The Homes West Experience – Choreographing Life
How authority and responsibility can be delegated and shared in right relationship in the lives of people with a disability when they use services that support daily life.
Written by Jan Dyke for Homes West
Homes West Association Incorporated (Homes West) is a service in Brisbane, Australia that works with 11 families to support 12 people with a disability to establish and to live in a home of their own and to be included as active and valued members in their local community. However for families, the Homes West experience is much more than having a service supporting the daily life of a loved one. The experience has led to a way of life, one in which many aspects of authority and responsibility have been retained by family members or delegated by design, so that their choices and decisions give direction to their family member’s life and safeguard how life is played out, now and into the future. This paper shares families’ understanding and experience in grappling with the notion of right relationship and defining what authority and responsibility remains with whom, in their quest for a valued life with and for their family member with a disability…
