I recently presented at the 50th ASID (Australasian Society of Intellectual Disability).
What a wonderful event is was, held in sunnyish Melbourne, Australia. There were many interesting speakers and the common theme was 'SELF-ADVOCACY' & "CHANGING MINDSETS"
I sat in the room and listened to the 2 speakers before me. Before sittng down, I was a little anxious BUT once the first speaker opened up, I started to relax.
Her talked completely complimented what I was presenting on.
Never accept less than excellence for our loved ones with a disability and, more importantly NEVER GIVE UP!!!
Then the second was a researcher and spoke about
results of some workshops around teaching carers and families empowerment and ways to get unpaid support!
Well, I started to think these guys had been looking over my shoulder as we compiled my presentation, so many common thoughts an ideas!
I spoke about iDareU and how we are going to give families tools to find their voice and to dare to dream for them and their loved ones.
Carers and service providers need to start changing the way they dance with each other.
It is a very sad truth to say, the Disability field is based on scarcity, distrust and fear.
This starts at the top and bleeds into every crevice of disability....no wonder by the time the front-line workers come face-to-face with their clients, they have become the Keepers of the funds and clutch tightly to the key that unlocks a clients 'GOOD LIFE',
Ensuring these pesky GIMME GIMME GIMMERs' act according to the Keepers demands to receive...maybe not what they want....but something they MAY be able to use!
"I spoke about how for very little money, service providers and clients need to see each other in a positive light."
Service providers need to be responding to a client with
" I will need to go do some homework & get back to you.....
instead to the automatic NO or Can't or I don't think we can..."
I, for one, can accept something can't be done, if I am shown why it can't be done
just telling me no never cuts it for me!!!
More than once or twice in our lives, we have worked with a 'CAN'T KEEPER' and had them go away and do some exploring and thinking outside the box.
ON EVERY OCCASION, SAID KEEPER HAS COME BACK WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE AND A SOLUTION!!!!
Carers, on the other-hand, need to not accept the initial negative response and learn to dig for the 'YES'. They also need to work WITH the Keeper to achieve the positive end result, not expect the keeper to do all the work.
Learning to respect each other and trust each other will build amazing rapport. Once we have these foundations in place - even if we don't get more money, we will have more pleasant lives, as we won't have to waste so much energy in negative space and everyone in the disability field will have a common respect & trust.
"Creating a mindshift from
SCARCITY TO ABUNDANCE,
allows good things to happen"
Soooo, let me finish the same way I did at ASID.....
iDareU to shift your mindset and get onboard the IDareU train of doing DISABILITY DIFFERENTLY!!!!!!
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