SDA Providers Should Do It the Hard Way So Participants Have it Easy & Get Better Outcomes
SDA Hard vs Easy
There are far too many SDA providers trying to take the easy way out, it’s cheaper and easier for them in the short term but will be more costly in the long term and is a terrible outcome for participants.
SDA is a really trendy space for investment at the moment and the investment returns are great. There is no reason to cut corners financially on the build, location, design fit out etc.
SDA is all about choice and control. Almost 12 percent of participants living in SDA have told the NDIA they want to move to another SDA, in reality the number is much higher.
If Your SDA Provider is Taking the Easy Way – Chances are they are all about the $ and not all about the Participants.
Hard SDA Design
It’s hard to meet and interact with hundreds (if not thousands) of participants to find out what works, what they want, what helps those who look after them
Employ architects in house & have them constantly improve designs by meeting participants when they move into their builds and asking for feed back
Easy SDA Design
Just design something to meet the minimum SDA design guidelines
Find a building designer who has designed “disability housing” before (NDISP won’t even hire an architect or designer who has experience in this space because most experience is from the bad old days or providers telling participants where to live, how to live and expecting them to be thankful for it. We want people who are passionate about improving places for people not bringing pre-conceived ideas)
Hard SDA Bathrooms
It’s hard to design bathrooms and bedrooms that work. Harder to work out where everything goes and making sure turning circles, doorways and movement spaces work.
Talk to users and think about that it can take 2 hours in a bathroom for a HPS participant so not only are ensuites essential for every bathroom but you need to ensure that the shower is well away from the toilet, there is room for someone to shower in a shower bed or chair by one or 2 people.
Make the ensuite big enough so that the wet equipment can stay in there and put ceiling rails through to the bathroom so transfers can happen in the bathroom. Your support workers time is better spent on helping you than having to mop out bedrooms.
Understand the standards so you can use white toilets that contrast and not need the blue or grey hospital toilets that are so common.
Design your own tapware so that it can be compliant but doesn’t look like its straight out of a hospital.
In robust bathrooms make it so they work, put solenoids in for easy implementation of BSP for those that like to shower excessively etc etc.
Easy SDA Bathrooms
Just use the AS1428 bathroom design to start with and put your toilet next to the shower so it gets soaked everytime someone has a shower. Use minimum size doors, hallways and turning spaces. Throw in blue toilet seats, tapware you would find in nurses washroom and basically make it look like you just walked into a hospital room.
Just use a laminated screen and hard wearing sink in a robust bathroom.
Hard SDA Location
Make your investors pay more for the best locations. Ensure the blocks are big enough, they work, they are well located, have a view etc. Be ruthless in saying no.
Easy SDA Location
Workout whichever land developer is paying the highest sales commission.
Take whatever site comes along, it’s not like people with a disability have a choice (they do and the choice and quality is improving).
Hard SDA – SIL/ Care/ Support Work
SDA and support work are supposed to be completely separate. It’s the participants choice and they can change support workers in a heartbeat. If this means we have to change access codes and internet passwords and and and every day until a participant sorts out who they want helping them, it’s the participants home and it’s their choice, we are here to help.
Never enter into exclusive agreements, but build lots of long term mutually beneficial arrangements – we build awesome places – you provide awesome support- if participants don’t like the property or how we manage it they move and take their support workers with them or if they like their home and don’t like the support workers they stay and change their support workers. Choice and control.
Easy SDA – SIL/Care/Support Work
Just enter into an exclusive SIL agreement – (unlawful at competition law, against NDIS rules) then they can do all the hardwork finding participants.
Worse – set up a separate company to provide support work so it appears separate but isn’t.
Even worse – just control everything, support work, accommodation.
Hard SDA Management
It’s a breach of legislation to share any identifying information regarding participants. So get your own software written. Make sure that everyone and everything is compliant.
Easy SDA Management
Just give it to an outside real estate agency. Hope that you make your sales commissions for long enough until you get breached and have to shut down.
Hard SDA Automation & Assistive Tech
Use open source, widely available products as the ins and outs. But develop your own systems that tie it all together.
In HPS – put in automation on every door inside and out. Make sure that your system can use voice, phone, tablet, head arrays, braille controller, chin joysticks and way more. Put a ceiling rail and hoist in at the owners cost.
Put everything in you can, as part of the build cost. (it’s actually cheaper than lost SDA payments while participants get funding to put stuff in)
Have a full time tech department that looks after and manages all of this.
Easy SDA Automation
Just throw in a google and some lights. Get a wire put above the door so it’s “ready”. Leave it up to the participants to get funding for it and go through all that hassle.
Hard SDA Provider Business Model (but Sustainable)
Don’t have sales people or run investment seminars. Provide SDA for participants and focus on looking after them. Investors will come.
Make your investors spend a lot of money so that the places actually work and have everything in, are in great locations and are the best product in the market (choice and control will mean these investors win).
Work on creating places people are happy to call home.
Ensure you only work with investors who support your mission to help people get out of inappropriate accommodation and into places they are happy to call home. Look at realistic returns, short term vacancies to ensure right mix of people in a house, building etc.
Have your financial model based on whether participants will be happy to call your place home today, in 5 years, in 10 years.
Easy SDA Provider Business Model
Set investment costs low, promise high returns, sell as much as you can and hope that you can make as much money as you did from sales commissions as you did from selling NRAS, granny flats, dual keys, investment schemes or whatever your previous source of sales revenue was. Hope that your terrible product is good enough to attract enough participants (it’s likely better than a nursing home or government housing) until the quality SDA comes along, all the participants move out of your rubbish product and your poor investors have to take a bath selling their properties that don’t work for SDA and were only more expensive than the house next door to cover your sales commissions and fees.
