About Our Mobile Disability Therapy Experts
NDIS registered exercise physiology, dietetics and physiotherapy
Active Ability offer mobile exercise physiology, dietetics and physiotherapy services throughout Sydney, Wollongong and the Sunshine Coast.
Our experienced and dedicated team of professionals focus on working with people with intellectual disability, neurological conditions and mental health concerns. We have helped hundreds of people achieve better health, functional independence and quality of life.
We are committed to providing an exceptional standard of care and excellent value for money.
The Active Ability difference
We are a mobile NDIS allied health provider
Our team of friendly, expert health professionals come to you, so you can have therapy in the comfort and convenience of your own environment. Save time, energy and money, and reap the benefits of doing therapy in a practical, meaningful context.
No waiting lists
Active Ability don’t have wait lists, so you can get started with your NDIS therapy straight away.
No travel charges
We don’t charge for travel, so your funding is saved for what matters most – supporting you to achieve your therapy goals.
Expert, friendly and caring team
Our energetic therapists are highly skilled, experienced and dedicated to working with people with disability and complex health conditions.
Choose Active Ability and start your journey towards greater health and independence
How Active Ability can help you
Since 2014, Active Ability have been supporting people with disability to feel better, gain independence and enjoy improved quality of life.
We provide a tailored, personalised approach to therapy that focuses on your needs and goals. Our multidisciplinary, evidence-based, best practice methods optimise the results you can achieve with your NDIS plan.
With more than 20 years of combined experience, Active Ability’s directors Kara Foscholo and Amanda Semaan lead an innovative and dedicated team of healthcare professionals. We have a rare breadth of disability specific knowledge and experience that helps us achieve great results.
Active Ability have supported more than 2000 people towards living better lives. You can read about some of them on our client stories page.
We’d be honoured to help you, too.
Get started with Active Ability by completing our NDIS referral form or get in touch on (02) 8678 7874.
For support coordinators and plan managers
At Active Ability, we have established many positive, supportive and collaborative partnerships with NDIS support coordinators and plan managers.
Our experience, knowledge and best practice approach means you can have confidence your clients will receive the highest standards of care.
We are committed to making your job easy by:
- offering a multidisciplinary, evidence-based and innovative therapy approach
- communicating in a timely, regular and helpful manner
- efficiently managing service agreements
- timely reporting, often providing reports before being asked
- our ability to see any client, in any location, with no wait time
- our capacity to always take on new clients
- providing great value for money (no travel charges)
- being reliable, accountable and easy to work with
- carefully selecting our staff to ensure they have the knowledge and passion for working with people with disability
- being available to answer questions and offer creative solutions for challenging or complex cases.
Much of our work comes through word of mouth and referrals from happy support coordinators.
To discuss how we can help you, get in touch with us today.
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Our locations
At Active Ability, we know the best way to embed healthy, sustainable physical activity and nutritional changes into your daily life is by providing support in your own environment. As a mobile company, with NO travel charge, we can provide services in your home, backyard, day program or local park, pool, gym or grocery store (or a combination). It’s completely up to you!
Active Ability is a mobile allied health provider.
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Our services
Active Ability is an NDIS registered, dedicated disability allied health company. We have significant experience supporting people with intellectual disability, mental illness and neurological conditions build capacity and reach their life goals.
Our team are experts at what we do:
- liaising with support coordinators, families, house staff and day programs
- helping our clients achieve the best results by collaborating with other allied health service providers
- training informal and formal supports to achieve the best outcomes for our participants.
Find out more
Exercise Physiology
Physiotherapy
Dietetics
we come to you | no travel charge | no wait list
Active Ability’s Core Values
Compassion
Integrity
Dedication
People Focused
More about Active Ability
Amanda Semaan and Kara Foscholo share a passion for supporting people with disability to achieve improved health, function and quality of life. This became evident when they first met at the University of Sydney in 2009 while studying their Masters of Exercise Physiology. After graduation, they provided exercise physiology support for a research project exploring different types of exercise for adults with intellectual disability.
The project aimed to improve participants’ independence by training and educating their support people. Titled “Embedding sustainable physical activities into the everyday lives of adults with intellectual disabilities: a randomised controlled trial”, it assessed the benefits, barriers and successes of different exercise interventions.
During three years on this project, Amanda and Kara saw firsthand the amazing benefits of regular physical activity for the project participants’ function, health and wellbeing, independence, quality of life and confidence when mobilising in the community.
They collaborated again at ADHC Metro Residences, providing exercise interventions for adults with intellectual disability. Their objectives included improved mobility, strength, management of metabolic conditions and falls prevention. It involved close collaboration with allied health colleagues (psychologists, physiotherapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and music therapists) for the benefit of residents.
Amanda and Kara supported all residents’ successful transition into new community homes prior to Metro Residences’ closure, through training of their new house support staff.
During this time, Kara developed expertise in providing exercise physiology support for people with neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, muscular dystrophy and chronic fatigue syndrome. Using exercise as therapy, she became adept at prescribing activity to impact the debilitating fatigue caused by many illnesses.
Her focus on increasing daily stamina and mobility and managing spasticity and contractures saw her clients achieve improved energy, mood, walking and strength, plus decreased occurrence of falls. This translated to greater independence and ability to participate in work, home and lifestyle activities that others take for granted.
Meanwhile, Amanda was focusing on building her expertise in the mental health sector. She has experience supporting people with complex mental health diagnoses use exercise for managing their health and wellbeing, across both hospital and community settings.
Amanda is passionate about educating people on the benefits of exercise for mental health symptoms such as depression, thought blocking, motivation, sleep quality and fatigue levels, plus general health and wellbeing. She delivers a lecture series on exercise for mental health conditions to exercise physiology students at the University of Sydney. Read more in her publication on the role of exercise physiology in the support of mental health consumers.
In 2014, with the NDIS rollout imminent and many previous clients requesting their services, Amanda and Kara founded Active Ability. Their purpose is to provide people with disability access to high quality, expert allied health services to support achieving their health, wellbeing and functional goals.
To do this most effectively, Active Ability expanded to provide dietetic and physiotherapy services along with exercise physiology. The team now includes more than 30 skilled and passionate clinicians ready to support you or your participants.
Active Ability has supported over 1,000 people to achieve their goals through use of their NDIS funding.
Find out more about how we can help you, too.