Spectrum Care supports people with an intellectual disability, autism, high needs/dual diagnosis or multiple disabilities through the provision of the following services:
 Adult Services
Child, Youth and Respite (CYR)
Community Services
Home Support Services
Behaviour Support Services
Community Cultural Services
Outcomes
Aspirations
Who can access services
Adult Services
Spectrum Care offers 24-hour support to adults with an intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder living in residential homes throughout the greater Auckland and Waikato areas.
Spectrum Care has houses located in a variety of urban and rural settings. These houses give the adults who reside in them the opportunity to live in a shared home with three or four others in a community environment where they engage in daily domestic living activities, go on social and educational outings, attend Aspirations activity and vocational centres, or go to work.
The service is staffed by teams of trained Community Support Workers who are based in the homes 24-hours a day.
The role of Community Support Workers is to provide a safe, caring, encouraging and supported environment in which people are offered full opportunity to actively participate in daily life, identify their interests and strengths, and then go on to identify and achieve individual lifestyle choices and outcomes, which will contribute to their living a great life.
Community Support Workers assist people to engage with natural community networks that give them the opportunity to meet people and explore a range of activities that will broaden their experiences and help them to decide upon their desired outcomes.
Community Support Workers will also arrange for people to have the opportunity to benefit from Spectrum Care's own Community Cultural, Behavioural Support, and Aspirations activity and vocational services.
Teams of Service Coordinators support Community Support Workers. Service Coordinators are in turn supported by a team of five Service Managers covering the areas of Rodney, Waitakere, Tamaki, Manukau and South, which includes Pukekohe, Tuakau, and Hamilton.
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Child, Youth and Respite (CYR)
Spectrum Care's Child, Youth and Respite team provides services for babies, children, and young people with disabilities or autism spectrum disorder, and their families within the greater Auckland area.
The team aim to promote valued experiences in an environment that is safe and allows for the development of individual autonomy. The goal is to identify the needs of each child or young person and aid them in developing life skills that will strengthen their overall competence and confidence.
Child, Youth and Respite Services includes residential support and structured respite for children and young people, and structured respite for babies and young children at Orakau House.
Residential Support
Spectrum Care offers 24-hour residential support for children and young people with an intellectual disability in houses within the Auckland area.
The child or young person attends school or other day programmes and is encouraged to be involved in sports, social and cultural activities. Each person has an individual plan that focuses staff on helping them to learn and develop as many life skills as they are able.
Regular on-going contact with family, whanau and friends is encouraged, as is inclusion and involvement in the community.
Structured Respite
Spectrum Care offers respite care in houses for children and young people between five and fifteen years of age who have an intellectual disability and challenging behaviour. This care is rostered and the focus is to provide a 'home away from home' and 'time out' for the family and/or whanau.
Behaviour Support Services
The Child, Youth and Respite service offers an integrated approach to supporting people and where required, Spectrum Care's Behaviour Support team works closely with the service by providing assistance with:
- Intellectual disability
- Autistic disorders
- Sexuality
- Anger management
- Challenging behaviour
- Lifestyle development
- Daily living skills
- Risk management
- Mental health
Structured Respite at Orakau House
Structured respite care and support for families of children who have a disability, are medically fragile or technology dependent and aged under five is provided at Orakau House, which is located opposite Middlemore Hospital in Auckland.
Respite care is provided on a rostered basis and the service is aimed at families who need 'time out' from caring for their child, or who need training and support during or following the transition from hospital to home.
Orakau House is staffed by registered nurses and trained carers on a 24-hour basis and is designed to accommodate children who have medical needs and at the same time provide a 'home away from home' atmosphere.
The team at Orakau House work closely with other health professionals to ensure consistency of care and to develop home care plans for parents and caregivers. They also provide training and support for families to enable them to manage their child's specific medical needs at home (e.g. oxygen). As nutrition and feeding is often an issue, assistance and advice is given in this area.
Staff at Orakau House also endeavour to put families and caregivers of children in touch with each other to assist in the development of support networks.
[back to top] Community Services
Community Services aims to provide person-centred services that offer an integrated approach and that focus on the needs of individual people, so that they are supported and given the opportunity to live a great life.
Community Services includes Home Support Services, Behaviour Support Services and Community Cultural Services.
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Home Support Services
What is Home Support
Home Support provides individual assistance to children, young people, and adults with an intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, or multiple disabilities and their family/whanau within their home.
Home Support is available to people five years and older who live in the greater Auckland area.
The Home Support team assists individuals to develop life skills that will enable them to lead a fuller life and to achieve goals that focus on skill development and access to the community.
Goals are personalised and focus on particular aspects such as community integration, improving social skills and/or enhancing daily living skills. Home Support can also help with educational goals such as supporting people to enrol and achieve at school or tech.
Home Support also gives family/whanau and caregivers time to spend with other family members or pursue other interests while a trained Community Support Worker from Spectrum Care is with the person.
Types of activities that Home Support helps with:
- Developing a person's skills, i.e. handling money, cooking, making friends
- Accessing the community, i.e. joining clubs and teams, learning the bus route
- Helping with educational goals, i.e. helping with homework, assisting to enrol and achieve at school
- Matching the person with a buddy who will join them in a range of activities
If a person has more complex needs or may require behavioural support and/or overnight respite care as well as home support, we work with the person and family to provide a service that takes all of these needs into account.
What happens next
A needs assessor from the NASC agency assesses the person and allocates a number of hours that Home Support is available to them on a one-to-one basis.
Spectrum Care receives a referral and a Service Coordinator meets with the person and their family/whanau to talk about the goals of the service. A plan is put together to support the person to achieve their outcomes, or goals.
A Community Support Worker from Spectrum Care is then selected to work with the individual and their family.
Does the service cost
Home Support is free to families who have a referral from a NASC but certain costs like transport to activities and costs associated with activities (including for the Community Support Worker to accompany the person), i.e. club fees, food, drinks, and entry fees, are the family's responsibility.
For more information on Spectrum Care's Home Support Services please contact the Community Support Service Manager, phone (09) 634 3790.
[back to top] Behaviour Support Services
Spectrum Care's Behaviour Support team provides services for people with an intellectual disability who are under 65 years of age and live in the greater Auckland area.
The Behaviour Support team offers support to people who live in a house provided by Spectrum Care as well as to individuals who live independently within the community.
The Behaviour Support team includes psychologists and behaviour advisors who provide behavioural support programmes and training services to Spectrum Care staff, other provider agencies, as well as to the families/whanau of people with an intellectual disability.
Although the team specialise in the provision of behavioural strategies for individuals with challenging behaviours, the group has extensive knowledge, experience and skills in the following areas:
- Intellectual disability
- Autistic disorders
- Sexuality
- Anger management
- Challenging behaviour
- Lifestyle development
- Daily living Skills
- Risk management
- Mental health
When additional expertise or assessment is required the team utilise their links with other service agencies such as SAFE, Forensic Services, the Dual Disability Team, and the Autistic Association.
In recognition of the cultural diversity of the people it supports, the team also has links with cultural, Maori and Pacific Island services.
For more information on Spectrum Care's Behaviour Support Services please contact the Community Support Service Manager, phone (09) 634 3790.
[back to top] Community Cultural Services
In recognition of the cultural diversity of the people supported by Spectrum Care, the Community Cultural team provides services for people from other cultures who have an intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder, are under 65 years of age, and live in the greater Auckland area.
The team aims to provide support to the individual and families/whanau by identifying the needs of the person and their family, assisting them to access services available, and ensuring cultural needs are recognised.
The Community Cultural team aims to support people by:
- Assisting families to access support that they require from Government agencies such as Work and Income or Housing New Zealand
- Linking families up with other disability support agencies
- Assisting Spectrum Care staff and families to promote cultural understanding
- Encouraging people with an intellectual disability to become actively involved and included in their community
- Linking people with an intellectual disability with their culture and family
- Supporting families in the planning and reviewing of Spectrum Care services
For more information on Spectrum Care's Community Cultural Services please contact the Community Support Service Manager, phone (09) 634 3790.
[back to top] Outcomes
The Outcomes Philosophy
Spectrum Care is committed to providing person-centred services.
Outcomes focus on supporting a person as an individual and help to turn Spectrum Care's person-centred philosophy into reality across every service.
Outcomes is a major shift in thinking; it challenges the traditional approach to supporting people with an intellectual disability and makes it essential to focus on people as individuals, their aspirations and major expectations in life, and the best way to support them to achieve these - rather than looking at people as part of a group and the 'one size fits all' approach.
Outcomes are the major expectations and goals that people have in their lives. Outcomes are personal; they differ from individual to individual. Spectrum Care is striving to tailor its services as much as possible to recognise these different needs and to support individuals to achieve the outcomes they have identified.
Spectrum Care is committed to giving people opportunities to participate in and experience different activities and opportunities, therefore increasing awareness of the possibilities and broadening their options to choose from.
Outcome Domains
Outcomes consists of 25 specific categories where people are invited to identify what is important to them. These categories are grouped into 7 domains as follows:
- Identity - those things that make you feel important
- Autonomy - what it is that helps you to make choices
- Affiliation - what gives you your life in the community
- Attainment - choosing the services you use
- Safeguards - your foundations such as connections to family and having safe, natural, unconditional networks
- Rights - identifying personal rights and exercising those that are important to you
- Health and wellness - what is the best possible health for you
Outcomes in Practice
The outcomes approach asks two questions:
What do you want to achieve to have a great life? And,
How can we support you to make this happen?
We learn about outcomes when we talk to a person and discover what is important to them and why. This information is skilfully gathered through an interview process that patiently and carefully finds this out.
Time is taken to listen, observe, and ask questions. When appropriate, information is also collected from those who know the person best such as parents, whanau, guardians, friends and support staff.
Outcomes are then broken into short-term and long-term goals that a person can focus on reaching as they work towards achieving an identified outcome or outcomes. Goals are recorded in each person's Outcomes Plan. Progress towards achieving goals and outcomes, and the organisational supports that are provided to assist the individual are regularly assessed.
For further information on Outcomes
For more information on Outcomes and how it is incorporated into all services provided by Spectrum Care, please contact the General Manager, Adult Services, phone (09) 634 9776.
[back to top] Aspirations
What is Aspirations
Aspirations activity and vocational centres provide activity and work experience programmes to meet the individual developmental needs of people with an intellectual disability.
The activity programmes available in Aspirations Centres aim to support people to develop life skills that will enable them to truly participate in their community and have more enjoyable and fulfilled lives.
Through a wide range of programme options Aspirations supports people to develop skills in communication, advocacy, education, personal development, making and keeping friends, interpreting social situations, and preparing for employment.
Cooking, fitness and personal presentation, using public transport, social interaction and skill development, interacting with people in the community, arts and crafts, learning different sports, and developing communication skills are just some of the exciting programme options offered at Aspirations Centres.
The work options programmes available at Aspirations aim to support people to develop skills to prepare them for job seeking, entering the workforce and maintaining a job.
Aspirations is very much about meeting individual needs. People choose which centres and programme options they want to participate in to meet their personal goals, or Outcomes. Benefits to people using Aspirations Services include:
- A variety of activities to participate in, therefore increasing choices
- Skill development to support community participation
- Coaching and teaching life skills and competencies
- Supported employment assistance
- Paid and unpaid work experience opportunities
- Pre vocational skill development
- An interesting and structured day away from home
- Opportunities to build friendships
- Increased interactions with local people to extend networks
Aspirations Centres are located in Auckland in:
Papatoetoe, Mangere, Patumahoe, Kumeu, and New Lynn.
Aspirations Work Options is located in The Mall, Onehunga.
The Work Options Lawns Crew is based in Captain Springs Road, Onehunga.
Who can enrol in Aspirations
Aspirations is available to people 17 years old and over who are living in the greater Auckland area, and who are either living in a residential service or at home with their family.
How to enrol
People who already use services provided by Spectrum Care contact the Aspirations Service Manager, phone (09) 634 3790 for a referral form.
If you are not currently using services provided by Spectrum Care, access to Aspirations is via a referral from the Needs Assessment and Service Coordination (NASC) agency, Taikura Trust, phone 0800 835 4672.
For further information on this service
For more information on Aspirations please contact Spectrum Care's Aspirations Service Manager, phone (09) 634 3790.
[back to top] Who can access services
All services are available in Auckland. Access to these services is via a referral from the Needs Assessment and Service Coordination (NASC) agency, Taikura Trust, phone 0800 835 4672.
Adult Services are also available in Hamilton. Access to this service for people living in Hamilton or the Waikato is via a referral from DSL in Hamilton, phone (07) 839 1441.
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