It all started with the fourth piece in our confusion-clearing and myth-busting series about the NDIS: ‘Is it true that self management means hiring all my workers?’ We received great responses to this piece, and asked one commenter, Ellen Fraser-Barbour, to write a guest blog post based on her thoughts and concerns around the new ways people with disability can hire their support workers.

We published her piece ‘Yes we want to hire workers more easily. But let’s also talk safeguards and support’, which then inspired us to seek responses from three new kinds of organisations: Better Caring, Hireup and MySupports.

To recap, the three issues Ellen raised in her blog post are:

Issue 1: How do we show commitment to building trust between people with a disability, families, workers and organisations?

Issue 2: What avenues are there for disclosing issues safely and confidentially if things go wrong between individuals and their workers?

Issue 3: Who is responsible for offering professional development to individuals, their families or their workers as we navigate this new NDIS world?

Why these three organisations? Because they represent the different kinds of options and because they are all interested in people taking greater control of their services and supports and to assisting more people self manage. There are other organisations that provide similar services to those listed above, and we recommend doing your own research before deciding on who can best support you in hiring support staff.

Before you read their responses to Ellen’s issues it’s important to know some of the differences between them. It provides an important framework for their responses.

Hireup is actually an employer. They just help people connect with each other via an online platform as opposed to a physical office.

Better Caring is a an online platform that connects people with disability to self employed people (independent contractors). This means their relationship to people on their platform is a bit different to Hireup.

Lastly, we invited MySupports to respond. They are also an employer. We invited them because of their commitment to employing people with disabilities and family carers, and because of their interest in promoting and developing self directed supports.

We thank Ellen, particularly, for her contribution to this important and growing conversation. We’ve edited the organisations’ responses for length and cohesion, but we’ll provide links to responses these organisations post to their own pages over the coming weeks. As always, if you’d like to add your thoughts, experiences and questions to the conversation, you can leave a comment below or on our Facebook page, or send us an email.

We’ll now hand over to Better Caring, Hireup and My Supports, whose responses are on the following pages.

Better Caring – next page

Hireup – page 3

My Supports – page 4

Well we got some great responses and comments and asked one commentator if she would like to write a Guest Blog to keep the conversation going. Thank you Ellen Fraser-Barbour*! We think you have raised some excellent points to consider around the recruitment of support workers.

We have reached out, and are hoping that our next piece is a response from some organisations discussed in our original piece. That way we can get a really good conversation going.

Over to you, Ellen.

Photo of Ellen Fraser-Barbour

The NDIS market has seen a rise in the range of services offered, from large traditional provider models to smaller in-community neighbourhood team and online connector models. In my experience the NDIS is opening doors to new exciting opportunities and this should be encouraged.  In my experience online models offer simplicity, flexibility, ease of booking, convenience and affordability. In-community support workers working within an agency or team, can offer a degree of support and “back-up” when planning and managing all the ins and outs of what this important work entails.

I have been wondering, however, about how these new types of self management models safeguard. Yes they, alongside all service providers, have policies in place to ensure safety, security and support for individuals, families and workers and these policies are vitally important but I can think of many examples where traditional large agencies are up to the hilt in policy but do necessarily invest in developing an active organisational culture or practice that truly embraces a human rights approach at base level. Policies are there, but putting this into practice seems to be easier said, than done. This has been highlighted in recent inquiries into abuse in disability services.

If questions of accountability and complaints processes were difficult to ask within large traditional service systems prior to the NDIS, it is now an urgent consideration with the NDIS. Bureaucracy is still there and it is still exhausting and ‘messy’ and complex for people with disabilities and their families to navigate. The only difference is that ideally, people with a disability now decide who is worth the stress and who isn’t.

In my experience, the issues of safeguarding are not black and white, like they might seem in policies. I can think of many examples of risky scenarios and ethical dilemmas people find themselves in every day. Life is complicated and there may be times when individuals or families are under immense stress. These stresses vary over time and place. Some situations of crisis are very apparent but others seem more hidden and are not identified until things have already escalated and workers might need to be able to respond in a moment to these situations. Adversity and crisis can take over and informal support networks may disintegrate. In these circumstances, support workers and professionals may be the primary point of contact for support and a vital link. In reality, however, workers may only be employed for short times, may not be not highly skilled and are working for a basic wage with a high turn over rate. There may be times when there’s a crisis beyond the scope of what that worker can deal with. I think there are times when the worker may well decide it’s “too hard” and leave, or alternatively, individuals may question the actions of workers and may well decide to sack. One hears about families who have been through a whole range of workers lasting a very short time. I think this usually suggests that the support networks fail both workers and individuals.

I think this is where Support-Coordinators or case-managers can be useful. If they’re good at their job, they would be “checking in” to see how things are going with individuals and with their support ‘team’. There may also be times when conflicts happen (because we’re human) and NDIS goals slip to the bottom of our priority list. Issues need to be addressed rapidly, calmly and sensitively and this is aided when there is an identified person available and accessible within that person’s network. Support Coordinators can debrief with families and assist with transitioning to new supports or linking to other disability or mainstream services.

At base level, questions need to be asked about safeguards when self-managing support workers. I admit to feeling out of my depth in even trying to pinpoint some specific questions and I worry I’m opening a can of worms, but I will put myself out on a limb here in the hope that some conversation is generated.

Here are a handful of questions I think organisations or self-managing employers could consider.

How do we show commitment to building trust between people with a disability, families, workers and organisations?

Without trust, it is very difficult for anyone to feel safe disclosing concerns. We are human and what is conflicting for one person, may not be for others. I think this is particularly relevant if connecting workers & individuals online without face to face meetings or a “middle man”. Expectations of stakeholders aren’t always made clear.

What avenues are there for disclosing issues safely and confidentially if things go wrong between individuals and their workers?

If support workers are not part of an organisation who do individuals and/or workers negotiate and receive support from, in times of conflict and stress? Being the direct employer is appealing when things are going well. With participants “driving the bus” so to speak, it means issues should be discussed with them first (as it should be). But what happens when there is a crisis and the person with the disability and/or their workers need more support and resources?

In my experience and from what I have heard of others, even in large organisations with strict hierarchical structures, support for individuals and workers is often lacking in times of crisis. With more workers without any back up or organisation, how are stakeholders protected when approaching sensitive concerns and possible conflicts?

Who is responsible for offering professional development to individuals, their families or their workers as we navigate this new NDIS world?

How is training is offered and how frequent is this training? In particular how do self-managed employers and independent employees access professional development to keep abreast development in the field and up to date best practice? How do we standardise training across sectors in light of the NDIS?  In circumstances where agencies are involved, how much time do service providers really have and how often do they touch base with both individuals and workers and offer professional development, training, debriefing or support?

Of course, these are just a handful of questions one could ask – the issues are complex and I don’t think there are silver bullet solutions or quick answers in terms of how we navigate safeguards and dignity of risk. I am, however, an optimist and a believer in generating conversations about where the gaps are.  These conversations need to represent diversity in order to be truly productive. I hope that there are opportunities for the voices of many to be heard.

I also hope that in writing this piece, I might encourage people to share personal experiences and ideas about how we engage, build bridges and offer the best quality supports and continue to work towards progress.

*Disclaimer:   The author wishes to make it clear that this writing does NOT represent the views of organisations she works for – past or present and is merely her own perspective.

NOTE; The majority of concerns are not necessarily about abuse, or violence and are not severe in nature- but there are times when they are and in these circumstances professionals at all levels of services are mandated to formally report any incidences or suspicions of abuse, violence or neglect to their respective statutory bodies such as the Child Abuse Report line (in SA).

Ellen Fraser-Barbour

Image of bright yellow sunglasses and beads

Getting NDIS ready is also about deciding how you want to manage your NDIS funds.

There are three ways to manage your NDIS funding. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) can help you manage payments to your providers, you can manage these payments yourself (Self Management) or you can have another provider (a Plan Manager) assist you. You can even mix them!

In your planning meeting we want you to be informed about your options so you can state clearly what you would like to happen.

We’re going to be dedicating some air time in the next while to the two options called Plan Management and Self Management.

Please note that at the time of publication the NDIA launched a new website. On the old website there were two documents that clearly described Plan Management and we cannot locate them on the new website despite a lot of looking!

So….. Here is a link to information published by the A.C.T Government about these choices.

Here is another run-down about it.

These three options for managing your funds continue to exist!

Plan Managers need to be registered providers, so you can find and engage with them once you receive your plan, and through other organisations and businesses which are now listing providers.

Lauren Hislop lives in the Hunter NSW NDIS site and tells us about using a registered Plan Management provider.

Photo of Lauren Hislop

Goals are a bit daunting important

A few years ago I was initially a bit daunted about the prospect of setting goals for my first NDIS plan. I thought, “what if I’m currently satisfied with my life?”   However, as I did some self exploration, I discovered that there were, in fact, areas of my life that I wanted to improve.

I considered questions (and you can too) such as;

“what do I want my life to look like?”

“what excites me?” and

“what would infuse my life with colour?”

I had to be open to the possibilities.

My advice to people planning their goals is not to be afraid to dream big. When I first wrote my goals I was afraid to dream big. I wasn’t sure what goals to list, and maybe you aren’t sure too. However, with encouragement from others I dared to state my desires.

One of my goals was and is to find work.

Obtaining employment is one of my greatest desires. Being equipped with three university degrees I assumed I would get a position. However due to structural barriers I have found it a struggle. Unfortunately my disability overshadows my skills.

Turning goals into reality

Once I had established what my goals were, I had to figure out how to implement them. My goals were a template for my life.

When I received my first NDIS plan, it appeared great on paper. However I had no idea how to use it. I consider myself intelligent and yet I couldn’t figure out how to take advantage of it. At that time, NDIA were paying my support providers directly. Unfortunately I began to feel nothing had changed from before NDIS. I had the same agency providing me with the same care, but I was wanted something different.

Infusing my plan and life with colour

Last year I decided to engage a plan manager to help manage my funds. I also had some Supports Co-ordination hours in my plan to help with these kinds of things as well. I chose a local organisation that don’t provide any other kinds of services. I really like their independence and their values. These are two important things to look out for in my opinion.

From the moment I engaged a plan manager my life began to infuse with colour. I cannot believe how my life has changed. I have a plan manager, who puts me at the forefront of making my own decisions. They check to see how I’m going. They have done things like:

help me recruit my own workers

keep track of my budget

pay and process invoices

problem-solve with providers

This is definitely the best choice for me. I feel like I’m actually living life! It is so good to know that you are in control without having to deal with the mundane bits. It has made the principles, such as choice, a voice and control a reality in my life.

Gaining skills and finding work

Because I plan manage, I can use different kinds of services and supports to achieve the goals in my plan. I can definitely use disability services if I want, but I can also think beyond these. Previously I thought I had to use disability support workers for everything. This is one of the benefits of plan management and self management. I can look to different people, businesses and organisations in my community to help me achieve my goals.

In my plan I have some funding to help me develop confidence in my ability to undertake paid work. This is the importance of thinking about goals, because if I didn’t state this as a goal, it might not have led to this funding.

One brilliant outcome is I have used this funding to improve my professional skills.

I am a researcher and writer and have been looking for work in this area. I have been writing for  different disability rights organisations. There is a lot of great opportunity here with a growing number of organisations valuing and paying people with disability to write. This got us talking about the online world, content marketing and social media marketing opportunities. My plan manager informed me I could use my funding to engage someone in this area to mentor and train me.

I was put in touch with Andrea, a small business marketing consultant. Her training definitely equipped me better, so when Libby asked me to work for InCharge in this area, I was ecstatic.  This training will also help me with future opportunities. It enhances my appeal to other organisations who would like to contract me. I cannot express how much economic participation means to me and other people with disabilities. We yearn to be productive.

Freedom in finding my own support workers

One of the greatest benefits I have from plan management is that it has helped me to recruit my own support workers. Initially I just had personal care for an hour each day to help me shower and dress. I had no idea I could use workers for accessing the community  and other things.

There has been great freedom in interviewing and choosing for myself. My worker is invaluable. She does things like takes me shopping, attends appointments with me, helps with filing and making calls because my speech is slurred, and acts like a personal assistant in work meetings. Having this assistance has allowed me to feel that I am a valued member in the community. I set the hours she works. I’m in control.

In my opinion we need to make the most of our plan. This will not only impact on us as individuals but on society as a whole. If we have support we can use our talents and skills to enhance society. Enjoy the journey!

Marianne Williamson wrote

“It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.”

It’s time to let our light shine

They say there are 4 essential steps

1. Learn if you might be able to access the NDIS.
2. Think about your life now, your current informal and formal supports, and what is working and what might need to change.
3. Identify your strengths, interests, challenges and consider your goals or what you might want to achieve.
4. Write these things down and collect any reports, assessments or information you might find helpful for when the NDIS comes to you.

They have created a video and transcript about this, and have also confirmed elsewhere that thinking about your goals in your first plan is important.

In our work with people, however, we’ve discovered it is not always easy to do steps 2 and 3 and turn them into goals!

“Create a goal! Go on – it’s easy!”

This statement opens up an enthusiastic dialogue about how awesome goals are and why everyone going into the NDIS should go into their planning meetings equipped with goals that will change their lives for the better.

This exuberance is often fuelled by “write down your life story and everything will be hunky dory!”.  And besides, if you’ve been around disability services for long enough, you may have already told your life story to more people than you care to recall.

So. How do you turn a vague idea into a goal without opening up every corner of your life to yet another person you don’t know? Or – what is a straightforward resource that will help you to articulate the foundations of an actionable goal?

Introducing Talia

Talia, a fictional 25-year-old woman who lives with muscular dystrophy, has agreed to share her process with us. Mostly because we created her, but also because she cares about what happens to people going into the NDIS. She also said she’s happy to periodically cut our conversation off mid-stream to highlight the practical questions involved in creating a goal. So obliging!

Talia lives at home with her 18-year-old brother who is doing his final ever exams, and her Mum and Dad.

When we asked her about her goals, she paused for a moment before saying “I wish I knew. But how can I think about that when my support workers are never on time in the morning to help me get out of bed? It seems like it’s every second day that Mum has to help me instead. I’m 25 years old; I shouldn’t be this dependent on my Mum. She’s great – but yeah.”

Well these kinds of ideas are really helpful for thinking about a goal!

• “What is missing from your life?”

In Talia’s case, she is missing reliable support staff. As a result of this, she’s also missing out on having independence from her mother.

Throughout this piece, also bear in mind that these steps can be repeated for as many life areas as you deem important.

If you are looking for some help with what life areas you could think about, the NDIS Grassroots Discussion files also has an extensive list of resources, including pieces on life domains such as personal care, community inclusion, social/community support and employment support; as do WA’s Individualised Services (WAiS).

• “What would you like to change?”

Without going all Louise Hay on you, the answers to “What is missing?” need to be flipped to the positive. This is because goals literally can’t be created from what we *don’t* want – only from what we do want.

During this part of our conversation, Talia worked out that she wants reliable support staff and independence not only from her mother, but also from her family in general, who all provide her with a lot of support. And, although her family are close-knit, she just wanted the opportunity to be a daughter and sister instead.

These are the kinds of statements that can be worked with until they become less of a “wish list” and more of a “goal statement/s.” (Pardon the jargon!)

Talia had some difficulty with this next stage because, up until the NDIS, she’d had no choice but to become resigned to the status quo. How do you turn such experience and discontent into a goal statement?

• “What is stopping the missing things from happening?”

Talia said that the employees of her service provider were stopping her from receiving adequate personal care support, which was having a negative flow-on effect to her having independence from her Mum and family.

This conversation lead her nicely into the final step:

• “What would make a difference?”

Talia was stoked when it dawned on her that, with the NDIS, she could change service providers – or indeed, manage her own funds and hire her own support staff. She could even consider building her own team as a solution. She decided to ask for some mentoring assistance to learn how to properly manage and supervise support workers. And she wanted to learn from someone who was experienced in managing their own staff. She also decided to ask for a experienced person to review and create a recruitment process.

Her goal statement became:

“I want to live my life with maximum freedom, choice and enjoyment. An important part of this is having more reliable staff. I would like as little staff turn over as possible. I would like staff to turn up when I expect them to.”

So that was the beginning of Talia’s process.

Other people come at goal-setting from different angles; some are clearer on what they do want, which means they don’t have to spend as much (if any) time on Step 1. If you know what you want, you would just start from Step 3 – “What is stopping the missing things from happening?”.

And that, in a nutshell, is how to turn ideas into a goal.

To check out more resources about becoming #NDISReady as well as support for families and carers, have a browse of the NDIS Ready page (which has the nuts and bolts of what the NDIS provides for people with disability, families and carers).

Carolyn and her husband with her team of 5 people

A self directed approach enables me to recruit and choose my own team of staff who assist me to live in my own home.

After 20 years of independent living and using a wide range of services, staff and models of support, I believe the success of my care is based on the quality of the relationships I have with my staff and the work I do to make this work for me.

With the right team you can work with people who understand a ‘give and take’ approach, are flexible and have the will to help you solve problems.

Get the best from your team

It’s essential to be clear about your needs. Honesty is the best policy.  And be clear about what you expect from them. Ambiguity is not helpful and usually leads to miscommunication.In addition to being verbally clear, use a responsibility checklist, or more formal contract.

Model the behaviour you expect from them. If you tell them you will cover their shift then cover it.

It takes skills in negotiation and sometimes creative thinking if shifts need to be swapped or changed in emergencies. For instance, staff contact me directly if they are sick or have another problem getting to their shift. I can then assess the situation, and I generally know the commitments and schedules of each staff person. I may offer a bonus if it is very late notice. If I get stuck I have the numbers of a few agencies that are 24 hour contactable who could find staff.

I rarely rely on family to fill in. Unlike the bad old days when I was constantly getting stuck without support, busting for the toilet or missing out on meals.

Keep the right people

Once you have created a great team it takes work to maintain it. Just like anything maintenance and servicing cannot be overlooked otherwise the whole car will start to shake.

Over the years I have developed a strong team culture. I have had little turnover and I feel very positive about the people in my team and I know they feel positive in return.

One of the things I think I do well is to pay attention to people and pay attention to the relationship. I understand that it is a person’s job and that supporting me is just one aspect of their lives. So I take a really wholistic approach and this has served me well. I put a lot of emphasis on relationship, celebration, positive feedback, focussing on their strengths and keeping them well informed.

While I still need to step in on occasion and address problems with team members, I have found these strategies have lessened the difficulties.

I’m really looking forward to sharing my top 8 tips with you that you can use to create a positive team culture.

Want to hear more?

Carolyn is one of our guest speakers at our next online session on February 26th 2015.

Click here to find out more and register.

a group brainstorms with a person with disability

Lyne Mear is a consultant in Human Resources, Industrial Relations and Employees Relations. Her focus is creating work places that are self-generating, solution oriented and enjoyable.

One of the questions I am often asked by people who really want to be front and centre of their supports is

“How can I get more of the good stuff and less of the big service tasks like managing people and doing rosters and paperwork?”

Many families also ask me “How do I get support workers to see what I see, to think ahead and to really do what’s needed?”

I am very pleased to share some of my experience in methods and strategies that will help you develop a positive, flexible and engaged team culture.

Paradoxically I have found that the more people are asked to report and be accountable up a line of management, the less they see things and really take responsibility. The only way to do this is to have practice in taking the responsibility, to really know ‘the buck stops with me on this issue’.

A self managing team

One of the solutions I have worked with people on, is to set up a self managing team. This is a team of workers operating in a manner that requires little top down management. There is still the need for strong governance and oversight, and connection with people, but less of the stuff that takes you away from core business in running your life and your supports.

Self managing teams work best where there are teams of small numbers that are committed to an outcome that is ‘greater’ than the individuals’ self-interest.   Teams working in social welfare, social conscience areas are ideally suited to a self-managed team system.

This idea started many years ago when I was working as a manager of a start-up disability service whose aim was to provide support for independent living for people with disabilities. I was asked to come up with a service provision model for a woman with acquired brain injury from a horrific motor vehicle accident. I needed to find a way of providing support 24/7 that was affordable and also encompassed the principals that my organisation had committed to.  This woman’s parents had the view that she needed to live independently in her own home as an adult. One of the founding principles was that people have the right to live and develop freely.  I believe very strongly in the human right to develop and grow in our own journey.  I still believe this today.

We managed both these things by setting up a self-reliant and self-organising team.  This structure held the principals of self-determination; encouraged the team to self-determine and was the most economical.  Little outlay is involved in the administration and coordination of the arrangement and the team and the person being supported have the opportunity to learn and grow in the arrangement.

That structure has been in operation now for 20 odd years and has been an amazing learning experience for me as well as all those who have been involved in the journey. I am still involved with this woman and her family. For the woman I believe it has provided the best opportunity to live a real life that could have been provided.

I am a consultant in human resources, industrial relations and employees relations, working in some pretty big organisations, and I take these principles wherever I go. I have also taken these principles to work with other families.

The key components

The components of a self managing team are:

1. communication – things must be discussed;
2. openness – things must be discussed;
3. willingess to listen and understand other points of view – things must be discussed;
4. tolerance – other viewpoints need to be allowed to be and these must be discussed;
5. clear vision – an understanding of what is desired must be obvious and understood by all;
6. collaboration – the whole concept is based on the premise of working together;
7. flexibility – there are many ways to achieve the vision. The joy and creativity of working in such a team and to experience the differing ways is amazing;
8. diversity – adds enormously to the creativity of the arrangement;
9. and a sense of purpose – comes back to the vision.

The first steps

Setting-up the arrangement is the biggest and most important piece of work.

The most important parts of the set-up are:

1. engaging and enrolling the team in a clear vision;
2. developing really clear boundaries and expectations within which they will operate;
3. being able to let go but maintain those boundaries
4. developing the systems to monitor;
5. and working with people to move from having things set out for them, to taking responsibility. This is because mostly people are not used to being able to self-manage and being held accountable for the consequences of their actions. Most people are used to reporting to supervisors.

The benefits

A team that is self managing well can do things like take responsibility for their rostering, communication and self-organise amongst themselves and develop a common purpose. They may be delegated authority around the day-to-day aspects of the person’s life and learn to think forward and dream into the person’s life, and organise to achieve those things with the person.

The benefits are that people are more able to enjoy their life or enjoy their family role with the person rather than being the ‘manager’ all the time.

I’m looking forward to sharing more strategies with you.

Want to hear more from Lyne? Click here to join our online session on February 26th 2015.

A man with friends and support workers

Our previous blog on this issue started ‘at the end’ or on tips to get clear on the purpose of paid support. We recommended this as a first step in successful recruitment. For starters, working out purpose can then really help to nail the characteristics you are looking for in people. Once you know the kind of people you are looking for, then it is far easier to figure out where to look for them. After that, you can think about the best methods to reach those people.

Put together, this is a 4 step process of WHAT (purpose) WHO (characteristics), WHERE and HOW (methods to recruit)

So in this piece we will focus on Characteristics. That is, being clear about WHO it is you are looking for.

Start by thinking about the importance to you of any, or all of these categories below.

What makes the person tick – personal qualities, values and vision

Many people say this is the most important thing to think through. This is about the kind of person you are looking for. It is always better when the person shares your vision. So what are your values and vision?

Skills & attributes

These are abilities that show the person can apply knowledge in a practical way to get something done. This could include work skills they have learned elsewhere that they can use in this job. These might be things such as leadership, communication, problem solving, initiative & enterprise, team work, planning & organising.

Technical and professional skills

What do you hope they come with?

Do professional skills and qualifications matter to the role?

What training do you want them to undertake?

Shared interests and hobbies

Depending on the purpose of the role, shared interest might be a definite pre-requisite. No point wanting to get involved in your local indie music scene, for example, and not seeking someone who is going to lap that up and know what to do and how to be in that context.

Even if the purpose of the role is not as specific as this, looking for commonality of interest makes life easier. Liking the people who support you is very important.

Click here to read how Carolyn Campbell-McLean creates her dream team.

 Matching purpose and characteristics in a (real life) example

Robbie is 27 and about to move into his own apartment in the city for the first time. The apartment is being rented from an extended family member who wanted to help by offering this opportunity. The vision is for Robbie to have a housemate. The apartment has lots of great qualities and some down sides. For example, while it is two bedroom it is quite small. Robbie and his immediate family decided that they couldn’t let the opportunity go, but they are worried about whether living with someone will be sustainable. This is also because while much of what support Robbie needs is known, a lot is also to be discovered. Robbie will have some additional paid support workers at different times, but the housemate role is really crucial.

Robbie is a conscientious man who likes to please people. He is a gentleman. He has an incredible memory for people, places, events and television shows. He also loves classical music, old movies, walking, trains and boats (especially old ones). He works, attends a day program and also volunteers. He can feel quite anxious at times, although he doesn’t want to be, and benefits from patience, empathy, people who see his potential beyond this and provide guidance in times when he is struggling to see past the anxiety.

Robbie’s support team decided to create a 6 month paid live-in role. The purpose of the role is to

• Help Robbie adjust and provide companionship – enjoying time together and looking out for each other
• Create an inviting home – joining with Robbie to create a pleasant, and comfortable home together, sharing meals, thinking about ensuring that Robbie’s day-to-day home life is prepared and planned for with tasks such as food and shopping and ensuring that the home is well cared for
• Provide mentoring in some areas of home life
• Build understanding of the longer term support structure – join with his family and support crew understand what kind of support Robbie needs and when across the week. In the longer term, when might a housemate have a role, when family and friends and when might paid support workers have a role?
• Building understanding of the future housemate role – join with his family and support crew understand what a longer term (subsidised) housemate role might look like. Contribute to answer this question: ‘how will it work best for a housemate and Robbie ongoing?’

What do you think are the values, qualities, skills and shared interests needed?

What kind of person would be good in this role? Try and visualise this person.

Now you can start to think about WHERE you might find such a person and what methods you might use to attract them (HOW).

Want to learn more? Click here to join our next online session on December 9th to learn successful recruitment strategies from people in the know!

Click here to hear what a participant has said about our sessions.

The right people are more likely to step forward when you are really clear on the purpose of paid support. Additionally, people are more likely to stick around when they are fully informed of the expectations and when they understand and share your vision. Unspoken or hidden expectations tend to lead to disappointment and to unnecessary turnover.

Start at the end

Asking the question, ‘What is the end result I am looking for?’ is a really great way to start thinking about purpose.

The importance of such a question can be revealed in exploring this scenario. Consider someone who likes gardening. You might consider matching paid support to this interest and conclude that finding a gardener is the way to go. Taking some time to consider purpose, however, can reveal some interesting differences. If the purpose of the role is to build a garden, finding a gardener might work. But if purpose is to increase opportunities for connection to others through this interest, a person only skilled in gardening may not cut it (excuse the pun).

Here are some other ideas to assist your thinking.

Think about how others get the task done

Ask: how do other people get this thing done or achieve this?
Firstly, think about the task that needs to be done. Now think about how that same or similar issue is solved by other people. How do others in our community get this kind of thing done?

This gives us some great clues on what we want to model and replicate. Sometimes we tend to jump to service and paid responses first. But asking this question allows us to take a breather and see if there are other solutions we could put our energy into (the time and energy we would be using to find paid assistance or service solutions).

So give these scenarios some consideration in light of this:

1. You’ve lost track of time and now your garden is in need of a makeover.
2. You need your lawn mowed regularly

• you have never tried mowing a lawn before and aren’t sure if you could do it.
• you could learn but you aren’t interested and prefer to dedicate time elsewhere
• you aren’t able to mow your lawn

What are different solutions to these scenarios?

Generally the more formal, regular and structured the task is, the more likely it is in our society, to seek a paid solution. But a lot also depends on our family culture, background, gender, the place you live, income, age…… So think about what makes sense to you.

I know in my life, I would be more inclined to turn my dishevelled garden into a social opportunity, provide food and drink or even offer to assist friends with something in exchange for their help. Our lawn is large. I can learn to mow but I’m not interested in mowing. However, this is not something I think is reasonable to ask a friend or neighbour to do on a regular basis. Sure – collect my mail, feed my cat for a couple of days. But not mow the lawn regularly. A neighbour might offer because we have built a reciprocal relationship, but this is different to me asking. Additionally our living expenses mean that getting someone else to do this regularly is not possible. So I need to mow my lawn. But you might have a different response that fits your culture, family, income, community etc! It’s the process of thinking through that is important.

This kind of thinking helps us understand the place of paid support, whether it is actually needed, and also helps us think about the place of informal relationships and whether we could focus energy on this rather than on paid support.

So ask yourself: what can a paid person bring that natural support might not bring? How can paid support add value to what I already have? (not take away or cut off an opportunity for growth of other kinds of relationships)

Regularity, structure and formal teaching are some examples of answers to these questions.

Some other examples are:

• Social connection/bridge building into different parts of a community
• Building a fuller picture of who the person is: helping the person learn more about themselves, trying different activities, exploration and trial. This can be important for people whose interests are unknown or unexplored
• Learning new skills
• Personal care
• Role modelling and mentoring – behaviours, feelings, thinking
• Generating new ideas – creative, innovative, considered ideas
• Team development – developing the cohesion and functionality of a team
• Work or business development

Clarity on role and purpose really helps us to hone the characteristics we are looking for in people. What qualities, skills and interests are we looking for in people? Let’s look at that next.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on successful techniques.

If you want to learn more,  join us for our upcoming webinar on December 9 2014!

Click here to hear what a participant has said about our sessions.