Metro South East Disability Service

Service type

New South Wales Government Service 

Department of Ageing and Disability and Home Care

Location

Eastern Office 

24-32 O'Riordon Street, 

Alexandria NSW 2015

St George Office 

390 Forest Road 

Hurstville NSW 1481

Contact

Population serviced

An initial referral for a school age child is to be made through the Disability Intake Officer.

The child's usual 'person responsible' (eg. self, parent, guardian, carer or next of kin), must give consent for the referral. Verbal consent is usually sufficient for a referral to be taken. Written consent will be required before intervention services commence.

Children under six years of age are considered eligible if: The child demonstrates features that are consistent with a global developmental delay. (That is, pervasive failure of children under six years to reach average developmental milestones) or the child demonstrates specific area of delay in at least two areas of functioning. These delays must be determined from a norm referenced developmental assessment (Note: The intake officer can provide details of assessments and tests that are acceptable to determine eligibility). People over the age of six years are eligible if they have an intellectual disability or multiple disabilities where intellectual disability is also present.

A person has intellectual disability if they meet the three criteria below or have a specific diagnosis follows: 

• Intellectual functioning measured at two or more standard deviations below the mean for the Full Scale Score on a recognised test of intelligence. 
• Significant deficits in adaptive¹ functioning in two or more areas. Significant is defined as two or more standard deviations below the mean or equivalent. The areas of functioning must be factors or domains, not sub scales, on a recognised Norm referenced test. 
• The deficits in cognitive and adaptive¹ functioning are demonstrated prior to 18 years or specific diagnosis of a syndrome, strongly associated with significant intellectual disability, is made in a written report, by a qualified health professional or Diagnostic and Assessment service.

If a person is deemed eligible for service, the appropriate team will contact them.

Supporting documentation such as test results and reports or referral that are faxed or posted should be clearly labelled 'for the attention of the disability intake officer".

1 Adaptive functioning refers to how effectively individuals cope with common life demands and how well they meet the standards of personal independence expected of someone in their particular age group, sociocultural background and community setting.

Therapy model

All students are prioritised according to need and receive a service based on an individual plan developed by the collaborative team. The individual plan outlines the agreed goals for the student and who is responsible for the implementation of the goals.

Services confirm to the Disability Services Act.

Therapists available

There are two School Age Teams one at the Alexandria Office and one at the St George Office. Therapists work from multi-disciplinary School Age teams in accordance with relevant guidelines.

Who can refer

Parents/carers, teachers, therapists, medical practitioners