List of South Australian organisations providing support to people with a disability

This is a list of organisations in South Australian providing support mainly to people with developmental disability and acquired disability, rather than disabilities arising from mental disorder. With the start of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) responsibility for services to people with disability has been taken on by the NDIS.

Support for children

Ted Mullighan QC, as Commissioner for the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry, noted that children with disabilities were generally supported by non-government agencies, the Government of South Australia facilitated residential and associated care by non-government agencies contributing funds and subsidies. However children and adolescents with disabilities were also placed and restrained in adult mental hospitals from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century. The State opened Lochiel Park Boys Training Centre in 1958 and the Strathmont Centre in March 1971. The report included 54 recommendations, intended to improve many aspects of children in care.^[1]^[2]

The Centre stayed open with dwindling resident numbers until 2020, after which Renewal SA announced plans to redevelop the Oakden and Gilles Plains areas.^[3]

Support for adults

List of organisations

Name	Precursor	Originally	Population focus	Regional focus	Started Incorporated	Service focus	Notes
Barkuma		Central Districts Mentally Handicapped Children's Association	People with intellectual disability, Autism, learning disability	Elizabeth, Holden Hill, Adelaide	1964 1967	1967–1981 Special School 1970 Sheltered Workshop and Day Training Centre 1975 Residential Care 1986 Project Employment (as Personnel Employment from 1989, Barkuma Employment in 2016) 1991 Disability Training Australia 2015 Registered NDIS provider
Bedford Phoenix Incorporated	1920 Civilian Tubercular and Cancer Comforts Fund 1943 South Australian Tuberculosis Association Incorporated 1945 Bedford Industries 1958 Phoenix Society						2010 merged with Heritage Industries (Mount Gambier)^[4] 2014 merged with Phoenix Society
CanDo Group Charities:
CanDo4Kids		South Australian Institution for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb (later Townsend House)
Deaf CanDo		Royal South Australian Deaf Society
Department for Communities and Social Inclusion Disability SA Earlier: 1879 – The Home for Incurables (1879–1981), became Julia Farr Centre (1981–1994), Julia Farr Services (1994–2006), Highgate Park (2006–present)^[5]^[6] 1958 Lochiel Park Boys' Training Centre^[7] 1971–2014 Strathmont Centre^[8]^[9] 1979–1989 Ru Rua Nursing Home (at Estcourt House from 1981)^[10]				Statewide			Government of South Australia Policy, planning, funding, intake and resource allocation
Heritage Industries							merged with Bedford Industries in 2010 (Mount Gambier)
Minda Inc
Novita Children's Services	Crippled Children's Committee (unincorporated)	Crippled Children's Association of South Australia	Children with disability and their families	Statewide	1939		Stopped providing institutional care in 1993 merged with scosa in 2019^[11]^[12]
Orana Incorporated		Mentally Retarded Children's Society
Phoenix Society							2014 merged with Bedford Industries
Royal Society for the Blind
scosa (Spastic Centres of South Australia Inc.)							Merged with Novita in 2019^[11]^[12]