks on emotional regulation strategies, only to find the client’s support worker does not know how to back them up when the client becomes distressed.
The gap is widest with psychosocial disability. Mental health conditions fluctuate and are often invisible. A support worker without a grounding in psychology may read withdrawal as laziness or anxiety as defiance, which damages rapport and can set the client back.
Communication is often patchy too. You need clear information about how the client is functioning outside your sessions, but updates from support providers can be vague or inconsistent, which makes it harder to judge how your interventions are working.
Lanara was set up to close this gap, by having support delivered by people who understand the psychology behind what they are seeing.
The Lanara Difference: A Psychology-Informed Model
Our model is built around who we employ. Every one of our support workers holds a university degree in psychology or a related discipline, so they bring an understanding of psychological principles to everyday support work.
Complementing Your Clinical Interventions
Because of that background, our support workers understand the reasons behind your recommendations, not just the instructions.
If a psychologist has set graded exposure tasks for a client with social anxiety, our support worker can support the client to practise them in the community at the pace you have set, and let you know how it went. If an occupational therapist recommends sensory modulation strategies, our team can use them consistently in daily routines.
Our support workers do not replace clinical care. They help it carry over into daily life, and with the client’s consent they can tell you what they see between appointments.
Trauma-Informed Practice as Standard
Trauma is a significant factor for many of the clients you see. At Lanara, trauma-informed care is part of how every support worker works, and all have completed trauma-informed training.
In practice, that means paying attention to safety, predictability, and choice; recognising when a client is becoming distressed; and responding in ways that calm rather than escalate. Clients with complex trauma histories are supported by people who understand why consistency and boundaries matter.
Collaborative Care and Clear Communication
Clients do best when everyone supporting them is working towards the same goals and talking to each other. We see allied health professionals as partners in that.
Objective, Clinically Relevant Reporting
You rely on accurate information to make clinical decisions. Our support workers focus on describing what they observe, such as mood, behaviour, day-to-day functioning, and how the client is using the strategies you have recommended, rather than giving vague summaries.
With the client’s consent, we agree with you how and how often you would like updates, linked to the client’s NDIS goals and your recommendations. If we notice a significant change, a possible risk, or a barrier to progress, we will let you know promptly.
A Thorough Discovery and Briefing Process
When you refer a client, we do not simply assign whoever is available. We review the clinical documentation, functional assessments, or support plans you provide.
We then brief the support worker before their first shift on the client’s history, current presentation, your goals, and any strategies or boundaries to keep to, so support lines up with your approach from the start.
The Scope of Our Services
We bring the same psychology-informed approach to all four of our services.
Psychosocial Support
This is our main area. We work with clients on managing daily stressors, building routines, and using coping strategies. Our team supports people living with conditions including depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
Social Participation
We help clients get past the barriers to taking part in their community, whether that is social anxiety, difficult social situations, or building the confidence to leave the house. Support is structured and gradual.
Personal Care
For many clients, particularly those with severe depression or trauma histories, personal care is a sensitive area. Our support workers approach it with dignity and respect, understand the psychological barriers that can be involved, and work with the client to maintain their hygiene and physical wellbeing.
Daily Living Assistance
We help with household tasks, meal preparation, and paperwork. We work with the client rather than doing things for them, using everyday tasks to build skills and routines, which are often central to psychosocial recovery.
Navigating Complex and Co-Occurring Presentations
Many of the clients you refer will have more than one condition. These situations need a more careful approach than a standard support model allows.
Dual Diagnoses
We also support clients with a psychosocial disability alongside an intellectual disability, autism, or an acquired brain injury. Here, cognitive differences and mental health interact, so our support workers adapt how they communicate, watch for less typical signs of distress, and follow the support plans your team has put in place.
For example, if an occupational therapist is working with an autistic client who also has severe anxiety, our support worker can learn to tell sensory overload apart from an anxiety response for that person, and use the strategy the clinician has recommended for each.
Managing Risk and Deterioration
Clients with complex psychosocial needs may go through periods of deterioration or increased risk. We are not a crisis service, but our support workers understand the early warning signs of relapse.
Because they understand conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, our support workers can notice changes in a client’s speech, sleep, or behaviour and pass them on. With the client’s consent, we share these observations with the relevant clinician or support coordinator so the treating team can act early.
Rebuilding Trust After Service Failure
Some clients come to us after bad experiences with previous providers, such as boundary violations, inconsistent support, or workers who did not understand their condition. That history can leave them wary of new services.
We do not force engagement. We work at the client’s pace and build trust by being reliable and consistent. If you have a client who is considered hard to engage, we are happy to talk through whether we are a good fit.
Frequently Asked Questions from Allied Health Professionals
Q: How do you match support workers with clients? We consider the client’s needs, personality, interests, and any specific requests, such as a preferred gender. We also look at which support worker’s study and experience best fit the client’s presentation. We always brief the support worker before the first shift.
Q: Can you implement specific strategies recommended by an OT or psychologist? Yes. If you provide a support plan, sensory profile, or specific behavioural strategies, our support workers will use them consistently in daily life. We welcome joint sessions where you can show the support worker how a strategy should be used.
Q: How do you handle clinical boundaries? Our support workers understand the difference between support work and therapy. They use psychological principles to inform their support, but they do not provide therapy, diagnosis, or clinical advice, and they defer to the treating professional on clinical matters.
Q: What is your process for reporting and communication? We agree communication preferences at intake, with the client’s consent. That can include written updates linked to the client’s NDIS goals, phone calls, or case conferences. If we notice a significant change or a possible risk, we will contact you promptly.
Q: Do you support clients who are not on the NDIS? Yes. As well as self-managed and plan-managed NDIS participants, we support privately funded clients, including people waiting for NDIS access and people who have chosen not to use the scheme.
Q: How quickly can you commence support after receiving a referral? We aim to acknowledge all referrals within one business day. Finding the right support worker usually takes between three days and two weeks, depending on the client’s needs and preferences. We prioritise a safe, well-planned start over a rushed one, and we will give you a realistic timeframe upfront.
A Trusted Partner in Client Recovery
You want referral partners who share your commitment to evidence-based, person-centred care, and who will support your clients consistently between appointments.
If you are an occupational therapist, psychologist, GP, or other allied health professional looking for a psychology-informed support provider in Sydney, you can refer a client to Lanara or contact us to talk about working together. We support adults across six areas of Sydney, from the Inner West to the Eastern Suburbs.