Including the people we support in the community was a big focus of a Down Under Conference held in Hamilton in February.

Pact's Cranley Street service coordinator Sarah Kingipotiki (pictured left) and Pact Otago service advisor coordinator (intellectual disability) Michelle Henderson attended the five-day conference.

Sarah says big focus was how we include the people we support in the community. She says we often encourage people with disabilities to join groups with other people with intellectual disabilities rather than in clubs in the wider community.

“It’s also about letting the community accept everybody. A lot of things in the past have burnt bridges in the community and it’s about building them up again.”

She says they learned about a programme in one Hamilton primary school where from a young age acceptance is promoted for everyone.

“It’s letting them take leadership in their lives and just following it right up from such a young age. It’s about bringing everybody on board.”

Otago service manager (intellectual disability) Karen Lesley did some work last year on how often people are out in their community and how it can be increased. “We can’t increase it just through our staff – it has to be people in the community.”

Sarah and Karen say it also has to come from individuals themselves being willing to mix in the wider world, even though there is a place for them also being with their peers.

The conference was an international event and Sarah found it interesting to talk to counterparts from the US, Canada and Australia.

“Everybody’s doing everything differently and they’ve got different ideas.”

 She was very interested in Jack Pearpoint’s talk on person-centered planning and has book on the topic that will go into the Pact library when she has finished it.

“I’m working on getting the clients I support into doing this - getting their goals and dreams and get them focused on something they really want to achieve. There are lots of different ideas about how to achieve it. Some people might just want to talk about it, others might want to do up a big poster and put ideas together.

“They can plan it with whoever them want. They can get their family to come in and help them plan it or friends or support worker.”

There were not as many consumer representatives at the conference as organisers had hoped for. Sarah says it was good to have Michelle with her because they approached things differently and had different ideas.