Psychosocial Recovery Coach: What They Do, Rates and How to Get One

What does a psychosocial recovery coach do?

A recovery coach works with you on your recovery goals. The NDIS says the aim is more choice and control, more connection to your community and more job opportunities. Depending on what you want, a coach can:

• Coach you to build skills, capacity and resilience.
• Help you find, plan and organise your supports, and link you with health and mental health services outside the NDIS.
• Help you stay engaged with your supports through times when you need more help.
• Work with the people around you, such as family, your treating team and providers, if you want them to.
• Help you start your plan, including your plan implementation meeting, if you don't have a support coordinator.
• Help you change your plan if your needs change, including asking for a plan variation.

Recovery coaching builds your capacity. Coaches don't provide core supports for daily living, like personal care, or for community, social and recreational activities: those come from other parts of your plan. A coach doesn't replace your doctor or mental health team either, but can help you link in with them. The NDIS explains the role on its What is a recovery coach page.

Who can get a recovery coach? Psychosocial disability and the NDIS

Recovery coaching is generally funded for NDIS participants with a psychosocial disability. That's the NDIS term for a disability that may come from a mental health condition. Having a mental health condition isn't enough on its own: to join the NDIS, your impairment must be permanent, or likely to be, and substantially reduce your ability in one or more of these areas:

• communicating
• socialising
• learning
• moving around
• looking after yourself
• managing your life

You also need to be younger than 65 when you apply. Our NDIS mental health support guide covers eligibility and the other supports the NDIS can fund, and our NDIS eligibility checker walks you through the requirements.

Changes from 2028. Nothing changes about how people join the NDIS until 1 January 2028. From then, new applicants will have a standard assessment of their functional capacity, and the NDIA will consider whether appropriate treatment has been tried. People already on the NDIS will be reassessed over 3 years.

Not eligible for the NDIS? The Commonwealth Psychosocial Support Program gives short-term help to people with severe mental health challenges who aren't getting similar support from the NDIS or a state service. It runs through your local Primary Health Network. To find services near you, call Medicare Mental Health on 1800 595 212 (weekdays, 8:30am to 5pm).

How to get a recovery coach in your NDIS plan

1. 1

   Talk to your my NDIS contact

   That's your local area coordinator, early childhood partner or NDIA planner. If you have a support coordinator, they can help too.

2. 2

   Explain what you need and why

   Talk about your recovery goals and how your psychosocial disability affects your daily life. The NDIA looks at reports from your doctors and other treating professionals, so share any you have.

3. 3

   The NDIA decides the hours

   Your hours are based on your needs. Your planner or LAC works out with you how many you'd need, and the NDIA approves the plan.

4. 4

   Choose your coach

   Talk to two or more coaches if you can. Once recovery coaching is in your plan, your NDIA planner can send a request for service to the coach you choose.

5. 5

   Ask for a change if your needs change

   If your needs or circumstances change in a significant and ongoing way, you, your plan nominee or your guardian can ask for an unscheduled reassessment, and the NDIA has up to 90 days to decide. In a crisis or emergency, ask for a plan variation.

Not sure who your contact is? See how to find your local area coordinator. Getting ready for a planning meeting? Use our planning meeting checklist.

Which NDIS budget pays for a recovery coach?

Your NDIS plan has up to four support budgets: Core, Capacity Building, Capital and Recurring. Recovery coaching is a Capacity Building support. It sits in the support category called Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches, category 07 on the NDIS price list, which also pays for support coordination.

• Six price items, one for each time. Items 07_101_0106_6_3 to 07_106_0106_6_3 cover weekday daytime, evening and night, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.
• One employment item. Item 10_101_0106_6_3, recovery coaching for employment on a weekday daytime, is in the Finding and Keeping a Job category, also part of Capacity Building, at the same price.
• Funding stays in its category. Capacity Building funding can't be moved between support categories, and Core funding can't be moved into Capacity Building, so recovery coaching needs funding in the right category of your plan.
• How your plan is managed matters. If your funding is NDIA-managed, your coach must be a registered provider. If it's self-managed or plan-managed, you can usually choose a registered or unregistered coach. See NDIS plan management.

More on how budgets work: NDIS funding categories explained.

How much does a psychosocial recovery coach charge per hour?

These are the most a recovery coach can charge per hour in 2026-27. Coaches can charge less but not more, and the limits apply if your plan is NDIA-managed or plan-managed.

• Remote and very remote limits are 40% and 50% higher. They apply in areas rated remote (MMM 6) or very remote (MMM 7) on the Modified Monash Model.
• As a guide, 2 hours a week of weekday daytime coaching for a year (52 weeks) costs up to $11,485.76 at the national limit.
• The price list also has items for a coach's non-labour travel costs and activity-based transport. Ask what they charge for travel and put it in your service agreement.
• Prices can change. The Minister's first pricing determination, on 24 September 2026, kept the limits that applied from 1 July 2026. The schedule is due to be updated later in 2026, and the government is consulting on different limits for registered and unregistered providers, which the NDIA recommended start on 1 January 2027.

Compare other rates in our NDIS price guide, or read the official NDIS pricing arrangements.

Recovery coach vs support coordinator: can you have both?

Usually it's one or the other. Coordination is part of a recovery coach's role, so the NDIA generally won't fund both in the same plan. In limited cases it may fund both at once. Then the support coordinator looks after the NDIS side, the coach focuses on recovery planning and coaching, and they agree a clear plan so they don't double up.

More on what an NDIS support coordinator does.

Do recovery coaches need lived experience or qualifications?

Lived experience isn't required. You can choose a lived experience recovery coach, who uses their own experience of mental ill health and recovery in their work, or a coach with learned experience, depending on who's available near you.

Under the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, recovery coaching must be delivered by a worker who has at least one of:

• a Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work, a Certificate IV in Mental Health, or an equivalent tertiary qualification in a related field
• at least two years of demonstrated professional experience in mental health related work.

It's fine to ask any coach about their qualifications and experience before you choose.

How to become a psychosocial recovery coach

1. 1

   Get the qualification or experience

   You need a Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work or Mental Health, an equivalent tertiary qualification in a related field, or at least two years of professional experience in mental health related work.

2. 2

   Get an NDIS Worker Screening Check

   You need one for a risk-assessed role with a registered provider, and unregistered providers and self-managed participants can require one too. Apply to the worker screening unit in your state or territory. A check lasts up to 5 years and is recognised nationally.

3. 3

   Do the NDIS Worker Orientation Module

   The NDIS Commission's free online course, Quality, safety and you, explains your obligations under the NDIS Code of Conduct.

4. 4

   Work for a provider or set up your own

   Join a provider that offers recovery coaching, or work for yourself as a registered or unregistered provider. Every NDIS provider and worker must follow the NDIS Code of Conduct. If you work for yourself, you must be registered to support participants whose funding is NDIA-managed.

5. 5

   Plan for the changes ahead

   Most providers will need to enrol with the NDIA from 1 July 2027, and the new Support Coordination and Connection service from 1 July 2028 may change how recovery coaching is delivered.

Apply for a check through the NDIS Commission's worker screening page and start the Worker Orientation Module. Read more about the NDIS Worker Screening Check and NDIS provider registration.

Already coaching? Help Alliance sends providers requests that match their services and area, with no fee per request and no contract, and the first 14 days are free. See how it works for providers.

How to find a psychosocial recovery coach

• Ask for help. Your support coordinator or my NDIS contact can help you find a coach.
• Search for registered providers. The NDIS Provider Finder searches registered providers by suburb or postcode. See how to use the NDIS Provider Finder.
• Talk to two or more coaches. Ask yourself whether they're easy to talk to and listen well. Ask them about lived experience, qualifications, when they can start and what they charge, including travel.
• Get it in writing. Agree hours, prices and how to cancel in a service agreement.

Finding a coach with room is often the hard part. Help Alliance is a free, independent matching service: tell us what you need once, and providers near you who can start get in touch. You choose who to go with.

Psychosocial recovery coach questions