Why the Right Home Changes Everything

To most, home is the base on which everything else is built. It is where you sleep well or sleep poorly, where you feel comfortable or uncomfortable, where you feel full of energy for work and for friends or you don't.

It's the same for a person in supported housing. The difference is the decision may be made in a hurry, such as a hospital discharge date, a carer who is no longer able to manage, or a placement that has fallen apart, and is taken with whatever choices are available that month.

We think that's the wrong way round. Where a person chooses to reside is more important than nearly every other choice in the plan.

What We Believe

A house is more than a bed with support added on.  Two homes can have exactly the same hours and ratios, and be completely different homes to live in. It is different because of the people, the rhythm, and if someone fits in.

Being the right match is worth waiting for.  A placement that fails to maintain through month five will come at a cost, most of all for the person who will need to move again and for the housemates that were already settled.

The term choice can only be used in the context of real options.  If they show you one available room, it's not a choice. Individuals should see what is truly available and make comparisons.

It should not be necessary for anyone to make 15 phone calls to find a home.  The information exists. It is just spread out across hundreds of providers with no method to view it all together.

Independence isn't the same for everyone.  For one person it's preparing their own food, for another it's washing the dishes. When it comes to another, it's the time they stay up, or who they stay with. Good matching begins by asking the questions about what independence means to this person.

Why It Is Difficult In The Sector

No one ever made it wrong. It's just fragmented.

Providers have no knowledge of other people's homes. Support coordinators are familiar with providers they have previously worked with, which is just a small percentage. Families are beginning with a blank map.

Thus, people land in homes because of the people they come in contact with, and the outcome of a person's housing depends on the network of others that their coordinator has. It's unfair grounds for such a significant decision.

Meanwhile, the good providers with open rooms wait months and months for someone to call them who would be a perfect match.

Both sides of that are the same issue, the information is there, but it's not connected.

What A Platform Changes

The whole value is Connection. A provider's vacancy list facilitates the service of providing information to those persons who already know that provider. Put in with hundreds of others, and then compared to what people are searching for, it becomes something that they can't create on their own.

This is what Support Network is creating, a true snapshot of the availability and who's looking to find it so that:

• Rather than someone's chance mention, real options are seen by participants and families.
• Support coordinators and plan managers can find capacity without “ringing around” and use that time on the person.
• Providers hear from individuals who fit the home.
• Matches are assigned by fit and not by the means of being reachable that week.

The more connected we are, the better it gets. It's that part that compounds.

What Real Success Can Be Achieved

Not abstract. Concrete:

• One person leaves the hospital in weeks instead of months, the right room instead of the wrong.
• A house is stable for years, because the person who moved in fit, not just qualified.
• The coordinator gets the afternoon back and spends it on the participant, not on the phone.
• When a provider is full, residents are each other's best match, and the home is a better place to live and to work.

🤝  Those don't count as individual victories. They are one win, viewed from four perspectives.

Whatever you have done to get here, we wish to assist you.

📩  If you are seeking a home, providing help to one who is, or have homes available, discuss with us. Free, no obligation.

Send Michelle an email

→  michelle@supportnetwork.com.au