Exploring your 'good life'

Introduction

The purpose of Moving Out is to support you in your journey towards a new living situation. More than simply finding a place to live, this process is about making decisions that reflect and support who you are and the life you want to lead.

This chapter focuses on the reasons you are seeking to change your living situation and the underlying values that will shape your decisions throughout this journey.

Enabling Good Lives

Enabling Good Lives is a set of best-practice principles that are used to guide positive change for people with disabilities, their families, communities and governance structures.

While all stages of Moving Out reflect the principles of Enabling Good Lives, they are particularly relevant for Stage 1 – Preparing for Change where you will define what it is you are trying to achieve with this change in living situation.

Enabling Good Lives recognises that what a ‘good life’ looks like will be different for everyone, and that in building a life for yourself (or supporting someone else to do so), all decisions should be grounded in, and aligned with, your preferences, strengths, aspirations and needs.

This means that decisions about what your new living situation might look like should first be defined by the values and priorities of what a ‘good life’ looks like for you.

What does ‘exploring your good life’ mean?

Exploring your good life is about figuring out what makes life meaningful and fulfilling for you and then making choices that are aligned with those things. Everyone’s ‘good life’ is different, and the journey is shaped by many decisions and steps along the way.

A change in living situation can be a significant part of creating a life that reflects who you are and how you want to live. So, before you commit to any decisions, it is important to measure the options against your vision for what you are trying to achieve. This chapter is focused on helping you understand your long-term goals to enable you to communicate these clearly with the people on your support team. This clarity will help you navigate the journey together and guide you when you are faced with tricky decisions.  

Understanding the importance of ‘home’

‘Home’ is so much more than just the place you live. It has the power to impact all areas of life, from physical and emotional wellbeing, to relationships, connections with your community, and your sense of identity and self-expression.

Before you get too far into exploring what a new living situation could look like, it is important to take a step back to identify what factors are going to have the greatest impact for you.

Some factors you may want to consider include:

• Physical space – how does the physical space affect your feeling of comfort in your home (e.g. light, sound, accessibility or green spaces)?
  

• People – how do the people you live with and/or the people that visit your home impact your feeling of comfort in your home? For example, do you enjoy a social atmosphere, or prefer only a few trusted people in your space?
  

• Routines – how do you prefer the daily routines of your home to be set up? This could include chores or the general rhythm of the household (e.g. mealtimes, morning/evening routines).
  

• Culture, values or personality traits – how do you like to express yourself and what are the things that are most important to you that you want reflected in your home?
  

• Disability supports – how do your disability supports impact your home? Are there services, people or routines that align with how you want your home to be?

Once you have a clear understanding of these priorities, share these with your support team so that they understand what you are trying to achieve and can support you in making it a reality.  

Reasons for change

It is important to think about what is motivating you to consider a change in living situation. There may be internal factors, such as your own goals or need for change, or there may be external considerations, like a change in family situation or finances.  

Whatever your reasons are, they will likely be impacting how you feel about the journey ahead. How you feel can make a difference in whether a change in living situation is successful or sustainable, so it is important to talk with the people supporting you about how this change is going to affect your life.  

Often, your reasons for change will also define how urgently things need to happen. Knowing what your timeline is and how that affects other parts of your life should be a central part of your planning.

Your values, culture and beliefs

Sharing your values, culture and beliefs can be a great way to talk through the things that are important to you and how they shape your day-to-day life. It can be helpful to write these down so that they can be clearly communicated to the people who are helping you make decisions about your future.  

For example, if your religion has a strong influence on how you want your home to be, who you might live with and what you do with your days, then sharing that with your support team can help ensure they hold these principles in their mind when assisting you through this process.

Planning for the future

While a change in living situation is not a permanent commitment, it is a step towards your future. It can be valuable to consider a longer-term plan and how the decisions you make today might impact or create opportunities for your decisions several years down the track. This is often called goal planning, and there are three ways to approach the task:

• Self-directed goal planning – taking time to write out your goals, what is important to you and what you think you want the future to look like for you.  
  If imagining your future feels challenging, it can be useful to consider different timeframes such as one, five and ten years from now. There are many frameworks for goal planning, but looking at SMART goals or Te Whare Tapa Whā can be good places to start.  
  

• Goal planning that is built into other services – most government-funded disability supports require some kind of goal-planning process, e.g. during Individual Education Plans at school, Needs Assessment Service Coordination (NASC) assessments or Support Work services.
  
  Note: goal planning that is built into other services will sometimes have a very specific focus that may not include your living situation. If this is the case, you can use your learnings from the process to look more specifically at your living situation with your support team.
  

• Specialist goal-planning services – There are some specialised services that help disabled people plan for their futures (e.g. Flying Kites). These services are not usually government funded but can provide you with an in-depth goal-planning process that is tailored to your preferences and your needs.  
  

Many people with disabilities have been through various forms of supported goal and/or life planning by the time they are approaching adulthood. It can be valuable to reflect on which (if any) have worked well for you and utilise that as the basis for how you might consider this thinking.

Regardless of which method you use, it is important that you plan for the things that will make your life great, both now and in the future.  

Practical considerations

When planning for your future, it is essential to consider the practicalities that are going to make your plans achievable and sustainable. These might include:

• financial sustainability

• the disability supports you need to have in place

• the personal and holistic support you will need from others

Balancing these practicalities with your vision for your new home will be key to ensuring this new living situation is aligned with your ‘good life’.

Note: If you receive disability supports from ACC or Disability Support Services through your NASC services, they have probably undertaken an assessment of the support they think you need. Reviewing the documentation of this assessment is a good way to get a high-level holistic overview of your support needs and your skills.

‘The support you have’ vs ‘The help you need’

For some people it can be difficult to take a step back from their current situation to think about the help they might need in a new environment, particularly when that could look different to the supports they currently have in place.

There are two important things to consider when planning your disability-related supports:

• the skills and strengths you bring to this journey

• the areas where you need help and support.

Taking the time to consider how you can achieve a balance between the two will help when it comes to making critical decisions throughout this journey.  

Temporary supports during the transition

Moving can be disruptive to your routines and many people find that they struggle to complete tasks that were previously part of their usual routine. Putting additional support in place during the transition period is often helpful; however, having a plan for how that support will be phased out once you are settled is also important for maintaining your skills and independence.

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Where to start

Define your values and priorities

When planning for a change in living situation, one of the first and most important tasks you can do is to communicate your values and priorities to your support team. By sharing the things that matter to you the most, your core supporters will be better able to help you towards achieving your goals.

Create a vision for your future

There are many decisions you will make as you plan for a change in living situation. By having a longer-term plan in place before you start, you will be able to make intentional choices that take you closer to achieving your long-term vision.

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Next steps

1. Read through the example scenarios below.

2. Use the ‘Define your values and priorities’ worksheet to create a broad picture of your values, priorities and your vision for your new home.

3. Decide whether you will be creating your own long-term plan or utilising the services of an external provider. If you are creating a self-directed plan, use the ‘Create a vision for your future’ worksheet to create a vision of what you want your life to look like in the future.