FOR YOUR INTEREST

For Your Interest carries items for the people we support, employees and friends of NWRSS. There will be regular updates with past entries archived for easy retrieval. If you are visiting the site for the first time you might like to familiarise yourself with the organization through the Service Statement. Comments, contributions and enquiries are welcome by contacting nrodwell@nwrss.org.au

Web Master: Neal Rodwell
Editor: David Rish
Proof Reader: Pamela Rodwell

Organisational Structure

North West Residential Support Services has been developing its own unique structure since its inception in 1992.

This is a very innovative organisation structure that harnesses the strengths and talents of staff. The organisation structure also effectively and efficiently enables the use of resources to reduce waste and duplication and therefore, provides increased funds into direct service delivery.
James O’Neill, James O’Neill & Associates

I completely support the new proposed structure . . . most importantly it is consistent with the culture of the organisation.
Simon Thiessen, The Real Learning Experience

I must say your organizational structure definitely has its advantages!
Jacquie Petrusma MP, Member for Franklin.

A description of this structure and how it works can now be read by clicking on Organisational Structure in the Menu.
Read More >>

This article was posted on 01/11/11.

SARGE

Click to download
Sarge's zine
in pdf formatPeter (‘Sarge’) Sargison, by letting me tell this story, provides an important example of the need to think outside the traditional approaches to residential support. Particularly, when, as in Peter’s case, intractable personal problems don’t respond to the narrow and restrictive application of support hours that we have become used to.

This is part of a progression that started with thinking beyond the provision of accommodation (bricks and mortar), to thinking about home creation. From embracing the concept of home we have now moved to life building and the recognition that each life area requires a different application of resources and energy to maximize growth and repair. This chapter in Peter’s story illustrates an approach to role creation or more specifically, in Peter’s case, role retrieval.

Supporters of socially disengaged people ̶ very few people with life defining disabilities are properly socially engaged ̶ are now seeing that survival provisions such as a few domestic or basic community access hours may achieve very little and, in fact, end up being wasteful.

To quote from Doctor Peter Wright, Senior Lecturer in Arts Education and Research Methods at Murdoch University in Western Australia ̶ ‘In the UK, the Arts Council of England and Department of Health are active partners with supporting policy initiatives. Consequently, social engagement, health and well being are intimately entwined’.

This life building approach will be essential if Australian society is to achieve real social inclusion for those cast to the fringes of our society.

Peter’s story clearly encapsulates this direction, illustrating how a broader but carefully targeted approach of the right nature can save money and achieve better results.

Peter has given me permission to tell this very personal story because of its life saving importance for him and others.

Peter was born without arms as well as having various other health conditions that have kept him in a state of vulnerability all of his life. North West Residential Support Services (NWRSS) has maintained contact with him for over twenty years providing small amounts of support at his request. This has never usually gone beyond ten hours per week with lengthy periods of nothing but friendly catch up chats over a beer. His life has followed fairly normal patterns with a childhood in a flourishing neighborhood that, according to a long-time neighbour, consisted of ‘twelve houses and sixty seven kids.’ One of those now grown up kids relates how, in his determination to be just like the others, Peter left permanent teeth marks on the wooden steering wheel of the little communal plastic tractor as he took his turn to foot-push and steer it up and down the street.

NWRSS’ informal contact to keep up with his life and support him by request has been a very cost effective way of providing the support he needs. His stability over much of this period was due to his identity as an artist and his natural inclusion in the art circles within the community. Peter completed his Arts Diploma at TAFE, held regular exhibitions and won a significant regional award. Many home walls in the North West region carry Peter’s paintings, drawings and prints. Unfortunately, this role as an artist slowly diminished as the artists who used to naturally support him moved away or took up other pursuits. Drinking often filled the gap and fueled the procrastination that prevented a return to his artistic role even though he is well remembered and well regarded by the many people who know him, as a once popular local artist.

Peter, his sister and mother coped well with the death of Peter’s father in 1990. Sadly, Peter’s much loved sister, Jenny, who had often been his arms, took her own life after struggling with depression in 1995. This left Peter and his mother to support each other in a close co-dependent relationship. Peter could drive an extensively modified car while his mother had never held a licence. She was often his arms while he was her wheels. Eventually he lost his licence for drink-driving offences, and then Peter relinquished the car, because of its high maintenance costs. He and his mother, though, stayed very close and continued their entwined lives without wheels.

When Peter’s mother died in 2009 there was suddenly nothing left for him to focus his life on. He had no strong ties to other relatives and, as the last of his family, felt an enormous sense of loss and loneliness. Alcohol became more of a panacea and his dreams of picking up his art tools again receded further.

Having only one kidney, this lifestyle seriously threatened Peter’s health and threw him into a deep depression that took him in a suicidal direction. He came close to succeeding on numerous occasions.

NWRSS started providing more visiting hours but it was obvious that while they provided temporary paid social connections, they were not going to alter the lack of purpose that was plaguing him. The usual direction for support services in such situations is to apply for, and throw more hours through the narrow domestic keyhole. Enough hours can often hold a situation in some semblance of day to day control but not get close to the cause of the problem. The initial injection of funds might be necessary to arrest the crisis but maintaining this position in the long-term can just be wasteful.

In looking at Peter’s life areas, it wasn’t hard to see that addressing his once very strong, but now all but lost artistic role, could be a well-aimed shot at the heart of his problems.

NWRSS approached production company, BIGhART to find a suitable artistic mentor to work with Peter in rebuilding his life. Artist, Nick Hobbs, was working for BIGhART at the time with art students at the Wynyard High School as part of the preparation for their annual musical production, Two Strong Hearts. Nick was introduced to Peter and they decided to start working together. Nick helped Peter sort out the years of work that lay piled under Peter’s bed, organized studio space, equipment and the materials that Peter needed to start creating again. Twelve months later, Peter is ensconced in the artistic life once more with an outflow of saleable work. The cost in support time has been four hours a week.

When Nick eventually moved to Queenstown to become an artist-in-residence at the high school, it was decided to approach Rebecca Lavis, who lives and paints on the North West Coast and exhibits in Sydney, to continue this mentoring approach in Nick’s place. As previously, Peter and Rebecca were introduced and left to decide their compatibility for the continuation of the venture. Both agreed to start working together. The work included drawing forays into the community, time spent in Rebecca’s studio and at, Peter’s home based studio (a corner of his one bedroom flat) as well as a local community studio.

Peter continues to flourish, and in the best of artistic partnerships Rebecca and Peter often become subjects for each other.

The secret to this success is the careful targeting of the right life area with a coherent approach of using the right person, doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time, with the right materials, for the right reasons.

Peter’s work with Rebecca now includes regular personal zines. A zine is a wonderful way for people to self bolster their identities and keep a creative record of their life and achievements. Wikipedia defines a zine as:

A zine(an abbreviation of the word fanzine, or magazine; pronounced /ˈziːn/ zeen) is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier.

You can read Peter’s zines by clicking on the cover page at the beginning of his story or going to Zines in the menu.

Peter is no longer on a pathway to nowhere. His life is now meaningful and the future looks good. As long as Peter has a brush between his toes and remains a part of the art community then, as he says on the last page of his zine – ‘Bring it on!’

This article was posted on 28/4/11.

HOME SWEET HOME

winston The quotes that develop around a concept are often an indication of its importance in our lives. The only concept that gathers more quotes than ‘home’ is ‘love’. However, complacency is the greatest threat to understanding. We take our homes for granted and give little thought to how complex and fundamentally important home is to our identity and wellbeing. With high home ownership, secure tenures, no loss through wars, and little through natural disasters, it is easy to forego conscious thought about the importance of ‘home’. The following quotes pepper the stories about home in Where The Heart Is – A Celebration of Home. They form an important background text for people working in residential support services.

Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home.
English Proverb, circa 1300’s

Before the advent of automobiles, it was common for travellers to slice a small sliver from the lintel of their front door and carry it with them on their journey. This act ensured that they would return safely and their house would still be standing when they came home.

Happy is the house that shelters a friend.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not to be questioned.
Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes

The ancient Romans associated the left side with evil. Anyone entering their house with the left foot brought in evil. A slave, or “footman,” was stationed at the door to assure that everyone entered with their right foot first.

The advantage of a hotel is that it’s a refuge from home life.
George Bernard Shaw

It comes to me every day of my life that a home spirit is being awakened amongst us, that as a nation we are beginning to realize how important it is to have homes of our own, homes that we like, that we have been instrumental in building, that we will want to have belong to our children.
Gustav Stickley

Click on Home Sweet Home in the Menu to see more. This book is available from our library.

Please send any quotes you find or coin to: nrodwell@nwrss.com.au

This article was posted on 11/4/11.

What Would Your Mother Say If She Were Watching?

winston In 2009 one of the best yardsticks for determining whether you are working responsibly and ethically was reinforced from an unusual source.

On March 14 2009, The Melbourne Age reported on Victoria’s newly appointed Commissioner of Police, Simon Overland’s first address to his force. He was quoted as saying:

‘You should go about your job as if there were a camera over your shoulder and someone was watching over you.’

This is about rules and surveillance. Every human service has to have its regulations, policies and protocols, and has to inform its workers that they are always under scrutiny for doing the right thing by these standards.

More enlightened human services also work at imbedding the values that will naturally uphold these standards.

Commissioner Overland, obviously aware of this dynamic, went on to say:

‘If I can give you some practical advice, as you go into every situation, ask, ‘What would my mother say if she were watching?’

This is recognition of one of the strongest influences on the values we come to hold.

To expand on Commissioner Overland’s advice, support workers should apply the following test to how they treat the people they support.

Ask yourself if you would be happy if your mother, father, son or daughter were treated this way. If you have any doubts, STOP and talk to your supervisor. You may be carrying a serious misunderstanding of the expectations NWRSS has of you, and all of its support workers.

The first response at managerial and supervisory levels will always be an educational, rather than a disciplinary approach.

This article was posted on 11/4/11.

Museum of disABILITY History

Unfortunately, in today's fast track accreditation system, disability support students learn little about their place in the history of the western world's response to disability.

To work without a sense of history is to risk repeating past mistakes.

Click on the heading, take a wander through our past and bring yourself up to date.

This article was posted on 30/08/09

The Real Learning Experience

Supervisory Group with Simon Thiesson Simon Thiesson from The Real Learning Experience working with some of the Supervisory Group. From left: Nathan Wise, Nadine Jones, Deb Mole, Simon, Ros Connlley, Teresa Inkson, Lee-Anne Aulich.

VALE - Steven Conway Eriksen

Steven Conway Eriksen To speak of Steve, in the context of his work, is to celebrate his serious nature. He could be the joker but, as a work mate, he was never without his serious backdrop.