Spear and Arrow director Chantelle Ryan discusses growth of business in Dubbo

Her one-year-old enterprise operating at The Exchange on Macquarie Street called Spear and Arrow specialises in assisting families, carers, and guardians of children and young adults with behaviour, learning, and developmental issues.

She plunged into forming her own company registered as a National Disability Agreement (NDA) service provider seeing an unprecedented need in western NSW where in some remote areas, the support service is virtually non-existent.

"The need for children's health services has grown while registered and qualified providers with specialised expertise in the services they offer are not enough," Mrs Ryan said.

"The need for our type of service is so huge even if there are mostly big organisations providing the same service.

"We find families are coming to us for the holistic and personalised services we offer to parents and caregivers."

In less than a year of opening the service in Dubbo, Mrs Ryan said many families and carers of children and young adults diagnosed with different disabilities enroll in various behaviour therapeutic support programs that her company offers.

It was no surprise, her company grew from two staff run from her home to 18 support workers fully trained as support workers on children's health.

The growth in the company's services in the region also prompted them to move their workplace to The Exchange.

"Clinicians work on a tremendous amount of caseloads and often their support workers on the ground change from week to week," Mrs Ryan said.

"But we make a difference with our support workers working with families and what suited their situations ..to us they are not numbers.

"We are a values-based organisation and we uphold [that type of personalised support] every single time working with families [participating in the NDA]."

The families enrolled in Mrs Ryan's support program include children and young adults with physical and intellectual disabilities, particularly autism and trauma.

"There are a lot of cases of autism diagnosis added with a layer of diagnoses such as language and speech delay and mental health.

"I think we have also underestimated the impact of COVID on our children with flow-on effect two years on," she added.

"Many kids did not get the services they need due to the lockdowns and though many [from remote areas] went to Telehealth, it did not suit other families."

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Mrs Ryan worked for over 20 years as a teacher and a developmental learning advisor for the NSW Department of Education, assisted children at Mian School in Dubbo, and social welfare for children and youth.

With a ballooning number of families registered for disability support services in regional areas, Mrs Ryan said it was no surprise Spear and Arrow's services are sought particularly outside the Dubbo area, in rural towns where many families seek help.

"The warrant for services in rural and remote towns is big, we have participants who have moved out of town but we continued providing the service by employing [a local staff] so she retains the connection with us," Mrs Ryan said.

"If we go further west of Dubbo, there are virtually no services out there.

"Some families may not have the technology [to consult by Telehealth] depending on their socio-economic status ... they're desperate for support."

More than 26,000 people under the age of 65 have registered last year alone to receive government subsidised services under the reformed National Disability Agreement, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme superseded by the NDA this year has over 260,000 current users from across the country.

To find out more about Spear and Arrow, click here.