Meet Kym McMinn - Founder of T & K Support Services

At the heart of T & K Support Services is a simple but powerful belief: people are more than their diagnosis.

Behind that belief is founder Kym McMinn, whose journey into support work was shaped not just by professional experience, but by family, lived experience, and an unwavering commitment to doing things differently.

A Calling Shaped by Life, Not Just Career

For Kym, support work didn’t begin with a job title - it began with how she was raised.

Her early career started in education support at the Western Autistic School, where she saw firsthand that inclusion isn’t just something written in policy - it’s something lived every day.

From there, she moved into community support work and aged care while studying nursing, gaining practical, real-world insight into people’s lives beyond clinical environments.

Kym then spent more than 15 years working as a nurse across health, mental health, aged care, and dementia care. Through those roles, she witnessed both the best and the most challenging aspects of care systems.

“I saw care delivered incredibly well,” Kym explains, “but I also saw how systems can unintentionally cause harm when pressure, risk, and paperwork take over.”

Her perspective deepened further through her lived experience as a parent navigating complex mental health systems with her own child - an experience that ultimately shaped the foundation of T & K Support Services.

Building Something That Didn’t Exist

Unlike most leaders in the sector, Kym didn’t join T & K- she created it.

T & K Support Services was built to address a gap she saw too often: people labelled “too complex” and left cycling through services that couldn’t provide long-term, consistent support.

“I wanted to create a service grounded in identity before diagnosis, relationships over rigid models, and long-term commitment - even when progress is slow, messy, or uncomfortable.”

Today, that philosophy remains at the core of everything T & K does.

Experience, Leadership, and Lived Understanding

Kym brings an extensive and deeply personal background to her work, including experience in education support, community services, aged care, and over 15 years of nursing across multiple sectors.

Her upbringing also played a significant role in shaping her values. Her mother worked in family day care and early childhood education, creating a home environment filled with care, connection, and responsibility for others. Her father modelled compassion in action, teaching that supporting others wasn’t about recognition - it was simply about doing what was right.

Her sister’s work supporting disadvantaged children and those with additional needs further reinforced the importance of advocacy, persistence, and inclusion.

Combined with her lived experience as a parent, these influences made the creation of T & K not just a career move - but a responsibility.

What Drives Her Work Today

Kym’s work is guided by values that prioritise identity, dignity, and trust.

“People don’t need fixing,” she says. “They need safety, time, and someone willing to stay long enough for trust to grow.”

She is particularly passionate about supporting people living with mental health challenges, psychosocial disability, trauma, complex behaviours, and those navigating multiple systems, including justice and health.

Her strengths lie in staying calm during crisis, building trust where it’s been broken, and holding a long-term vision, even when progress isn’t immediate.

What she values most are the quiet, often unseen wins.

“The honesty. The trust. The moments where someone feels safe enough to try again. Those things don’t show up on spreadsheets, but they matter most.”

Life Outside of T & K

Outside of work, Kym finds joy in family time, travelling, caravanning, live music, and cooking for loved ones - often in what she describes as a “slightly chaotic kitchen.”

She enjoys road trips, concerts, and being a proud roadie for her musician husband. Her taste in music spans everything from pop to heavy rock, and she prefers confronting true-crime documentaries over traditional movies.

When asked coffee or tea, her answer is simple: neither - Coke

Looking to the Future

As T & K continues to grow, Kym’s focus remains clear: protecting the heart of the organisation while building a strong, values-driven workforce.

She hopes to continue creating a service where participants, families, and staff feel safe, respected, and supported - and where compassion and accountability exist side by side.

Her vision is not just to grow T & K, but to help redefine what support can look like when it is truly human.

“Support should be honest, relational, and grounded in trust,” she says. “And it should never lose sight of the person at the centre of it all.”