Looking for a support worker? The struggle is real, from getting referrals, recommendations, wait lists and finding out if you and them mesh well together. The process can be long, tedious and time consuming.
In the past I have had to get into this process from time to time, but luckily I have an amazing NDIS coordinator who does all the heavy lifting. Thanks Louise!
From that point of view, I can understand why a platform like Mable makes sense. DRN was offered an opportunity to ask Jay Nawaz, the Chief Product Officer at Mable some questions. So from the DRN team we collated a bunch of tough questions from the end-user, healthcare providers, and generally people who know just a bit too much about how hard doing things the traditional way is. As some users of the app call it, they are “Tindr, for support work“.
The below are questions we posed to Jay, DRN would like to thank him and the Mable team for their time.
How did the idea of Mable come about?
JN: Mable started life in 2014 originally as “Better Caring” when our co-founder Peter Scutt teamed up with his friend and colleague, Tony Charara, after struggling to find the right home care solution for his parents. That collaboration resulted in a new concept in community care led by the people that matter, underpinned by technology. The platform has been constantly refined and improved upon ever since.
JN: Today, Mable is proudly one of Australia’s largest online communities where independent support workers come to connect with NDIS participants and older Australians to deliver and receive care and support services.
What is the demographic / locality for the app?
DRN: Some of our editors are based in non-metropolitan areas, and on appearance there seems to be less providers onboard in these areas.
JN: The Mable app has people from all across Australia who utilise it for their care and support needs.
JN: Our sophisticated algorithm and matching functionalities mean more people can find what they want on Mable more often. Clients can search for support workers based on several terms, including location, age, gender, service type, language etc.
JN: Clients can post job ads sharing whatever it is that matters most to them, and support workers can search through these based on their preferences to ensure the highest chance of a successful match can be found.
JN: Typical services on Mable include social support and domestic assistance. These include help around the house and garden, connecting people to their communities or transport to and from medical appointments. People with certificates in aged care or disability support or those with AHPRA registrations, such as nursing, can deliver more personal or high-care services to clients.
On Mable, we have everyone from university students, professionals looking for extra income, recently retired people, or people juggling their work around their family commitments.
Where are you seeing the most traction with the app?
JN: Mable’s impact has been significant since launching in 2014, with more than 13 million hours of support delivered through the platform.
JN: We’re seeing a really good uptake of support through Mable across all the major cities. Unsurprisingly, we have built large communities in both Melbourne and Sydney, and we’ve found that support workers love using our app and use it much more than they do on a browser on their tablet or laptop.
JN: What is surprising, however, is the uptake in usage across regional areas where traditional providers aren’t able to provide support workers.
JN: In partnership with local coordinators, Mable’s community-managed model activates the latent workforce within a town to meet the needs of older people and people with a disability in the comforts of their homes and community.
What is the thinking behind the sign-up process?
DRN: The sign up process required a significant amounts of personal information.
JN: We take our safeguarding obligations seriously at Mable. One way to protect people’s safety is by our strict verification process that ensures people are who they say they are and are qualified to provide the services they say they can.
JN: As a minimum requirement, support workers looking to operate via Mable must provide a police check, a working with children check (if working with people under 18), they must have an ABN and provide 100 points of identification. For people who want to provide personal care services or claim to have health practitioner registrations, we will seek proof by citing their certificates and checking AHPRA’s registration list.
DRN: There is a lack of visibility on available support works in specific areas ahead of signing up. Given the sign-up process is rather extensive, is Mable currently looking into ways to offer more visibility around available support workers in specific areas ahead of signing up?
JN: The questions we’re asking as part of our sign-up process feed into our recommendations for support workers that we have in the app and also that we email to clients. The wide variety of different needs of our clients, across disability and aged care, makes it essential to understand this before they start searching. However, it is possible to defer some of the verification steps until after you’ve signed up and begun searching for workers – you just can’t contact them until you’ve completed the verification process.
How does the web-based platform differentiate from, say, an NDIS support coordinator?
JN: For some clients, there will always be a need for someone to manage and coordinate their supports – however, Mable exists for those clients who want to have choice and control in who, when and how their supports enter their lives. One of the benefits of Mable is that we give clients the ability to define the criteria that they’re using to shortlist clients through what they put in the job posts they create and how they interview through our meet-and-greet process. Also, for those that wish, our Agreement Templates allow workers and clients to specify how they interact and to be specific about certain things that are important to them. For example, it might be important for the client and support worker to be specific about how they handle cancellations and rescheduling of support sessions.
JN: For those clients that prefer support coordination, thousands of support coordinators use Mable on behalf of their clients to post jobs and find the right support workers.
It is noted that support coordinators only have access to the web-based platform, not the app version of Mable.
There was no option to unsubscribe in the app
DRN: The option to unsubscribe is not available via the app; it has to be emailed in. There is a note for providers to set it to inactive instead. What is the thinking behind this?
JN: In both our iOS and Android apps, you can delete your account from the app.
DRN: To clarify, closing your account on the Mable app will unsubscribe from emails.
