Up to five residents live in each house, and the 24-hour activity-based approach is centred on active engagement, personal choice, control of one’s environment, and overall wellbeing. While routine helps organise daily life, the essence of life here is flexibility. Support is shaped by a willingness to respond to what each person wants, needs, and values.
Support at the Guildford Houses is provided around the clock, assisting residents with bathing, cleaning, dressing, daily routines, and meaningful activities, often linked to their NDIS goals. Mornings may follow a predictable rhythm of waking up, breakfast, and personal hygiene, but what happens next is guided by individual choice.
For some residents, this might mean going into the community, visiting family, attending a day program, or heading to the local RSL. For others, it may involve staying closer to home, enjoying gardening, sensory activities, grooming, or simply walking around the neighbourhood to support physical wellbeing.
Independence is fostered in meaningful and safe ways. This can include shopping for clothes, choosing personal items, or deciding how to spend each day. These everyday decisions are central to maintaining autonomy and dignity.
One of the most distinctive features available across the Guildford Houses is a collection of four themed sensory rooms. These rooms were designed in collaboration with specialists, with particular attention to who are blind or have complex sensory needs.
Each sensory room has its own theme. One is inspired by a rainforest, featuring tactile wall panels, varied textures, and calming sounds. Another explores underwater environments. The third is space-themed, offering a sense of expansiveness and wonder. The fourth evokes the sky, encouraging openness and calm. All these rooms include peaceful background music that matches the room themes.
Residents are encouraged to touch, explore, and interact with materials that are soothing and engaging. These rooms provide safe spaces for regulation, relaxation, or quiet sensory input. The focus is not on stimulation for its own sake, but on carefully designed experiences that respond to how individuals engage with the world.
A strong emphasis is placed on making each house feel personal rather than clinical. This is supported through a key worker model, where employees take time to understand each resident’s interests, preferences, communication style, and support needs.
This may involve helping someone choose music they enjoy in their bedroom, selecting clothes that suit their preferred colours and styles, or supporting daily choices about what to wear and how to spend time. These small decisions are powerful acts of empowerment.
Personal privacy and space are respected, and bedrooms are treated as each person’s individual domain, shaped by who they are. On average, each house has three team members per shift: one focused on medication and coordination, and two providing active support.
This team structure allows members to spend meaningful one-on-one time with residents, particularly when supporting community activities or day programs, enabling deeper relationships to form. While employment may change due to leave or illness, strong relationships with regular agency employees help maintain continuity.
Transparent handovers, shared knowledge, and teamwork ensure residents experience consistency despite team changes. Clinical leaders and employees are highly skilled in mental health, disability support, and person-centred care.
Each person has a detailed profile to support the team in understanding their health needs, communication styles, and emotional well-being. These profiles, alongside healthcare and behaviour support plans, help team to respond with insight and compassion.
Emotional health is treated as essential, not optional. Employees are encouraged to observe, recognise, and honour emotions such as grief, anxiety, and frustration, including for residents who are non-verbal. Naming and responding to emotions thoughtfully have led to less distress and greater trust.
People are encouraged to express themselves in whatever way works for them. Weekly house meetings provide residents with an opportunity to discuss meals, outings, and plans for the upcoming week.
Community access is available to everyone, from discos and holidays to bushwalking, fishing, clubs, and cultural or religious activities. Families play a vital role in life at Guildford Houses. Visits are welcomed, relationships are nurtured, and communication is proactive.
Families are kept informed through regular updates, planning meetings, and reviews. Strong safety, health, and risk management systems are in place. Medical and allied health appointments are organised through individual healthcare plans and overseen by key employees and clinical teams.
Emergency procedures, incident responses, and safeguarding practices are well-established, ensuring that risks are identified and addressed early. As residents age, attention shifts to ageing in place, including advance care planning and palliative care discussions, always led by the resident and their family.
What truly stands out at the Guildford Houses is not the systems or structures, but the culture. Residents are people first, with histories, preferences, emotions, and dreams.
Support here is not about controlling lives but about supporting them. At the Guildford Houses, home is not defined by walls or borders. Home is trust, dignity, and the freedom to live a life filled with meaning.