Supporting Good Quality of Life
Things to remember and reflect on when striving to support good quality of lifeBy Ben Weinlick (Project Lead for Project Citizenship)
- What makes people happy is different for everyone.
- Be careful not to impose your own beliefs and wishes on to the person you are supporting.
- Remember to keep the person you are supporting at the helm, directing how we should support them.
- The individual should be the captain of their ship.
- Honor the persons choices, voice and rights: How are you honoring the wishes and self-determination of the people you are supporting?
- Empathize: Every day reflect on what it might be like to receive services and care. How would you insist on being treated? How would you want a loved one treated if they were in care?
- Reflect, am I supporting the true wishes and aspirations of the person or am I working in a way that makes things easier just for me as a staff person?
- How are you respecting the dignity and privacy of the person?
- Help people find belonging in community by connecting them with others that share their interests and passions.
- Social belonging often happens through people doing activities together, not just being passive observers. How can you support people to become ‘of’ community not just physically ‘in’ a group, or place?
- Being ‘of’ community means a person has rich relationships and friendships and is well known.
- Reflect on how you support a person to be a valued citizen of their community. Are there things you can say and do in community that helps shine a light on the positive contributions people with disabilities make? How does your daily work help others in community to value people with disabilities more?
- How do you help a person you support to develop having a sense of home. Is the home where they live really like a home or is it more like an institution?
- Engage people in making meals and having friends and family over for meal time.
- Part of our role is helping others to broaden their horizons. What are we doing to support growth and learning? Are we supporting people to try new things they are interested in? If people say they don’t want to do anything new, is it maybe because they are afraid because they have been let down in the past? Empathize: See things from their perspective.
- Reflect regularly what is a good life… Are we honestly doing everything possible to support people to live their full potential?