Our youth programmes recognise that the transition to adulthood can be challenging but also full of promise. We aim to help our young people successfully navigate these years so they can fully realise their potential.
Our youth programmes recognise that the transition to adulthood can be challenging but also full of promise. We aim to help our young people successfully navigate these years so they can fully realise their potential.
Growing up is exciting but also a bit daunting. As your needs change, so will the support and guidance you require. Let us help.
At Spectrum Care, we flex our services to meet your young person’s changing needs as they transition through life stages, from leaving school, to looking for a job, or moving out of home.
We listen to their hopes and aspirations, enabling them to confidently take the next steps to becoming an adult.
Together we can create a bright future. Get in touch today. Call us on 09 634 3790.
Home Support is personalised care delivered to you in the comfort of your own home.
Our Home Support service gives whanau and caregivers an opportunity to spend time with other family members.
We support a range of educational, emotional and behavioural needs, helping to build life skills, achieve personal goals and to develop community networks and integration.
We recognise this is no ordinary role. We work hard to assign the right person to be part of your home environment; one with whom you can build a trusting, meaningful and enjoyable relationship.
Home Support provides help with:
We work with each family to provide services that take your young person’s needs into consideration, no matter how complex.
Call us today on 09 634 3790 to find out more about Home Support.
Our planned break services for youth provide stimulating, fun and well-managed home-away-from-home experiences for young people as they near adulthood.
Planned breaks provide positive opportunities for young people to enjoy relationships with people outside their immediate family circle, helping them to develop independence and to engage in a wide variety of activities.
Our person-centred framework ensures activities are tailored to meet each individual’s capabilities, needs and goals.
Our out-of-home planned breaks offer:
The Spectrum Care After-School Support programme gives you some extra breathing space while your older child enjoys fun and stimulating activities in a safe environment.
Staffed by trained teacher aides from the Auckland Special School network, our after school programme is currently available weekdays at Sommerville Special School in Auckland.
The programme offers a healthy and structured environment for children to spend a fun afternoon on school grounds.
Prior to starting the programme, we meet with families to assess and understand each person’s needs and goals. We then develop a range of personalised and relevant activities including:
When: From 2.30pm – 6.30pm weekdays
Where: Sommerville Special School, Panmure, Auckland
Cost: Carer Support days can be redeemed, or a ‘fee for service’ cost based on individual support needs.
Weekends can be just as hectic as any other day of the week. Getting the right support at the right time is all about planning ahead.
Available to all youth with disabilities, our Planned Breaks – Weekend days are staffed by trained community support workers and teacher aides from Auckland’s Special School network.
The programme offers a safe, healthy and structured environment for children to spend a fun day, giving you time to do the other things you need to.
We meet with families and youth prior to enrolment to develop a range of personalised activities, aligned to each person’s needs and goals.
These include:
When: 8.30am-4.30pm Saturdays and Sundays.
Where: Spectrum Care Community Hub, 310 Onehunga Mall, Onehunga.
Cost per day: Full Carer Support Day plus a supplementary fee depending on support needs.
Call us today on 09 634 3790 to find out more about Planned Breaks – Weekends.
Spectrum Care School Holiday Programmes provide support continuity for you and your whanau during school breaks. Full supervision is always provided, and the individual needs of each child are a top priority for our trained community support workers and teacher aides.
Our holiday programmes are available to all students and we provide a safe, stimulating, and comfortable environment for children.
The programmes include planned daily activities including arts and crafts, cooking, age-appropriate games, sports, and outings to interesting places. We also factor in time for unstructured activities and fun, and rests!
All areas are wheelchair accessible and children with profound disabilities are welcome.
Basic care needs such as changing, assisting with eating and toileting are provided for children in need of additional support.
Where: Available at six sites across the greater Auckland region, as well as Whangarei, Hamilton and Wellington.
Cost: Carer Support days can be redeemed, or a ‘fee for service’ will be determined based on your child’s support needs.
Call us today on 09 634 3790 to find out more about our School Holiday Programmes
Finishing school is a significant and exciting milestone for every young person and their family. Our Transition Support provides school leavers with a range of options to empower their future choices.
From employment opportunities to valued social roles and increased participation in their communities, we work with each person to develop an individual Transition Plan based on their aspirations and life goals.
Transition Support offers:
Employment/Work experience
Participation
Resources
Advocacy and networking
Transition Support requires a referral from the student’s school (in their final year).
The Ministry of Education’s ‘Ongoing Resourcing Scheme’ (ORS) funding is available to students identified as having ‘high’ needs or ‘very high’ needs. If you’re not ORS funded, please ask about our private transitions agreements.
We’re also happy to provide support in other areas as necessary, including Welfare Guardianship and Total Mobility Cards.
For more information, contact the Manager – Transition support on 09 634 3790.
We recognise that every person has unique goals and aspirations. Our aim is to help you realise these. We support people to develop life skills that will enable them to truly participate in their community and to have more enjoyable and fulfilling lives.
Our Aspirations services support a choice of development options for people with disabilities aged between 17 and 65, delivered at our vocational centres and/or with community partners.
Aspirations services support community and centre-based activities, including recreational pursuits, specific learning and development such as social skills, community engagement and progression towards work or volunteering opportunities.
We work with each individual to establish their target goals and desired outcomes and strive to constantly evolve our services and schedules to keep them relevant.
Aspirations Services are available to people who live in the greater Auckland and Wellington areas. In Auckland, our newly opened centre is in Onehunga Mall. Our Wellington centre is on Cuba St in the CBD.
The Aspirations Service is available to people who live in residential facilities, or in family or community-based environments. Our team can provide you with all the relevant information regarding enrolment and funding.
If you have Transition Provider supporting you to leave school, they can contact us for you.
For more information, please contact the Community Development Service Manager on 09 634 3790.
At Spectrum Care, we believe in supporting people with a disability to understand their rights and advocate for themselves.
We believe in listening completely and doing the right thing. For those that struggle to advocate for themselves, we ensure their natural supports and/or staff can raise concerns and support the person to have their rights and needs met.
We can provide individuals and families with:
Additional resources
Code of Rights
When you use a health or disability service in New Zealand, you have the protection of a Code of Rights. For more information on the Code of Rights click here.
Welfare Guardianship
Welfare Guardianship involves a person being appointed by the courts to support the care and welfare decisions of individuals unable to make these decisions for themselves.
To get support and/or information about Welfare Guardianship, along with Property and Personal Orders under the ‘Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 88’ (PPPR Act 88) you can approach the following organisations…
Support whānau and others with applications to the courts for Guardianship, Property & Personal Order applications (under the PPPR Act 88), along with independent advocacy and life skill development for people with learning disabilities
Web: www.adultguardianship.org.nz
Email: adultguardianshipnz@gmail.com
Phone: 021 08767583
These services are predominantly, but not limited to administrative, financial, marketing and training. This support allows Independent PPPR Consultants who work with PPPR Services to focus on solutions for those they’re appointed to assist.
Email: martha@ppprservices.co.nz
Phone: 09 8693 923
Auckland Disability Law (ADL) provides free legal services to disabled people for disability related legal issues. ADL is the only specialist disability law community law centre in Aotearoa New Zealand. ADL also provides legal education on disability law in the community and within disability and legal organisations. They work with the disabled and deaf communities through their community engagement and law reform activities.
Web: http://aucklanddisabilitylaw.org.nz/
Email: info@adl.org.nz
Phone: 09 257 5140
For more information about advocacy support, contact the Spectrum Foundation Advocacy Manager on 09 634 3790 ext 312 or 0274 757 577.
Hello. Kia ora. Talofa. Bula. Malo lei lei. Ni hao.
Our Community and Cultural Support team provides advisory services to people of all cultures and ethnicities, with specialist teams supporting the needs of our Māori, Pacific Island and Asian communities.
We provide person-centred, culturally-appropriate support with an integrated approach that focuses on the needs of the individual.
The Community and Cultural team provide:
Awhi
Meaning ‘to support and guide’, Spectrum’s ‘Awhi’ group has been delivering support to Māori for nearly 20 years.
The Awhi group is involved in all aspects of Spectrum’s support provision. It also facilitates staff inductions, powhiri, house blessings, tangi (bereavements), rights and advocacy, and other cultural initiatives.
Pacific Peoples
Spectrum Care’s Pacifika group provides high-quality, culturally appropriate support and advisory services to people from the Pacific Islands.
The Pacifika group provides an array of cultural activities and events for the people we support, including facilitating at events such as blessings and bereavements.
Asian services
For more than 10 years, Spectrum has provided support and advisory services to people of Asian descent.
Led by Spectrum’s Cultural Advisor – Asian Services, our specialist cultural team also utilises a network of long- term community partnerships with organisations such as TANI (The Asian Network Inc), CNSST (Chinese New Settlers Services Trust), NZCYT (New Zealand Chinese Youth Trust) and the Disability Connect Chinese Families Autism Support Group.
To access our Community and Cultural Services a referral is required from Taikura Trust (phone 0800 835 4672).
For more information, contact the Manager – Community Support Services on 09 634 3790.
We all face different challenges; together we can overcome them to create a more fulfilling life.
Spectrum Care is one of the largest providers of disability support services in New Zealand. We partner with people of all ages and stages to find new ways to deliver better life outcomes.
Our specialist support includes behavioural, speech and language, clinical and ageing services. We work with you to identify your unique and individual needs and design personalised care options to meet these.
Behaviour Support
The Behaviour Support Team align their practice with Positive Behaviour Support (PBS). They coach and mentor staff teams in developing skills, and following positive approaches and behaviour guidelines. There is a focus on providing skill-building support for individuals, and working towards meaningful goals.
The team provide specialised training for staff teams and support with debriefing when required. They also advise teams on referrals to alternate support networks outside of Spectrum, such as Explore.
Their goal is to support staff teams to continually improve the quality of life for the people we support while reducing restrictive practices.
Speech-Language Support
Our Speech and Language team works with individuals and their support group to assess speech, language and feeding/dysphagia needs. In consultation, we develop and implement strategies to help manage these needs and achieve target outcomes. We monitor and regularly review the impact and ongoing success of these strategies and identify and work towards achieving meaningful communication goals.
We help parents/caregivers to develop the skills required to effectively manage speech, language and feeding/dysphagia difficulties, and create external professional support networks.
Clinical, Health and Ageing
Our Comprehensive Health Assessment Programme is used to assess the health and medication needs of service users identified as needing specialist support. Based on the outcomes, we develop and implement strategies to help achieve meaningful health improvement and medication management, and regularly review the impact and ongoing success of these strategies. We help parents / caregivers to develop the skills they need to confidently undertake these practices at home.
In pursuit of better health outcomes for the people we support, we partner with DHBs and tertiary institutions to ensure our thinking, methodologies and practices are current and high impact.
