NICOLE COULTHARD:
There has been much talk about housing and housing models. We will have a different focus. This is about how we build a person's home and what we have done in one of our projects during the last year or two. It has been a long time in the making, really focusing on how we make a house a home where people make decisions and are in the driver's seat.
You will see why it was a challenge along the way.
On this particular slide the colouring may be difficult to see but it is easier on the bigger ones. This is an overview of one of Scope's remaining big sites. This was cutting edge in the 1970s, a place where people with disabilities could be safe, with everything that they needed provided for on the one site.
The red area is the accommodation, 12 rooms in that building, with currently 11 people there. In the purple is the day centre.People live at their home and go down the hill to the day centre.
Obviously, this is not consistent with the thinking about appropriate housing for those with disability. Looking around the buildings, it is quite an isolated location. There are big expanses of green, no train station within the area and the nearest shops are a fair distance and across multiple-lane roads, so not accessible for those with limited mobility.
When we first started having conversations about this, we were talking about things that would have been more consistent with current thinking – apartment living, for example. When we spoke with residents and their families, we found many people found the idea overwhelming and we realised that is not so surprising because when we look at those who currently live at this site, many are in their 40s and 50s, and all of them have very complex physical, sensory or cognitive impairments.
Many of them have lived here for a very long time, in excess of 30 years for some. So it's a massive change for some people.
This is Josie. "I am finding it hard to see into the future. I think I will be happy in my new house when I can see inside." So, there is an inability to deal with the abstract. Uncertainty about the future.
This is Gwenda who has lived there for more than 30 years, "I am apprehensive – everything will be strange and new – but I will get used to it."
So, people are excited. The existing accommodation is quite old. The new houses will be fully accessible which will offer people opportunities they have not had in their existing housing. So, people are excited but there is the fear of the unknown.
For this to be positive and successful, we needed to travel this journey together, hand in hand. The first step was designing the new homes. We formed a reference group that had representatives from residents, families, carers and staff.
We presented a basic plan to them and asked for their feedback. We had lots of robust conversations. Obviously, it is not a bottomless pit of money and we needed to incorporate some things but also make tough decisions about other things. But what matters is we made those decisions together so that at the end everybody was on the same page.
One of the great things is that we had the architect right there in the room with us, so it was a very authentic process. I think it valued and showed the value that we have in the people we support.
This is Josie. "It is like Leo,” the architect “is a magician, taking all our ideas and making them happen."
What plan did we come up with together? Just to give you an overview, we have 12 rooms at the existing site – we have purchased two blocks of land and on each block there are two of these homes, adjacent to each other. This is the floorplan for one of them.
People told us – things in the reference group that people said were important – people said they wanted more control of who was in their space and when. There is the absence of a staff space. With two houses adjacent to each other, we have converted the normal garage space into a staff space. Very self-sufficient.
The level of disability that some people have who will be living here necessitates overnight support, so we need fairly substantial staff spaces.
We have CCTV at the front doors so that people who are interested in doing so, can be in their bedroom or lounge room and have a visual of the front door and with remote technology they can open a door to let people in.
People said they also wanted private areas so that they could spend time with their guests that was not in their bedroom. For that reason, we added a second sitting room into the building as well.
Also, people understandably wanted a greater degree of control over their home environment, so we have the technology in place to enable people to control lights, blinds and, as time goes forward and people build skills in controlling things, there will be capacity to grow that in future years.
The previous slide was the floorplan and this is the overview. Just think back to that overview – before it was isolated and institutional, but we have travelled a long way. The yellow areas are the two new locations of the homes. The green area is the shopping precinct. The red is the train station and the purple is the local pool and recreation centre.
There are also libraries and all sorts of services within the space. It is an environment which is much more supportive of people being an active member of the community.
The first step was designing the home and then that carries on through the property design process which takes quite some time.
The second step was working with people to give them greater control over how the houses were run. We have had lots of meetings – one-on-one meetings – with people, and also small group meetings.
Asking lots of little questions about how do you want to manage shopping, cooking, cleaning, who gets to watch television and when... Little questions that will add up into the bigger picture of really telling people that, "This is your home and you get to make the decisions." It's a culture change for both residents and staff.
I do not want you to miss the video – it is very good! Just briefly, community connections – we are having lots of conversations with people about what they want to be involved in in the neighbourhood and how we can support them.
This is Jeff – "I started to explore the new area and I know where to find the post office, supermarkets, and coffee shops. I will have a look at Dan Murphy’s soon because I love beer and I think they will have a good selection."
Louise - "I am looking forward to getting out and meeting people especially the local business owners. I want to teach people how to communicate with me. "
Louise picks up on a different point which is that we need people to feel comfortable and ready to be a part of the community and we need to ensure communities are welcoming as well.
I will briefly touch on communication. Because all of the people who will live in these new homes have complex communication needs, we have had to work hard with the way we communicate with people. If you come to see our table in the break, we have on display a range of resources that we use to support communication along the way.
This is a picture of the newsletter translated into EasyEnglish, and I am happy to speak with anyone about that. I will finish with a video that shows the people behind the scenes. You will see how much effort it takes for Jeff and Louise to communicate. It is 45 seconds.
(Video plays)
SPEAKER:
(Inaudible)
SPEAKER:
I am really excited to move in. My housemates will be Jeff and Tanya.
SPEAKER:
(Inaudible)
NICOLE COULTHARD:
In closing, I would like to say that Jeff and Louise need to work hard with communicating with us and we need to be ready to listen. Thank you.