Chapters
Planning your supports
Introduction
When you think about the help you need to make your living situation work, there are different options available:
Paid supports – these are the people and/or services that you pay to help you. They could be disability-specific supports or mainstream services that you use to assist you, like a cleaner or taxi driver.
Natural supports – these are the people who freely give their time to help you. They may be friends, family or members of the community.
Technology and tools – in some cases the support you need doesn’t have to come directly from a person or organisation. Often, technology can be used to mitigate risk or facilitate independence. Technology can also be used alongside the paid supports you are receiving to create efficiencies or oversight of the situation.
Paid vs natural supports
It is important to consider the different roles of paid and natural supports in your daily life. While there might be many parts of your week that need to be assisted by paid supports, it can be easy to default to that without realising there could be members of your community happy to fulfil that role in a natural capacity.
By identifying (or seeking out) natural support, you may be able to free up some of your budget, which would enable you to focus your paid supports where they have the greatest impact.
Finding values-aligned supports
It is important that the people who are part of your paid support team know what a good life means to you. The quality of the support you get increases if you bring people into your world who understand what you want and have the skills and approach you need to make it happen.
Before rushing in to hire your paid supports, make sure you are clear on what it is you are trying to achieve. Having this outlined from the start will make it easier to identify those people who have both the necessary skills and the deeper understanding of your values.
‘With me’ vs ‘For me’
Knowing the kind of people you want providing your paid support is vital. This ensures that you get people with the approach that is right for your situation.
While some roles are transactional and task-focused, others are very much about coaching and supporting you to learn to do things on your own. The right person for a coaching or support role will be very different from someone who is there to complete a list of chores.
One way to think about this is to ask yourself: do I want someone to do things with me, or for me?
- ‘With me’ applies to things you do because you enjoy them or because you want or need to grow your skill in that area.
- ‘For me’ applies to tasks you don’t want to do at this time, or that you are prepared to pay for someone else to do.
Many people use the generic terms ‘Support Worker’ or ‘Caregiver’ to describe their paid support staff; however, using different job titles will help you to be clear about the kind of help you are looking for. For example:
- A coach or cooking companion will do things with you.
- A cleaner or driver will do things for you.
Having a clear distinction here will help when it comes to building an effective roster, writing job descriptions and advertising the role(s).
Planning for risk
Many people focus on occasional risk when planning to move out of home. They build a roster around worst-case scenarios (e.g. burglars, fires), and often this means they need to compromise on the amount of support they have available for skill-building and community engagement.
Note: If this is a factor in planning your support, it might help to look at technology to keep you safe (see Exploring technology for your independence - Stage 2, Chapter 8).
There is no one right way to manage the balance of risk vs growth, but it is important to realise that the daily impact of rostering for a worst-case scenario (which might never happen) may come at the cost of growth or positive change.
Rostering for safety
If you always need someone with you for safety, be sure to factor that carefully into your planning so you’re not left alone if someone is late or sick. While no systems are perfect, having cross-over between shifts, knowing people in your local area, and having technology as a back-up can be valuable.
Maximising impact
Structuring your supports in the way that gets the best possible outcome for you can make a big difference in the long term. Prioritising where you put your paid support resources is key, so keep in mind what you are trying to achieve with your change in living situation.
Some ways that people organise their support for maximum impact include:
- Sharing some or all of their support with another disabled person
- Using technology to provide some support or back-up
- Utilising services to complete tasks they find hard – e.g. cleaners, drivers, cooks
- Living with someone who provides some kind of support or back-up
- Creative or efficient rostering of paid support staff
- Fostering strong relationships with neighbours
- Utilising volunteers or mainstream community services
Sharing paid supports
It is reasonably common for multiple disabled people to live together and share some or all of their paid support. This can be a great option because it usually enables each person to have access to more support hours in their week. However, it can also make things more complex.
If you end up sharing some/all of your paid support, then it is valuable to consider a few key questions:
- Who will be the employer? (If you are employing through Individualised Funding, this is especially complex as one employee may not want two or more employers. If you are using a provider, or multiple providers, then it is important you work through these details with them.)
- How have you divided up tasks and costs? (It helps to have a clear agreement about what tasks will be done with whom, and when.)
- Think about some ‘what ifs’, then make a plan before it happens.
For example:
- What if one person is sick and doesn’t need their half of a shift?
- What if one person’s needs change temporarily or permanently?
- What if one of you like your shared support person but the other person doesn’t?
Using staff from an organisation
If you are going to have a support service involved in your paid supports, ask them specific questions before you commit to them providing your support. For example:
- What does recruitment and training look like for your paid support staff?
- Will a paid support person be hired specifically to work with you, or be shared across many people?
- What is the process if you don’t like the paid support person working with you?
- How do you cover when paid support staff are sick? How often can you not find cover?
- What if you need to change your roster or cancel a shift?
Where to start
Plan your supports
There are many ways to shape your supports depending on the details of your specific situation. The scenarios below give a few examples of how different supports can be applied. Taking time to consider your own priorities is an important step in building a customised plan for your new living situation.
Next steps
- Read through the example scenarios below
- Use the worksheet below to map out the different kinds of support you need
Scenarios
Louis
Louis has a part-time job and chronic fatigue. When he gets home, he doesn’t want to cook dinner or do any housework as he is tired. This used to cause conflict with his flatmate as Louis wasn’t doing his jobs on the flat roster. Louis now does meal preparation with his paid support person on Sunday mornings and meals are put in the freezer ready to be reheated on the nights he is responsible for cooking dinner. The housework roster was renegotiated so Louis is now responsible for paying for a cleaner to come in once a week to do the weekly tasks for him.
Mele and Vaea
Mele and Vaea are cousins who lived with their grandmother all their lives. They have continued to live in the family home after she passed away. Both women have Individualised Funding and a team of paid supports come in for two hours every morning to keep the household rhythms going. Each woman is invoiced for one hour per day. They contract paid supports who share their culture and support them to cook their favourite recipes.
George
George is the lead tenant of the flat he shares with Paul, someone he met when he advertised for a flatmate online. George and Paul have a boarder agreement that 1) outlines what the general expectations are for living in the flat, and 2) details what each man will contribute to their shared household.
George also sought legal advice and set up an employment agreement with Paul to provide paid support with laundry and medications – two things that George is not yet completely independent with. This keeps Paul’s dual roles of flatmate and paid support clearly defined.
Worksheets
‘With me’ vs ‘For me’
Use this worksheet to outline the different supports you need over the course of a week. Consider which parts are transactional (such as a list of tasks/chores), and which require a level of partnership and/or collaboration.
