Six years ago, Gold Coast mother Sarah Collins and her husband were exhausted, struggling to stay on top of daily tasks and felt they were constantly chasing their tails.
With four children on the autism spectrum, Ms Collins admits it was quite the "juggling act" to tend to each child's unique needs while navigating before and after school medical appointments and therapies.
So the full-time working parents sought help from a national emergency respite service, but it could only care for one child on one weekend every four months.
"They were able to organise two support workers to come into our home and look after our children for a couple of hours so my husband and I could go out, grab some lunch and just sit and talk," Ms Collins said.
"To have those couple of hours was just fantastic but that wasn't set up as an ongoing thing to help on an ongoing basis. It was just a one-off."
Scrolling for support
The lack of extra hands meant Ms Collins was only able to work during school hours, but that changed after speaking to a friend who worked in the disability sector.
"She mentioned [that] she was working on the Kynd App so I went to [the] app, I put in our local area and it brought up a big list," Ms Collins said.
The app — developed at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast — lets NDIS participants and their families scroll through carer profiles and connect with people based on shared interests and desired skills.
'Like a big sister'
The family now has two regular carers, who Ms Collins credits for enabling her to return to work outside school hours and with helping manage daily tasks.
"I put up a schedule for the kids so they know, 'Today we have Isabella and tomorrow's Ariana' so it takes out all that unknown and it just helps your days run smoother because there's no unknowns there," Ms Collins said.
"That's been fantastic having that support. Isabella's like a big sister to my kids"
Ms Collins said the app gives her "greater control" over the people who come into the home to provide support.
"Sometimes it takes a little while to go through and read up about people, but I'd far prefer people to find out that somebody's not interested in working with children before I've invested time contacting them and having them come and meet us," Ms Collins said.
The Kynd phone app is the brainchild of Burleigh-based Michael Metcalfe, who was inspired to develop the software after his father became a full-time carer for his mother following a medical emergency..
"That just opened my eyes to the problems in the disability and care space [where] flexibility and personalised support just wasn't a thing." Mr Metcalfe said.
'Real-life approach'
Co-designing the app with NDIS participants and support workers, Mr Metcalfe said that more than 1,000 Gold Coast locals were now using the app and growing the care community.
Mr Metcalfe said smart technologies matched the right people, based on profiles that align with one another, and now his business is rolling out its service across regional Queensland.
"App users can look at profiles and see the verification a different support person has, learn about hobbies, interests, get to understand their personalities, qualifications, experience areas and types of services they're willing to support you with," Mr Metcalfe said.
"It helps that person get to know a potential support worker before they ever have to interact with them and it's certainly a lot better than a stranger turning up at your front door.
