Medium Term Accommodation (MTA)

What Medium Term Accommodation is

Medium Term Accommodation, or MTA, is NDIS funding for a place to live for up to 90 days while you wait to move into a long-term home that is already confirmed. It exists to cover the gap — the weeks or months between leaving where you are now and the day your permanent home is actually ready for you.

It is most often used by people coming out of hospital or rehabilitation who are medically ready to leave but have nowhere suitable to go yet, and by people whose SDA or SIL placement has been approved but is still being built, modified or vacated. Rather than staying in a hospital bed longer than you need to, you move into a real home with real support, and use those weeks to rebuild the routines and confidence that living independently asks of you.

ResicareSA provides MTA across our South Australian homes, metro and country. Because we run the households and employ the support workers ourselves, the accommodation and the support that goes with it are arranged together — you are not left to find a house from one organisation and staff from another while a discharge date is looming.

Who MTA is for

MTA is a bridge, not a destination. The NDIA funds it when there is somewhere confirmed for you to move on to. The situations we see most often are:

• You are being discharged from hospital or a rehabilitation unit and cannot return home safely yet.
• Your SDA home has been approved but is still under construction or being modified.
• A SIL vacancy has been confirmed for you but the room is not free for a few more weeks.
• Home modifications are underway and you cannot live in the house while the work is done.
• A tenancy has ended or broken down and your next long-term home is confirmed but not ready.

What MTA funds, and what it does not

This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth being plain about it. MTA pays for the accommodation itself — your room in the house and the everyday costs of running it. It does not pay for the support you receive while you are there.

Support workers, personal care, community access and nursing are funded from your Core supports, exactly as they would be anywhere else. If your plan does not yet have the support hours you will need during the stay, tell us early — that is a conversation to have with your support coordinator or planner before you move in, not after.

MTA sits in the Home and Living part of your plan and is normally funded for a maximum of 90 days. Extensions beyond that are possible but uncommon, and the NDIA will want evidence that the long-term home is confirmed and close to ready.

• Funded by MTA: the accommodation, and the day-to-day cost of the household.
• Not funded by MTA: support worker hours, personal care and nursing — these come from your Core budget.
• Not funded by MTA: your groceries, and personal expenses.
• Required by the NDIA: a confirmed long-term home you have a realistic prospect of moving into.

Using the 90 days properly

Ninety days is enough time to make a real difference to how the move goes, and we would rather you spent it building capacity than waiting. Where it suits your goals, our staff use the stay to work on the practical skills that decide whether a long-term placement holds: managing medication, cooking, budgeting, getting to appointments, using transport, and being comfortable with the people who will be supporting you.

It also gives everybody a chance to learn how you like things done before the permanent move, so the people rostered to your long-term home start already knowing your routine rather than starting from scratch on day one.

How to arrange MTA with us

Discharge dates move quickly, so start the conversation before you need the bed, not on the day. Call us on 08 7085 0633 or email info@resicaresa.com.au and we will tell you straight away whether we have something suitable and what it would take to get you in.

We work directly with hospital social workers, discharge planners, support coordinators and plan managers, and we will tell you honestly if MTA is not the right funding for your situation — sometimes what someone actually needs is short-term accommodation, or their SIL placement brought forward.

• Tell us the expected discharge or move-out date, and the confirmed long-term home.
• We check availability across our homes, metro and country, and confirm in writing.
• We work out the support hours you will need during the stay, and where they are funded from.
• You move in, with a roster and a coordinator whose name you will know.