At the time of our son turning 18, Geelong was about to become the first NDIS trial site. I'd been reading and hearing about for years, how he would move onto Futures For Young Adults funding once he was finished school. But with the NDIS about to be introduced, we found ourselves in la la land trying to navigate it all! Without boring you with details ( might save that for a future post) we found ourselves in the hands of a very enthusiastic NDIS planner.
A1 was attending a day program, three days per week. At the time it was to my knowledge, pretty much the only option post school. That was until our planning meeting. After a long chat and lots of things been written down, our planner looked up at me with excitement on his face. "You know you have 20 hours of one to one support. You do realise you don't have to use a day program? The possibilities are endless! You can employ support workers for your son. You can CHOOSE your own support workers..." And on he went. He filled my head with ideas. His enthusiasm was captivating. I came away feeling excited but nervous! The comfort and relative ease ( apart from the daily struggle to motivate A1 to attend) of having A1attend a day program, was... Comfortable! But it wasn't working
So began the thoughts of CHANGE, with all these new CHOICES.
"All it takes is faith and trust... And a little bit of pixie dust". I love Peter Pan.
How do you build an ordinary life? We started by listening to what A1 was talking about. He loves sport, in particular basketball and AFL. He loves going to the gym. He loves being one of the boys. He loves long drives in the car, listening to Taylor Henderson or Grease. He loves basketball and the social activity that goes along with it. We started to think about who might be suitable as support workers for A1. We drew on our local community resources and came up with three or four possibilities. Currently we have three fantastic support workers engaged, who work at various times with Andy, supporting him to live his ordinary life.
He actually came up with the idea himself that he could work at Basketball Geelong. First light bulb moment! So we contacted them, they embraced it. A1 works there every Wednesday afternoon as a volunteer, doing various tasks with the assistance of his support worker. A1 is also a player, assistant coach and committee member of our local basketball club. Most of his basketball involvement is supported by family, however on occasion we use one of his support workers to assist him to attend games etc. when family are unavailable. He has basketball commitments four nights a week! Plus Sunday training and committee meetings. This is of course, just one aspect of A1's life.
That's how we have started to build A1's ordinary life. Draw on the persons interests. Look for support workers who have mutual interests or attributes that will compliment the person with a disabilities goals and dreams. And start thinking outside the box! A1 is thriving with this lifestyle. His independence is growing daily as he now has the time to absorb life, rather than living life via the constraints of a structured program.
PS: it's not been all smooth sailing with the NDIS. But overall our experience has been a positive one.
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