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WIRU Community Health & Well-Being is a registered NDIS provider established in South Australia in 2021 and now providing Specialist Navigation across South Australia and Queensland.
We are intentionally different from a generalist disability provider.
Specialist Navigation is the only NDIS service we provide. We do not provide direct support work, accommodation or community participation services. This allows us to maintain a clear and independent focus on navigation, participant choice and finding the right supports for each individual.
WIRU is a boutique, Social Worker-led organisation built around professional expertise, small caseloads and individualised support.
Our purpose is simple: to help people navigate complexity with greater understanding, choice and control.
WIRU is led by experienced professionals with a shared commitment to inclusive, ethical and person-centred practice.
Since founding WIRU in South Australia in 2021, Susie has worked to create a service where people feel heard, understood and supported as they navigate complex systems.
An AASW Accredited Social Worker, she holds a Master of Social Work and a Bachelor of Social Science (Behavioural Studies). Her professional experience spans forensic social work, specialist support coordination and management consulting.
Susie’s broader practice includes social work supervision, counselling and mental health practice. She has worked alongside people living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, acquired brain injury, autism, intellectual disability, personality disorders and other complex psychosocial, neurodevelopmental and cognitive presentations. Her practice draws on psychosocial assessment, trauma-informed care, risk and safeguarding, individual and systemic advocacy, therapeutic engagement and multidisciplinary collaboration, particularly where mental health and disability intersect with health, guardianship, housing and justice systems.
At WIRU, Susie leads NDIS Specialist Navigation and separate mainstream professional services, working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, government agencies and community organisations across disability, mental health and justice settings. She is committed to independent, culturally responsive and accountable practice, with respect for First Nations peoples, culturally diverse communities and people facing barriers to support. Their voices, rights and aspirations remain central to her work.
Speaking & Industry Engagements
Susie welcomes enquiries regarding selected industry, professional and career speaking engagements hosted by Australian and international government agencies, major organisations, universities and recognised industry or professional bodies.
For speaking enquiries, contact susie@wiru.org
Melissa Thompson, a Pitjantjatjara woman from the Black Hill homeland near Umuwa in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, serves as the First Nations Cultural Consultant at WIRU Community Health and Well-Being Pty Ltd.
She brings a wealth of lived experience and cultural expertise to her role, informed by a long-standing commitment to the health, dignity and self-determination of Aboriginal communities.
Melissa’s leadership spans numerous community-based roles, including Deputy Chair of Iwiri, an organisation supporting Anangu people visiting Adelaide, Minister at the Adelaide Congress Ministry and member of the Department for Human Services (DHS) Taskforce, supporting individuals residing temporarily in the Adelaide Parklands. Her professional experience also includes serving as a police aide on the APY Lands and holding a youth executive position with the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council.
At WIRU, Melissa plays a critical role in supporting culturally responsive practice across our work, including NDIS Specialist Navigation and WIRU’s separate mainstream professional services. With particular compassion for First Nations people and communities, she is deeply committed to fostering environments where individuals and families feel understood, empowered and connected to culture and community.
WIRU was established in South Australia in 2021 with a clear purpose: to provide a specialised, independent and professionally grounded approach to navigating complex systems.
As Social Workers, our professional knowledge extends beyond the NDIS. Social Work brings an understanding of people, behaviour, systems, advocacy, safeguarding and the broader social and environmental factors that can influence a person's circumstances.
Our Specialist Navigators regularly work alongside professionals and organisations across multiple sectors, including law firms and legal professionals, health and hospital teams, mental health services, allied health professionals, guardians and advocates, justice and correctional services, housing services, government agencies and community organisations.
This breadth of professional knowledge is particularly important when a participant's circumstances extend across several systems at once. Our role is to understand how those systems intersect, support effective collaboration between them and keep the individual at the centre of decision-making.
Every individual brings their own history, strengths, relationships, culture, community and lived experience. Our work alongside people from diverse cultural backgrounds, including First Nations people and communities, continues to reinforce the importance of cultural humility, deep listening and reflective practice.
We recognise that professional knowledge does not exist in isolation. It must be applied thoughtfully, with an understanding of the individual and the social, cultural and systemic context in which they live.
That philosophy continues to shape WIRU today. Specialist Navigation is the only NDIS service we provide, and our workforce is built around qualified Social Workers who bring professional knowledge, ethical practice, critical thinking and systems expertise to the Navigator role.
Since 2021, WIRU has expanded from South Australia into Queensland while deliberately retaining the boutique, Social Worker-led and person-centred model on which the organisation was built.
People rarely experience disability in isolation. A participant may be navigating the NDIS alongside health and mental health systems, housing, guardianship, justice, forensic services or other government and community systems.
This is where WIRU's experience matters.
Our Specialist Navigators understand how different systems can intersect and how difficult it can be for participants, families and professionals to coordinate supports across them.
We bring together professional knowledge, collaboration and systems navigation to help participants move forward.
Specialist Navigation is our sole NDIS service, allowing us to maintain a dedicated professional focus.
Our Specialist Navigators are qualified Social Workers who maintain professional membership and accreditation with the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW).
Because WIRU does not provide direct care or accommodation services, our Navigators can focus on identifying supports based on the participant's needs, preferences and goals.
We intentionally maintain small caseloads, giving our Navigators the capacity to understand each participant and remain actively involved when circumstances are complex.
Our team has experience working across disability, health, mental health, forensic, justice, guardianship, housing and other mainstream systems.
WIRU's Specialist Navigators are qualified Social Workers whose professional knowledge and experience inform the way Specialist Navigation is delivered.
Our team maintains professional membership and accreditation with the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), supporting a strong framework of professional ethics, accountability and ongoing professional development.
Our Navigators draw on Social Work knowledge in areas including:
systems navigation
advocacy
capacity building
safeguarding and risk awareness
psychosocial disability
trauma-responsive practice
complex case coordination
collaborative and interdisciplinary practice
person-centred and strengths-based practice
working across government and mainstream systems
At WIRU, Social Work is the professional foundation of our workforce. The NDIS service our team delivers is Specialist Navigation.
This distinction allows us to bring professional Social Work knowledge and ethical practice to navigation while maintaining a clear focus on the participant's NDIS goals and support needs.
One team. Shared professional standards.
Because of the nature of our work, including our involvement across forensic and community mental health and justice environments, we take the privacy of our team seriously.
Participants and referrers can have confidence that the Specialist Navigator working with them is part of a professionally supported Social Work team.
Hello, my name is Melissa Thompson.
I am a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara person from the APY Lands, and I now live in Adelaide.
I work with WIRU as a Cultural Consultant. WIRU supports Anangu people who may be going through difficult times, including people who are coming out of prison, people accessing the NDIS, and people who may be finding it hard to understand the systems around them.
My role is to talk with people, listen to them, and help them find a way forward.
This can be a very difficult space. There can be a lot of sadness, grief and confusion, and sometimes Anangu people may not know where to go or how to ask for help.
At WIRU, we want to listen to Anangu voices. We want Anangu people, and also non-Aboriginal people and other services, to understand that we are here to help make things clearer and support people through difficult situations.
I am making this video so that people know WIRU has an Anangu Cultural Consultant who can help when cultural support, understanding or connection is needed.
If you are an Anangu person who needs support, or you are from another agency and you are working through a difficult situation, you can make contact with us.
You can speak with me or with Susie, and we can talk together about a way forward.
We are here to listen, we are here to help, and we really want to support people.
Thank you.
We listen deeply, remain curious and make informed decisions grounded in professional knowledge and the participant's lived experience.
We work with honesty, transparency, professional accountability and respect.
We approach complexity, barriers and change with persistence, adaptability and a focus on finding pathways forward.
We believe better outcomes are achieved through collaboration. We work alongside participants and the people around them while keeping the participant's voice at the centre.
The NDIS is changing, and WIRU is preparing for what comes next.
From 1 July 2028, the Australian Government has announced that the NDIA will introduce a newly commissioned support coordination and connection service. Rather than support coordination being funded individually through participant plans, the NDIA will directly appoint providers through a merit-based process.
For WIRU, preparing for this change is not something that begins in 2028. It is part of how we operate today.
Our organisation is intentionally structured around the principles we believe will matter in the future of navigation: independence, professional capability, strong governance, quality and safeguarding, and the ability to work across complex service systems.
Built for independent navigation.
Specialist Navigation is the only NDIS service WIRU provides.We do not provide direct support work, accommodation or community participation services. This independence allows our Navigators to focus on participant choice, appropriate supports and effective coordination without competing interests from other WIRU disability services.
Professional capability for complex systems.
Our Specialist Navigators are qualified Social Workers, supported by a professional network of more than 30 qualified Social Workers across diverse areas of practice.Our experience across disability, health, hospitals, mental health, forensic and justice systems, guardianship, housing and other mainstream services positions our team to navigate circumstances where multiple systems intersect.
Preparing with purpose.
As the NDIS moves towards its new commissioned model, WIRU will continue strengthening our governance, professional workforce, quality systems, safeguarding practices and organisational capability.
Our intention is clear: to be ready to participate in the future merit-based commissioning process and continue providing high-quality navigation to people with complex support needs.
Until the new model commences, WIRU remains focused on delivering high-quality Specialist Navigation under current NDIS arrangements.
The system may be changing. Our purpose remains the same: independent, professional navigation that keeps the participant at the centre.
To read WIRU Community Health & Well-Being's Support Coordination Consultation Reform submission to the Department of Health, Disability & Ageing please click here.
Specialist Navigation across South Australia and Queensland.
Established in South Australia, WIRU now provides Specialist Navigation across:
South Australia Metropolitan, regional services and Remote Communities.
Queensland Brisbane, Southeast Queensland and selected regional areas.Face-to-face and remote service options are available depending on location and participant needs.
Looking for Specialist Navigation?
Whether you are a participant, family member, nominee, guardian or professional referrer, our team can help you understand whether WIRU is the right fit. To get started:
1. Contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110
2. Request a PACE Request for Service. Provide the NDIS with our details;
WIRU COMMUNITY HEALTH
AND WELL-BEING PTY LTD
Organisation ID 405 012 6847
Specialist Navigation is what we do.
Professional Social Work expertise is what informs how we do it.
Independent. Boutique. Focused on complexity.
Are you a Social Worker and need professional supervision?
Do you require Psychology, Counselling or
Social Work Supervision?
You can email us at hello@wiru.org
We're here to help. Get in touch with our team today.
Need our Specialist Support/Navigation Service?
Contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110 and request a PACE Request for Service
to WIRU COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELL-BEING PTY LTD using Organisation ID 405 012 6847
Acknowledgement of Country
WIRU Community Health & Well-Being acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognise the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country, culture and community.We are committed to culturally respectful, safe and inclusive practice across the communities we support.
Inclusive Practice
WIRU welcomes people of all backgrounds, cultures, identities and communities. We are committed to providing a respectful, inclusive and safe service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and LGBTIQA+ people.
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