Michael Kendrick works with families and staff at Milparinka to think about what works.

The reason we asked Michael Kendrick  to do this is that  while it is great to be able to draw on the experiences of others, around the world,  it is even better to be able to see what has worked in our own community. What Michael,  the individuals and families find out worked will be used by Milparinka to continue to develop and remodel how we do things and support more people to get better and more personalised results from the funds they have available to them to organise supports.

 The individuals and families involved in this recent process with Michael have gone down the track, to different levels, of personalising their supports to fit their lifestyles, taken authority  and control over what happens with their supports and have emphasised inclusion and involvement in their local communities.

 What people said what changed and worked for them in their relationship with Milparinka was

• Milparinka taking on a role as a catalyst, not just a provider of services,   encouraging people to look at other options and think differently about where support and connections come from and what this can look like.
• Milparinka supporting people to think about their lives in terms of values and life interests and thinking about visions about the future rather that just meeting needs. An important part of this for families was confidence to continue with vision building and pursue the natural development of life as it moved towards these visions. There were a number of common elements at which all families were surprised by the degree to what they occurred in their family member  during this process, these included, increased independence, increased confidence, reduced anxiety and increased maturity.
• While families took the opportunity to take authority and control over what happened with their supports and lifestyles how this happened with each family was very  individualised  with some people taking a role in identifying and directing what happened to others who just wanted to think about and approve, or disapprove of actions taken on their behalf by others. For all of the families the shift of authority and control from the service provider to them was anxiety provoking and Milparinka had an important task in personalising processes to support each family with  this transition.
• There  was a significant shift in family relationships from parents being just the carer to including a role of partnering with their son or daughter to support them to create a life of their own.
• Families were pleased that they now had less reliance on Milparinka but valued the process of continual conversations ahead of single point planning to keep things moving and to keep discussions in the context of what was happening in peoples’ lives. They felt that this process meant that Milparinka had a better understanding of people’s lives than they had before.
• Families felt that the personalisation of supports had resulted in more right relationships in people’s lives. Not just between Milparinka and individuals, but also between the person with the disability and their families and other community members.
• Families were clear that the processes of individualising and personalising their supports had changed their view of, and relationship with Milparinka form one where it was seen as ‘The Service Provider’ to a view of Milparinka adding capacity to the families and individuals potential to achieve what they wanted. Central to this view is that Milparinka is a limited resource which plays different  parts in people’s lives, designed with people supports, and connecting them to conversations and relationships that make sense to people. This is very different from the starting point for all of these families which saw Milparinka as a primary service provider.

Milparinka still has a long way to go in its redevelopment to a place that can sustainably support individualised and personalised supports. Being informed by people whose lives make sense to them is a central part of this process. If you want to talk to us about what has worked for you them please contact us and let us know.