Michelle Howell

With a Bachelors of Nursing, Michelle Howell is an experienced Registered Nurse and Advanced Behaviour Support Practitioner with extensive expertise supporting individuals with complex needs across both hospital and community settings.

Throughout her career, Michelle has worked closely with participants, families, support teams, and multidisciplinary professionals to develop practical, person-centred strategies that improve quality of life, reduce risk, and promote positive outcomes. Her extensive frontline experience has provided her with a deep understanding of the challenges faced by participants with complex behavioural, psychosocial, and health-related needs, as well as the operational and compliance challenges experienced by NDIS providers supporting them.

Michelle is widely recognised for her expertise within the NDIS Behaviour Support sector, particularly in the areas of Behaviour Support Plans, restrictive practices, implementation strategies, and regulatory compliance. She possesses a comprehensive understanding of both NDIS Commission requirements and State-based authorisation processes relating to restrictive practices, enabling her to provide practical guidance to providers operating within one of the most scrutinised and high-risk areas of the disability sector.

As NDIStress’s Behaviour Support and Nursing Care Specialist, Michelle works with providers to strengthen their understanding of behaviour support obligations, reduce organisational risk, and ensure supports are delivered in a manner that is both compliant and genuinely person-centred. She assists providers to navigate complex situations involving restrictive practices, behaviour support implementation, incident management, safeguarding requirements, and quality service delivery.

With increasing regulatory focus from the NDIS Commission on restrictive practices, behaviour support implementation, and participant safeguarding, Michelle provides providers with the confidence and practical knowledge required to navigate these evolving expectations. Her ability to translate complex compliance requirements into practical, real-world solutions makes her a highly valued resource for organisations seeking to improve both quality and compliance outcomes.

Michelle’s approach is grounded in professional integrity, clinical expertise, and a genuine commitment to improving the lives of the people supported by the NDIS. She is passionate about helping providers build services that are safe, ethical, effective, and responsive to the needs of participants, while ensuring organisations remain well-equipped to manage the significant risks and responsibilities associated with complex support environments.

Through her work with NDIStress, Michelle helps providers develop the systems, knowledge, and confidence needed to deliver high-quality supports while navigating one of the most important and rapidly evolving areas of the NDIS landscape.