Making Placements That Last: What to Check Before Someone Moves In

An unhappy break in a placement at month five will cost you the vacancy twice over and will have a negative effect on the residents who were doing well.

Here is the list we use to determine if a household will actually work, 7 things to consider before someone goes in, and a way to document it. Yours to use as you please and, if it is useful, we will run it on one of your vacancies free of charge.

Why the match matters more than the support

If you've been in a SIL house for a while, you know what it's like to have a healthy house. The house is calm. The residents have discovered their own rhythms around one another, who watches television in the evening, who wants the kitchen at seven, who needs space on a Sunday. Staff want to work there. Families are relaxed.

And everyone knows the other kind, where something in the mix isn't right.

🏠  It is often not the support that differs between those two homes.

Funding fit is the entry ticket, not the assessment

Most matches are determined by the following two questions: “Have they got some SIL funding we can accommodate” and “is there a room available”. Both are necessary. They do not predict the success of the placement.

The things that actually determine it are more commonplace, and primarily related to everyday life.

Daily rhythm.  An early riser in a house that sleeps in. A person who desires a quiet evening in a household that is very social. It's the most frequent cause of low level, lasting friction and virtually never shows up on a referral form.

Sensory environment.  The level of noise, movement and stimulation that each person is able to tolerate, relative to the level that the rest of the household provides. A home that suits an active person can be genuinely difficult for someone who isn't.

Communication styles.  The way residents interact with each other, whether a resident needs predictability from their housemates, and whether the household has the patience for someone whose communication takes longer.

Existing dynamics.  All established homes have a shape. There's often an anchor resident, sometimes a pair that works well together. A new person changes that shape, and it's worth thinking about how before rather than after.

Support needs in both directions.  Not only whether you can meet their needs, but whether the household as it currently stands is a safe and comfortable place for them. The question is not asked as frequently as it should be.

Where someone's heading.  A participant who is progressing toward independence may outgrow the high, stable support of a house within the next 2 years or so. But that doesn't mean no, only that it's important to know ahead of time so that the transition can be planned and not improvised.

Family and network.  Visiting arrangements, how involved families expect to be, and compatibility with current arrangements at home.

Why this is now also a documented expectation

This July's new SIL module under the Practice Standards requires vacancy management to reflect participant choice and compatibility, and existing providers are assessed against it at their next audit rather than only at initial registration.

In practice, an auditor can ask how compatibility was determined in recent placements. It is something that most providers are already thinking about, and it happens in a conversation between the house manager and the service manager that never gets written down. It is typically only a change in documentation, not practice.

This is a good thing to do anyway. A written plan helps your house manager have something to refer to when there's pressure to fill the house quickly, which is exactly the moment good judgement is hardest to hold.

A practical process

1. Brief written matching framework.  The above factors along with space for notes for each placement. Half a page. It creates the audit trail and, more usefully, it slows the decision down at the right moment.
2. Meet and greets that matter.  More than one visit, at different times of day, including at mealtimes. Existing residents genuinely consulted and their views recorded. This is good practice, and direct evidence of the compatibility consideration.
3. A trial period, with a dignified exit.  Agreed with everyone up front, including the participant and their family. If it isn't working, it doesn't have to break down at month five, it can end at week six as a planned transition. Naming that possibility at the start makes it far less painful if it arrives.

The trade-off, honestly

Matching is more time-consuming when it is done meticulously. A house that has a room still open for another 3 weeks is a real cost, and it would be dishonest to say otherwise.

But a placement that breaks down costs the same vacancy anyway, later, plus the disruption to the residents who were already settled, the strain on staff in a house that's become hard to work in, and the distress to the person who is now moved twice. Most providers have experienced second vacancies in a household that is in disarray.

The provider who has a slightly longer average fill time, but placements that hold, is in a better place than the provider who fills quickly and churns over a 12-month period. Also, of course, it is the right thing to do.

What we do with this

Support Network is sector connected, support coordinators, plan managers, families and participants seeking supported living, and providers with rooms available. When we're considering whether a home and a person are a good match, it's along the lines above, not just funding and level of support.

It means fewer introductions than a lead list would provide, and more of them succeed!

Try it on one vacancy, free

📩  Tell us about a room you have open, and the people already living there. We will look for someone who really suits the household and we will make the introduction, no cost, no contract, no obligation.

Tell us about your vacancy

→  Or email Michelle at michelle@supportnetwork.com.au

Download the kit

→  supportnetwork.com.au