Infinity Coordination and Supports is owned and operated by former Benalla girl Tammi Ritchie who said it was her dream to bring her business to the Rose City.
“We opened our first office in Albury about two years ago,” Ms Ritchie said.
“I always wanted to come back to Benalla to provide support as I know there's not a lot of choices here for people.”
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The Benalla office will be run by Benalla local — and Ms Ritchie's childhood friend — Joda Plex, who has taken up the role of regional manager and support co-ordinator.
Infinity's roll will be to support local people to navigate an NDIS application as well as offering advice and connecting people to the support services they need.
“It's kind of like case management. NDIS is a government initiative so it's quite complex,” Ms Ritchie said.
“Our job as support co-ordinators is to help people understand their plan, so they're in control of their funding and their support.”
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Ms Ritchie said once a person had been diagnosed with a disability, whether it was physical, mental or intellectual, Infinity was able to help them with a referral to NDIS
“After that the client will have a plan meeting with someone from NDIS who will help make a plan for them,” she said.
“That will be broken up into different sections, so if they need physio that's one section.
“Then we can look into things like flexible funding for community support, and home or domestic help if needed. So we can look at a range of things.”
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Ms Ritchie said the idea was to support people to stay in their community.
“We offer help to support people to stay in their homes with as much assistance as they need,” she said.
“We do community support, day program and community outings. And in Albury we have some houses.
“Hopefully we can do something similar in Benalla.
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“Some people might stay in one of those houses for life, and we provide around-the-clock support.
“We also do a lot of respite with those, which might be mum and dad wanting a break so the person they care for might come in for a couple of days.”
● For more information you can pop into Infinity at 61 Carrier St or phone (02) 6060 2428.
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