Name: What does it mean to live a good life?
Uploaded: 2023-04-03T06:54:43.969Z
Duration: 638.4
Description: Sue Dymond and Elizabeth Curran have both been living with people with disabilities for many years. In this video, they discuss what it means to them to live a good life. They talk about the importance of having a positive attitude, being independent, and being happy with who you are.

Sue & Elizabeth 500MB Edited.mp4

Rachel Video 500MB.vtt

Subtitles

{{00:00:06}}
Hello, my name is Sue

{{00:00:07}}
Diamond and I am the CEO

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and the founder of  IDAREU,

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which is a small charity

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in Melbourne that supports

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people and their families

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to have their best lives.

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IDAREU fills the GAPS So

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we're a connector and we

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fill the gaps that other

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disability services don't know

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about cuz we walk the walk.

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As well as that, I am

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also a woman who has a

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disability, a hidden one.

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And I'm also the mother of

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a 31 year old woman who has

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down syndrome called Chloe.

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I'm also member of a few

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committees as a disability

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representative, so I'm on

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the emergency management

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committee in Melbourne

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and I'm also on the Knox

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Disability Advisory Committee.

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So I have quite a lot of hats.

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My name's Elizabeth.

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I have, I'm  full-time carer

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to two sons with autism, so

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Marcus is almost 31 and Caden.

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29.

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I've been a sole parent

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since both the children

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were diagnosed with autism.

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I've done a significant amount

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of advocacy for my children

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with autism in the community.

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I've been a very strong

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advocate with Victoria Police

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because my son, Caden, was

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when he was very young, was

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a gold medalist absconder,

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and I could never find him,

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and neither could the police.

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So I've worked for over

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20 years assisting other

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parents to understand that

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the police are our friends.

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What if you don't

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know how to dream?

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Let me tell you all, we

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all know how to dream.

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We've just forgotten

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how to dream.

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Most important thing when

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it comes to dreaming, I

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give the tip and I gave it,

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yesterday for people who

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were in the conference that

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one easy way, if you've

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forgotten how to dream, is to

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go back to when you were 15.

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Because when we were

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young, we all knew how to

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dream, and we dream freely.

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We lose it amongst, the

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daily grind of life.

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But if you are not, if

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you're having trouble

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with that, go and buy your

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favorite piece of cardboard.

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Doesn't cost much.

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Probably about three bucks.

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Grab a couple of

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magazines, old ones

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best, go to a news age.

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I don't care where you

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go, just go and get

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some old magazines.

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Do not think about it, and

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just rip out pictures and

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stick 'em on that cardboard.

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All words, and you will

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look at it after and you

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will have your dream.

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Very simple, and it works

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every time, but you can't

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put your brain into it.

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You've just gotta go with

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whatever hits you at the time.

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That way you'll find out

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what your dreams are.

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Trust me, it's a hundred

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percent successful.

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And if you can't speak,

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and that was a question

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that was asked yesterday.

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I, I don't understand how

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people think talking and

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dreaming are the same thing.

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I mean, I don't know, as I,

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and I did say yourself, I've

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never met anyone I can't

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communicate with, and I've met

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many people I can't speak to.

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But again, the vision board

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is an ideal way of being

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able to do it visually.

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And it doesn't matter whether

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you have no language or not.

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And I just wanna

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elaborate something here.

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I'm passionate about

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this for a good reason.

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I was a crazy carer.

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I work full-time.

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I'm a single mom.

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I work full-time.

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I, Chloe is not my only child.

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I have another

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daughter, Shannon,

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who is 10 years older.

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I was on committees.

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I was doing volunteer

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work with troubled teens.

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I was doing many things and

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where it sent me was having a

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stroke and ending up back in

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my house seven months later.

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If we don't learn to have

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a good life, people, I'm

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an example of what will

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happen, not could happen.

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It may not be a stroke,

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but we can't keep it up.

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So we must all learn to have a

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good life and have our people

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with a disability have a

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good life so that we can take

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the pressure off ourselves.

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In very positive ways, because

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the, the object in my case

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for my son was to build

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very good structure for him.

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So what that meant was I had

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to seek out very good advocacy

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and with N D I S I had to

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learn how to understand.

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In this case, we're

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talking about N D I S.

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I had to learn how to

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understand the plan to

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get the most, to have

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the most knowledge to, to

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make the best decisions.

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As a carer, before N D

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I S, I didn't have the

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capacity to understand this.

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So with very good advocacy

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and then starting to build,

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have the confidence to start

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to become basically this.

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I'm the CEO now.

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I am the primary carer, but

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I'm like the CEO of my family.

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So I have to understand

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from a business perspective,

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very good communication

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with different people

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that I contract.

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I've seen significant

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changes in positivity

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all through covid with

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the different one-on-one

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supports we've put in place.

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I'm behind a lot of it,

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but it is something that in

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time I'd like to have a key

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worker or another type of,

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like a personal assistant

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admin person so that I can

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start to delegate that task

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I'm pretty tough, you know?

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and also, But taking all

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that into account, my son

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has very good structure.

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He has a lot of good

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consistency, he has good

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routines, but it's not,

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it's not as,  as hardwired

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like that, it's like there's

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a lot of flexibility.

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there's a lot of creativity

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and innovation and I

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think with building very

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good structure, it's also

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helped to really, like Sue

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mentioned the vision board.

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It's also, the building very

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good structure helps to then

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engender very good purpose.

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So, with, with very good

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purpose comes fantastic,

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valued outcomes, you know,

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so that's something that,

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that's not exactly my court.

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Tony Atwood is a,

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is a, a specialist,

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professor within autism.

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That's his court structure,

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purpose, and value.

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So as in value, outcome,

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I've stuck by that and it's,

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and it really works, you

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know, so, so I think, Yeah,

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it's so far, so good, and

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from my point of view, When?

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When my, when Chloe has a

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good life, and I need to

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say here, a good life is

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not a spectacular life.

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We don't have to

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be inspirational.

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A good life is very personal

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for every person, and I

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was saying to somebody

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this morning, the fact

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that Chloe's learned how

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to get up in the morning.

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Get herself ready and get

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herself off to wherever

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she has to go to, and

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more importantly, have my

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hot cup of coffee beside

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my bed when I wake up.

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Man, that's a

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good life for me.

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It's not real inspirational

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for me, so I can be vertical.

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I'm happy.

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Insane that though,

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Chloe's good life is

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a very whole life.

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Chloe has a massive.....

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Because of the N D I S and

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people said yesterday, what's

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just got to do with the N D

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I S, everything, everything,

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people, because all of the

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services and the support that

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Chloe, that enables Chloe to

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do what Chloe does and have

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the life she's done, has been

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underpinned by understanding

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how to use an N D I S plan

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and how to not micromanage

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and how to outsource myself.

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So every the N D I S is the

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reason she has a good life.

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With Chloe, she's out most

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weekends either going out

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to dinner with her friends,

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she's got disability groups

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and she's also, she's involved

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in disability groups, but

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she's also involved with

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mainstream friends as well.

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She has a full, flexible,

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inclusive life of choice.

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She goes away on

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weekends with friends.

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She goes on holidays

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with friends.

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She goes on holidays

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with me occasionally too.

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When we feel we, we can

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handle that together.

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But Chloe can also, I don't

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have to micromanage her,

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she does her own washing,

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she does her own cleaning.

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She can cook for herself,

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and without that support and

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learnings, she, she can do

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that Without support, I could

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not be the CEO  of IDAREU.

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What

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having a good life for another

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person that you care for

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enables us to do is free us.

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To have our good life

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disentangle ourselves from the

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intensity of being a carer.

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That definitely does come

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into it in the early days

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so that we can start to live

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our dreams and not see our

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child as an extension of us

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or as an, and heaven forbid,

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I really don't mean this, but

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I've never seen my daughter

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as a burden, but I know that

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it is something that is seen.

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My daughter is a joy.

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She's an equal.

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She needs support.

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She has down syndrome.

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Of course, she needs support,

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but because of what the N

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D I S has done, she doesn't

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need as much support as she

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may have needed originally.

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And for me, I can be here

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having a weekend away and

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my daughter's at home alone

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without paid supports.

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That's a good life,

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and that means.

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We can then have a

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joyous life together.

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And when I say joyous, I don't

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mean happy, joyous, and free.

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I mean a real life.

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And that makes me joyful.

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But I also wanna say, someone

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asked yesterday, where do

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you find out about this?

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IDARAU . We do workshops

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on how to have a good life.

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We do workshops on how to

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involve the local community

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to give free supports.

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As I said, we do the things

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that fill in the gaps.

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We, and we even fill in

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carer's forms because we know

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that carers are an endangered

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species in the headlights when

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it comes to filling in forms.

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We walk the walk, we know

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what is missing and we

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support people to get

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those things in line.

{{00:10:02}}
And we help people to

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get really good plans

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and do really good goals.

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And, and we can, we work

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with someone for a couple

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of hours until they get

{{00:10:11}}
their visions going and

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get their ideas going.

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This is what the, this

{{00:10:15}}
is what disability needs.

{{00:10:16}}
It needs people services

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to take the time, to get to

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know what a client really,

{{00:10:23}}
really needs, not just

{{00:10:25}}
scrape over the edge, move

{{00:10:27}}
on to the next one, which

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disability is really good at

{{00:10:29}}
doing and what we don't do.

Expert Insight

Sue Dymond and Elizabeth Curran have both been living with people with disabilities for many years. In this video, they discuss what it means to them to live a good life. They talk about the importance of having a positive attitude, being independent, and being happy with who you are.

Healthcare

Sue-Dymond.jpg

Sue Dymond

Discover insights from other experts

Founder & CEO

thumbnail_Elizabeth-Curran.jpg

xsmall_Elizabeth-Curran.jpg

Elizabeth-Curran.jpg

Elizabeth Curran

Primary Caregiver & Mother to Caden

What you should do if you don't know how to dream?

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