For anyone living with disability, finding the perfect home lifestyle can be a challenging process. In many cases, you are often juggling different tasks and trying to discover a balance between living independently and having the correct supports around you to assist with your daily routine.
There are a few different options to consider when analysing the landscape for the best living arrangements for living with disability. Obviously, everyone has unique requirements and some people may need more assistance than others. For example, not everyone has family, friends or support members who can help at home. In these specific cases, looking into specialist disability accommodation is often an avenue to pursue.
We’ll be guiding you through some of the different factors to consider to help you discover the ideal home lifestyle when living with disability.
Supported Independent Living
One of the most popular and beneficial disability services that many people around Australia utilise as part of their NDIS journey is supported independent living (SIL). As part of SIL, people are able to have assistance with usual daily tasks and chores, while being able to still retain an independent lifestyle where possible.
For many disability service providers, SIL is often provided in a shared living space where paid supports can offer care and supervision to those who require it. Usually, this service can be one of the support options that people with disability can choose when organising their NDIS plan. Often times it can also be beneficial to look into NDIS plan management services as part of this plan to avoid being overwhelmed with financial tasks and paying invoices each month.
Sometimes SIL may be a suitable option to consider when looking for their ideal living circumstances. Some things to keep in mind include:
- The particular person’s NDIS plan and their goals for their daily lifestyle.
- The level of support required throughout a normal day.
- In some cases, SIL may not be appropriate and other supports might be needed.
Specialist Disability Accommodation
Depending on your goals and your overall support requirements, another option that may be more suitable is specialist disability accommodation. Under this specialist accommodation, there will be a range of helpful features designed to help people to have easy and better access to the supports that they need in their home.
Such accommodation is designed for those who have a higher level of functional impairment and require quite an involved level of support. If you are someone who does have a reasonable and clearly apparent need for specialist disability accommodation then this can be worked into your funding as part of your NDIS plan.
Living A More Fulfilling Life
FInding the ideal living setup at home can take a little bit of an adjustment period. There are a number of other things you can do to ensure you’re living a more fulfilling life with disability.
1. Setting Attainable and Realistic Goals
One of the most important things you should do as early as possible is to set attainable and realistic goals. If your current situation is quite new to you, it may take a while to come to terms with your new way of life.
During this time you can begin to outline exactly what you hope to achieve in different time increments. For example, your 6-month goal might be to be able to do your usual grocery shopping without assistance. Or a 12-month goal might be to improve upon your current fitness levels by partaking in some pilates or seeing a physical therapist.
2. Finding a solid support network
An extremely common problem that many people with disability can face is increased loneliness or a feeling of separation from society. By taking the time to join a support group or creating your own local support network, you’ll benefit greatly from the social interaction that such a network provides.
Discussing everyone’s personal struggles or areas that they may need guidance in can lead to some brilliant ideas coming to the surface. Such groups allow you to share your words of wisdom and allow the collective intelligence of the group to discover some truly amazing strategies or words of encouragement to help keep morale high. Having a scheduled time on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis can allow you to have that clear time and space to voice opinions and issues with a supportive group of people.
3. Exercising where possible
Depending on what level of disability you may have, you should look to include daily exercises into your routine. Even simple stretching exercises around your home can do wonders for your body and mind. As you start to feel more confident with the exercise you’re doing, you can gradually increase your exercise regime and add more creative exercises into your routine.
The important thing to remember here is that you’re not trying to push your body to its absolute extremes, but rather find the ideal routine that allows you to increase your fitness whilst not causing yourself any unwanted pain or stress.
Learning and Adapting
Finding your ideal lifestyle may take some time to get it to where you hoped it would be. Combining the perfect living arrangements with some of the above tips will ensure you’re getting the most out of your daily routine.
At the end of the day, there will be a period of learning, adapting and updating your living routine until you have found the right balance. This is often a forever evolving process, so it’s good to monitor and reassess your progress at regular intervals.