Case Study 3: Katherine and Lisa Katherine (24) lives independently in supported accommodation, which she shares with one other person. She moved out of her family home two years ago. Katherine is an inquisitive person with a quirky sense of humour, who likes to have control of her environment. She enjoys swimming, art and being in the outdoors – especially the beach. Katherine has a moderate intellectual disability, autism and generalised anxiety. Lisa is Katherine’s mother. While Katherine has moved out of home, Lisa continues to play an active role in Katherine’s life by managing her NDIS plan and most of her supports.
Having complex support needs
Katherine attends her day program five days a week. Lisa describes the program as being supportive and inclusive in the way staff work with Katherine and people with more complex needs.
Some of Katherine’s actions may come across as surprising to those who don’t know her. “She’ll go through people’s belongings. If someone turns up with a handbag, Katherine will start going through the handbag. She might find a lolly or a chocolate if she’s lucky.” Katherine enjoys controlling her environment and needs to control the kitchen and what’s in her room. Lisa explained that Katherine is often decisive about her preferences in the moment. “If she decides that she wants to do something, she’ll do it.” Other times, Katherine’s actions can escalate. “She can be a challenge… she can become quite angry if she gets very stressed.” Katherine’s behaviour support needs are sometimes misunderstood by her support workers. Staff who know her are familiar with her anxiety and how it can lead to her actions, but new staff have difficulty understanding. As she’s become older, her actions have become more problematic. She sometimes doesn’t like people in her space, and some things that happen in the environment can send her into a bit of a panic. If she gets upset, Lisa and her support workers will use a range of different approaches such as music and other sensory tools to help her to keep calm.
14 | Reaching Potential
Participating in the community While Katherine enjoys the outdoors and being in the community, it hasn’t always been easy for her to feel comfortable around other people. Lisa has been trying to use different strategies to get Katherine out and about. The main challenge is people coming into her space. While she does go out occasionally, she finds crowded places overwhelming. “She was at the beach with one of the carers. A child came screaming in front of her. She ran to the carer and started pulling the carer’s hair.” Katherine attends her day program five days a week. Lisa describes the program as being supportive and inclusive in the way staff work with Katherine and people with more complex needs. Lisa believes that without the program, Katherine wouldn’t have many other opportunities to participate in the community. “There weren’t any other services that designed programs around her rather than have her fit into what they do, which is usually having a bus full of people doing activities together. Being able to have greater control over what she does means she has fewer issues with her situation. They also have OTs and speechies who are brought in to put strategies in place so she can interact as much as possible.”
