2021 Allevia Annual Report

“I must step back to let the people whom
I support to be independent”
“I have experience taking Paul to go
out in the community. Paul clearly at the
beginning, has a degree of hesitancy to
communicate. We recognised that it was
creating barriers to his social inclusion.
When I supported Paul in the community,
he sometimes struggled to comprehend
community people. We still encouraged
and supported Paul to participate in the
community and to communicate using
his unique verbal/ nonverbal techniques.
Knowing the proverb, ‘Slow and steady
wins the race’. I needed to step back and
let Paul communicate and interact directly
when on outings. I am committed to
implementing NDIS values of respecting
every person’s right to autonomy,
encouraging them to exercise their
independence. That included me stepping
back. Even though sometimes I feel like
I perhaps have not done my job not
advocating on behalf of Paul, encouraging
him to interact directly. I was aware that
Paul may struggle to communicate at the
beginning but due to repeated attempts
communicating for himself he became
more confident to speak with community
people.
“Janice was faced with many challenges
and numerous visits to the bank when
embarking on opening a bank account
so she could have a debit card. The
challenges were due to the lack of
identification documents, a common
barrier for people in similar circumstances
as Janice. Considerable support was
needed from her formal support network
to gain enough identification documents
to satisfy the Bank’s requirements. The
process was time consuming for Janice
and involved the local branch of the bank
needing Janice’s personal details verified
from their head office.
As a result of the many visits to the bank
Janice became acquainted with the staff.
The staff responded warmly to her on
each visit and were sad that they weren’t
going to have further interactions with her
when the account was finally opened. It
took quite a long time to achieve what she
needed however, with great determination
Janice successfully was presented with
her new account details and debit card.”
Tia Ru, Living Services Manager
Paul is now confident to go out, talk, make
friends in the community where he feels
he is a valued member of the community
team. Seeing the changes in people makes
us feel that perhaps we have made some
positive changes.”
Swasti Subedi, Support Worker