After a brief unsuccessful experience at another service, Ben came to Milparinka as a young man with a history of challenging behaviours throughout and after his school life. In his early period at Milparinka, Ben continued to show antisocial behaviours which defined him as a risk to himself, other clients and staff to a level where he could not continue at Milparinka. Too frequently, Ben’s otherwise friendly personality fractured into aggressive tantrums severely impairing his relationships with other people. At home, Ben’s family alternated between hope and despair about his future until they reached a rock bottom of desperation.
BENS STORY
After a brief unsuccessful experience at another service, Ben came to Milparinka as a young man with a history of challenging behaviours throughout and after his school life. In his early period at Milparinka, Ben continued to show antisocial behaviours which defined him as a risk to himself, other clients and staff to a level where he could not continue at Milparinka. Too frequently, Ben’s otherwise friendly personality fractured into aggressive tantrums severely impairing his relationships with other people.
At home, Ben’s family alternated between hope and despair about his future until they reached a rock bottom of desperation. Had Ben remained in a traditional service model within a regime of group programs which disenfranchise individuals of any real choices about their lives, he almost certainly would have gone down a path of 24 hours-a-day levels of specialist support both in day service and in an accommodation facility. From this lowest of low points, Ben commenced a journey of personal growth. Ben, his family and Milparinka formed a partnership which shifted the focus from Ben as a passive person with support needs to Ben as an individual with his own unique passions, interests and ambitions. This partnership meant joining together to undertake a process of thinking and imagining a life of Ben’s own choosing. Milparinka made this possible by showing Ben’s family how to make constructive use of its own and also of
external specialised external resources. Milkparinka linked Ben and his family to the unique service, ‘Personalised Living Arrangements’, who worked to envision and develop Ben’s participation in the community by formulating an individual plan tailored around his interests.
Ben’s main interest is cars. He talks about cars. He loves to look at cars, read about them and to wash and clean them. Milparinka also arranged for Ben’s family to attend a number of public presentations by Dr Michael Kendrick, an independent international consultant involved in the reform of delivery of human services. Ben’s family was also able to consult personally with Michael on Ben’s future. As a direct result of this team effort, Ben catapulted himself into three part-time jobs working independently in the community washing cars, something he had always talked about. With these employers he is working without the assistance of any support from specialist Milparinka staff. At each workplace his role has been individualised to match the time period where he can maintain a good level of concentration. In all of these workplaces he is involved in and connected with what we refer to as natural or normal community supports. Ben has attended and enjoyed a short automotive course at Kangan TAFE Coburg. He has learned to travel independently in the community using public transport. With strategic support in early mornings and evenings funded through the Department of Human Services, he is now living five nights a week in his own flat and transitioning to full time independent living.
Ben’s is a transformation story. He has changed himself from a dissatisfied, angry young man, confined in a space where he did not want to be, to a mature individual in the process of achieving his personal goals and ambitions. Ben’s is one particular story but there are other stories like his. They are worth thinking about, especially for families and carers looking after young adults who may be encountering the same frustrations that Ben worked his way through. His story shows that when people are assisted to imagine a better lifestyle for themselves and given the personalised supports and planning that Milparinka can provide, good things will happen in their lives.
