Carers and Advocates believe that we must measure quality of life as a standard and that people must be free from the burdens of daily care. How else can you work, study, have a family, or live a fulfilled life if you cannot even get out of bed?
We recognise that a consistent and sustainable workforce is central to all grand plans to make lives possible.
Beneath our vision and mission statement lay five pillars. These foundation pillars are the areas we have identified that need to be focused on in response not only to the current challenges but also to the challenges to come.
These five pillars align with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and are entwined in our business plan. They are not policies in files in cupboards, but a part of everyday living and actions entwined in our daily deeds.
The equation we are all trying to solve is how to make disability care safe, a fulfilling life experience for its participants, and viable for the providers. We must seek new ways of doing this and think entirely outside the box so that people can live quality and fulfilled lives without compromising safety. How we manage safeguards also needs to evolve and adapt, becoming entwined every day instead of being an add-on after the fact.
It must be entwined in the fabric of the culture, in the day-to-day training processes, and be a part of everyday life that works autonomously and independently from any person or place.
Above all else, we strive to abolish forever the common curse of low expectations—not only for disabled people but for the extended community circle, which includes their friends, family, and the support staff that serve them.
The Five Essential Pillars
- Self-actualisation – To have a purpose and a passion
- Self-esteem – Education and employment
- Love and belonging – Community and societal acceptance
- Safety and security – Safeguards
- Physiological needs – Housing and health
Self-actualisation – To have a purpose and a passion
- Microenterprise
- Care must be consistent and quality
- Free to find one’s purpose
- The right culture
- Each village has core enterprises that are NOT mandatory to work for but will employ disabled people within and outside the community.
- Life skills and community skills for employment courses
Self-esteem – Education and employment
- We will develop and conduct training for a workforce that is fit for the purpose.
- Raise the profile of the workforce, professionalise it
- Regulation of workforce and registration, like other health sectors
- Change of culture of the workforce
- Change of disability adversarial culture
- End adversarial roles between participants and support staff
- Secure employment for support workers
- All ability schools
- Life skills and community training for participants to integrate better
- All training available for participants
- Core enterprises in each village employing in and outside of the community disabled persons (No resident has to work in the enterprise)
- Training general healthcare staff for disability inclusion
- Support worker training should include culture and literacy, life skills, and business skills for those wishing to develop their business or from outside Australia to integrate seamlessly.
Love and belonging – community and societal acceptance
- Extended families and families included in the community
- Child care on-site employing participants and other staff working together
- Facilities that encourage the greater community to come in and join in
- Less adversarial peer groups are available for participants and support staff together
- A barter system for resources encourages community members and staff to contribute and share time, resources, and skills.
- There is involvement of the outside community in our community, and ours is actively outside in courses, volunteering, employment, education, and advocacy.
- Outside community volunteering within
- Training and work placement of our training staff within the community learning and onboarding of culture
- Pets and therapy animals are allowed
- Adoption of rescue animals
- Volunteering in community
Safety and security – safeguards
- Development of a “Bill of Rights” as a community social contract for staff and participants
- Development of a “Living Care Directive” as opposed to an advanced care directive to protect and enshrine legally living wishes in care and in the healthcare system at large.
- Advocating the living care directive to become federally enshrined in law
- The registration of living care directives with a sociocratic council in each village made of participants and representatives
- Legal “proxy” agreements defining who is permitted to speak for and not instead of, and outlining financial issues such as who is permitted to use an ATM card, for example, and speak to utilities without the use of guardianship
- Supported decision-making training as part of infrastructure for all in day-to-day care and life
- A supported decision-making framework as policy and entwined in the sociocratic council
- Self-advocacy encouraged and taught
- Advocacy as a part of the company available outside of each community to the greater community, involving the voices collectively of those within it.
- Accreditation as a B Corporation and aspiration of sustainable development goals from the U.N sustainable development goals.
- We enshrine the UN CRPD and the sustainable practices of the 17 goals for a better world, directly addressing goals 10, 13, 5, 8, and 9 in our everyday practice.
Physiological needs – Housing and health
- An accessible hairdresser.
- Accessible healthcare within and outside of the community.
- Advocacy as a group and community to greater healthcare and to set the example of how it’s done.
- Mental health training and a mental health safe and aware culture.
- Housing that is lifelong rental rights for NDIS initially, moving to DSP, with as little SDA as possible to allow for inclusion of more people.
- Development of DSP-friendly mortgages to enable people to build their own homes at a place of their choosing in the future.
- All housing will be accessible physically and financially.
- Housing will be self-sufficient as much as possible to minimise the cost of utilities and living.
- Community vegetable gardens.
- Accessible restaurant on site for villagers, families, staff, and community outside.
- Advocacy for NDIS line item for GPs to bill for plan reports.
Bill of rights
The Bill of Rights will be formed by the board and the sociocratic council. The sociocratic council is made up of all the people who live and work in the community. As part of every employment contract and for every member joining the community, the Bill of Rights is a binding contract that every person will subscribe to.
This document is intended as a social contract to uphold human rights, serving as an agreement on what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and culture. It acknowledges what is possible for the individual while recognising that some things affecting others are non-negotiable. In a community, we share a space, and everyone is responsible for that space. We make it what it is.
These rights will be founded on the articles of human rights but decided by the people in the community.
Living care directive
The advanced care directive is often, in my view, wrongly used for people with disabilities. To enact an advanced care directive and appoint a substitute decision-maker generally requires the directive to be activated, which usually happens when someone has less than six months to live or is at end of life. People with disabilities live across a spectrum and generally embrace life — we hope so.
A living care directive allows someone to determine what care they want, with whom, how, and when. Even when they are unable to communicate, thoughtfully done supported decision-making can establish someone’s wishes. This document enshrines the rights and wishes of the individual.
I am passionate about this document as it prevents unnecessary guardianship interventions. It maintains autonomy and the rights of the individual and serves as a guide to protect them, no matter where they end up.
Proxy Agreements
In many cases, people with disabilities (PWD) have staff who come and go, and these staff may take and use their ATM cards. If your card goes missing or is misused, the bank will not help. Additionally, many instances arise when someone needs support communicating with utilities, medical professionals, Centrelink, and similar organisations. This form of communication is meant to assist the individual rather than replace their ability to communicate. It is similar to using organic assistive technology.
It is important to clarify that this support does not imply that the individual is a nominee, nor does it suggest they lack capacity or require a guardian. Instead, it means that someone, with the individual’s consent, assists them—just like technology would—and only those they have consented to can do so. Such assistance should not alter the person’s legal status. It is essential to protect that status and recognise the use of proxy agreements for communication assistance.