The Exceptional Needs Unit (ENU) is a multi-disciplinary team in the Department of Human Services.
The team works with systems and services to help support people and families who have multiple complex needs and risk factors. The ENU works with people and families who are facing barriers to accessing appropriate supports or who are struggling to get their complex needs well met by existing services.
Who we are
The Exceptional Needs Unit operates 3 distinct service delivery pathways:
- Exceptional Needs Response
- Care Service Pathway
- Specialist Family Support Pathways, including:
- early intervention support focused on keeping families together, for children with complex disability who are accessing the NDIS.
- non-resident disability support.
These service delivery pathways are supported by these business functions:
- ENU Business Services
- ENU Nunga Team.
What do we mean by exceptional needs?
Exceptional needs cannot be described in a single sentence, or in the same way for everyone who has exceptional needs.
However, people and families who have exceptional needs generally:
- have many needs
- are currently at risk, and
- require support from multiple services.
The services with which they are involved sometimes:
- cannot offer the right cultural approach
- cannot offer services in the right location
- struggle with collaborating and working with other services, or
- encounter needs and risk factors that cannot easily be met or managed.
A person with exceptional needs may:
- behave in ways that are very difficult to manage, and that threaten their own or others' safety
- have experience of complex trauma, including family violence, family breakdown and abuse (sexual, emotional, physical)
- live with disability and complex health problems that are often neglected
- be socially isolated
- have a history of homelessness and have been involved with the criminal justice system, including youth detention and prison.
Eligibility for ENU support
Eligibility for ENU support has 2 parts:
- a person and/or their family must be at risk or be a risk to others
- mainstream services must have been attempted and found to be ineffective, not helpful, inappropriate, or not coordinating and working together.
Eligibility cannot be described simply by a single set of statements or by a single set of circumstances or conditions. Each person and family’s eligibility is based on interconnected factors, and the careful consideration of a person and family’s issues and circumstances.
Each referral to the ENU is assessed by a senior clinical staff member, and eligibility for services is decided by an Intake Committee of the ENU’s leadership team.
The ENU also supports capacity building assistance across the sector, through training, information sharing and service navigation.
Getting support from the ENU
Referrals are accepted from organisations and services only, not from people or family members.
Email a summary of the issue and your contact details. Provide comprehensive information in relation to the person's or family’s circumstances, including what other services/supports have been explored.
The ENU is an inclusive and culturally safe service that welcomes referrals for clients of all cultures, disabilities, ethnicities, faiths, gender identities, sex characteristics and sexual orientations.
We will aim to respond to your enquiry via email or phone within 2 business days.
Contact
Phone 1300 208 589
Email dhs.exceptionalneeds@sa.gov.au
Emergencies
The ENU is not a crisis or emergency service. If life is in danger, phone 000 (triple zero) or contact emergency services.