Disability residential support services

What help is available?

Community residential support services help disabled people live in a supported community-based environment. Services can support you 24-hours a day depending on individual needs. This may include helping with such things as personal care, planning and preparing meals and other household tasks like laundry and housework.

Services are provided in a range of community settings such as small or large homes, groups of small homes or flats. The idea is to provide a homelike environment, including individual bedrooms where residents can have their own belongings. Residents will have access to community groups, leisure activities and opportunities to socialise and meet other people.

Who qualifies?

The person you support can get community residential support services if:
   • They have an intellectual, physical and/or sensory disability and meet Disability Support Services' definition of being disabled, and
   • Their needs are assessed as being best met by community residential support services (see section below 'Who to talk to first').
In most cases they will need to be under the age of 65. They won't qualify for this Ministry of Health-funded service if they are eligible for ACC funding.

Who provides the service? 

Community residential support services are supplied by providers that have a residential support services contract with the Ministry of Health's Disability Support Services Group. The Disability Support Services Group also funds some of its younger clients in aged residential care, for example to live in a rest home, when no other options are available.

Who pays?

If the person you support receives a benefit, they make a contribution from the benefit they get from Work and Income. The Ministry of Health covers the remaining cost. The resident can use the left-over portion of their benefit to pay for their personal needs such as toiletries, magazines and entertainment.

Who to talk to first

The needs of the person you support will have to be assessed in order to get funded residential support. The first step is to contact a Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination agency (NASC). The New Zealand Federation of Disability Information Centres (NZFDIC) can advise you of where your nearest NASC is. You can contact them on free phone 0800 693 342. You can also find a list of NASCs on the Ministry of Health's website www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/disability-contact or by emailing disability@moh.govt.nz, or by phoning the Ministry of Health's disability phone number 0800 DSD MOH (0800 373 664). Your doctor or other health professional can also tell you how to contact a NASC organisation.

You can read more about needs assessment here.

For more information

You can download these Ministry of Health publications here.

• Community Residential Support Services factsheet
• Community Residential Support Services what you need to know booklet

If you get stuck

In the first instance, you should talk to your local NASC organisation. If this doesn't work, you can contact:
• the Nationwide Advocacy Service at the Health and Disability Commissioner's office
• Disability Support Services for disabled people generally under 65 years of age, 0800 DSD MOH (0800 373 664), disability@moh.govt.nz  
• the Ministry of Health