As children with disability develop into adulthood, we need to consider how to help them to become more independent and have an appropriate level of autonomy and control over their lives.
Endeavour Foundation has been serving the community since 1951, with a long-standing commitment to supporting people with disability and their caregivers. They provide personalised support and pathways to independence across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Here, Endeavour Foundation shares its top tips for creating a more independent lifestyle for your loved one.
Support
Seek to support, not control
As parents and caregivers, we all strive to do our best, often facing tough challenges along the way. Our instinct is to protect and nurture by trying to control situations, so ‘letting go’ can feel daunting. Ironically, the more we manage everything, the less responsibility others may feel, which can lead to greater reliance on us as their caregivers.
As your child transitions to post-school options, instead of seeking to manage every interaction and decision, begin to find ways where you can gradually switch to a mode of offering support. Sometimes, the shift from ‘control’ to ‘support’ can be as simple as small tweaks to your language. For example, rather than telling your loved one what to do, ask them what they would like to do.
Establish a trusted support network
A big part of promoting independence is to increase the involvement of others in supporting and assisting your loved one. Family carers are often deeply dedicated to their role, and it can be difficult to take a step back and involve other family members, friends or even paid support staff.
Learn from each other and adapt
It’s good to be open to learning and developing yourself. It’s not just a one-way street. The more you, your loved one and your support network can work together to adapt and understand each other, the quicker that progress will be toward independence.
Confidence and Control
Start slowly with daily life decisions
Promoting independence requires patience. It’s about a series of small steps and changes that add up to a more empowered lifestyle and greater choice for the individual. The challenge is that many people with disability have experienced strongly nurturing and highly protective environments. Independence and decision-making power may be foreign concepts, which means that if things happen too quickly, fear and anxiety can take over.
The solution is to start slowly, by empowering the individual with daily life decisions. It can be simple things like how to wash the dishes, or what to cook for dinner. As they build up decision-making confidence with everyday activities, begin to transfer that confidence to new and more challenging situations.
Allow choice about friends and lifestyle
Everyone deserves the opportunity to choose their friends and decide what hobbies they would like to do. Enabling this choice is an important way to support individual growth and development.
Provide decision-making power
People with disability in Australia have a choice about where and how to access their support network and care, using their NDIS support package. This is a significant step towards increased independence across the board, meaning that carers and support networks are in a position to increase people’s ability and opportunity to be involved in decision-making about their own life.
Embrace community activities
Once this journey to independence begins to progress beyond decisions related to daily at-home rituals, you can integrate the process with community activities. For example, you may be able to encourage your loved one to catch a bus or train to the grocery store. Initially they may need support on these trips, but after a while they may be able to go independently.
Join mainstream community groups
Begin to facilitate and encourage interactions with local community groups such as a local church or sports club that runs regular events. Try to find community groups that closely relate to your loved one’s interests and hobbies. This will get them excited to attend, accelerating the building of self-confidence.
Education
Encourage your community to embrace diversity
Education plays an important role in increasing independence for adults with disability. But this education is not always targeted at the individual. Many people are misinformed, or uneducated, about the abilities that people with disability have. Help them to understand, so they can act accordingly. It all helps to create an inclusive community.
Living a healthy lifestyle
It’s common for adults with disability, especially intellectual disability, to have an inactive lifestyle and unhealthy diet. When aiming to promote independence, be aware of the education required to make healthy lifestyle choices.
Education alone won’t cut it, though. You may need to help your loved one to create daily habits that will contribute to a healthy and happy life while they are not with you. A great place to start is with a daily dose of light exercise and a healthy, balanced diet.
Consider options for learning, employment or volunteering
Working – whether to learn, make money, or volunteer time – can provide people with a sense of purpose. It’s an opportunity to contribute to society and develop improved self-confidence and interpersonal skills.
Endeavour Foundation supports people with disability to live, learn, work and thrive through an exciting range of disability services, including its fun and welcoming day programs at its Learning and Lifestyle hubs as well as via Individualised Support and Supported Employment.
Training and Skills
Provide access and support
Increased independence often comes with the need for a new skill set. The key components required to help people improve their skills are access and support. People with disability must have access to the right learning opportunities – tailored to their interests and abilities – and support from a network of friends, family and mentors.
Encourage your loved one to build a learning and career plan. This plan should map out a pathway for them to achieve their goals and acquire the knowledge or qualifications they need to sustain meaningful employment.
Start with daily living skills
The secret to developing life skills for people with disability and promoting sustainable independence isn’t about making one ’big’ change. It’s a series of smaller changes that combine to look like a bigger change from the outside.
So, start developing skills with low-risk daily activities – like cooking, washing and ironing. Then, when you’re both ready, move onto social and life skills – communication, relationships, shopping and participation in local community groups.
These daily life skills should build confidence and prepare your loved one for the next step, which is developing employment skills – money handling, using technology and taking part in interviews.
Use repetition by creating daily rituals
We are creatures of habit. Most of the thoughts we have and the activities we do every day are the same. Breaking these habits, or creating new ones, can be hard because often we resist change. But you can use this to your advantage to help others develop skills and learn new things. Repetition is the key. If you do something enough, it will soon become second nature.
Promoting independence for people with disability can be a hard and confronting journey because your instincts encourage you to protect and nurture. But if you can embrace the uncertainty and commit to supporting your loved one on this adventure, the result is far more likely to be positive and life-changing for all involved.
Endeavour Foundation is dedicated to supporting, empowering and advocating for people with disability, delivering high quality supports and services that make possibilities a reality.
To find out how they can help you and your loved one, visit endeavour.com.au or call 1800 112 112.