Active Support
Active Support is an evidence based approach to the design and delivery of community based support services for people with disabilities,especially for those with complex support needs.
It involves training staff in specific skills and organisational procedures that focus their work on the direct support of consumer participation in meaningful activity.
A fundamental reason for implementing Active Support is the well-documented low level of participation by people with disability in everyday activities that affect their quality of life.
Leveda was well aware that our clients with severe and multiple disability in particular spent much of their life waiting whilst support staff were busy doing things for people rather than with people.
Leveda received funding from the Julia Farr MS McLeod Trust to build the capacity of Leveda to ensure clients are engaged and participating in all aspects of their life. The focus of the project was to achieve organisational wide cultural change which focus on building the capacity of all staff by training and supporting staff to change the way they engage and support clients. The funding also to produced an Active Support Manual to assist other organisations implement Active Support.
There has been considerable increases in both client participation and engagement at home as well as an increase in the range and number of out of home activities clients are engaged in.
Julia Farr MS McLeod Benevolent Fund provided financial support to this project.
ACTIVE SUPPORT MANUAL
Yet another exciting project from Leveda, The Leveda Active Support Manual and DVD was finalised and made available for sale in late October 2011 and launched with a morning tea at Leveda’s Salisbury head office.
Active Support is a quickly becoming an assumed form of support. In its most simple terms, Active Support is about working with, not for someone with a disability. It’s about supporting individuals to live as independently as possible, teaching staff support procedures to enable people living with a disability to fully engage and participate in daily living opportunities.
The manual was developed by Manager Service Quality, Karen Tohver, who has spent many dedicated months collating information from experts local and abroad and applying her own expertise and knowledge.
Leveda were proud to present the Active Support Manual at the 2011 ASID Conference. The conference was an opportunity to actively encourage attendees to learn more and realise the value and benefit of implementing the Active Support model into the life of a person with a disability.
If you would like a copy of the Leveda Active Support DVD and Manual please call Leveda on (08)8256 9800.