PlanNET services
PlanNET's core business is to build and maintain networks of support and friendship around
vulnerable people.
What are networks of support?
A network is a committed group of people who develop friendships with a person who is isolated and vulnerable by reason of their disability. A personal network helps connect people to the community. Each member of the network volunteers for a relationship with the focus person, and through their relationship, can offer support in many ways. Networks reduce reliance on paid service provision by involving the individual in freely-given relationships and connecting them to the community. Network members contribute to the quality of the individual's life now, as well as in the future when family support is no longer available.
To learn more about the importance of relationships and social interaction please click here to view Janet Klee's talks on youtube.
What does PlanNET do to build and maintain networks?
Using a person centred plan, PlanNET's facilitators must first get to know the individual. Only then can they help find the right people to stand with the person.
Our facilitators then:
- Assist in identifying potential network members
- Contact the identified people on a person's behalf to see if they would be willing to participate
- Arrange and facilitate regular meeting times for the network to come together
- Assist your relative to maintain contact with their friends in between meetings
- Keep the network working to your relative's person centered goals
- Are a conduit for communication and provide guidance to members around disability awareness
- Help replenish the network as its composition changes with time
- Foster wholesome reciprocal relationships
- Maintain the network around your loved one when your own circumstances change
Initiate opportunities that may lead to the development of future relationships
But I can do that myself for FREE!
While many people can indeed do that themselves, the high level of time and energy required means that it is often not done. For those families who do undertake to build a circle themselves, what happens when they are no longer in a position to maintain it? The circle would at that point begin to fall away, and this just at a time when the individual needed their circle of friends the most. Hence the independent facilitator, and the commitment to maintaining an ongoing circle on behalf of the person throughout their lifetime.
Anyone with a large circle of friends knows it is very difficult to keep connected to everyone on an ongoing basis. Without someone proactively keeping things together and on track, many networks fall off the rails and become token gatherings where people attend out of obligation, not genuine interest. To be thriving, effective and long standing, networks need to offer positive outcomes for all people involved. Achieving this takes careful planning and nurturing. At PlanNET this is what our facilitators do for a living! We only employ people who have outstanding people skills, understand the vulnerabilities associated with disability and are experienced in the building the capacities of communities.
There are some elements to working with networks that our facilitators embrace all in a day's work:
- Replenishing networks across their lifespan to remain effective beyond family support
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Approaching people to get involved - there is no feeling of obligation, since it is not the
family doing the asking. - Strategically targeting someone and securing their collaboration
- Taking knock backs from potential members if they decline involvement, which can be hard if it is the family doing the asking
- Breaking down myths and barriers about disability with potential members
- Ensuring all members can communicate effectively with your relative the focus person.
- Seeing opportunities to teach and persevere with social skill development
- Managing dynamics of groups and personalities of individuals
- Dealing with a less-than-helpful network member
- Ensuring wholesome and reciprocal relationships are formed
- Keeping the network person centered and on track with the individual's life plan
What can a personal network help me with?
While the network is built around the individual with a disability it also provides an amazing source of support for the primary carer and the family in that:
- You don't have to go it alone
- You can maintain your energy levels for longer
- You can draw on the ideas and solutions from the network
- Different network members may offer different expertise from their roles in the community e.g. financial planning, social & recreation ideas, health advice, contacts for employment & housing etc.
- You can troubleshoot big decisions that need to be made
- Solutions are more community focused and less reliant on paid or government provided support
- It can be a powerful lobby group if required
- It can help your support $ to go further if freely given support and respite are offered
- It provides friendship and shared experiences between members and your relative
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It continues to support your loved one when family members are unable to do so
Plans
What is a plan?
A plan is a structured, active document that reflects how a person wants to live and their goals for the future. What makes a good plan? The best plans are those where the main contributors are the person themselves and their immediate family and friends i.e. the people who know them best. The best plans are constructed through a process of asking, listening and recording. And afterward, the best plans are those that are kept up to date, recording achievements and reflecting changes in the person's life.
Why have a plan?
Throughout life, people write plans to help achieve their goals, be they savings plans, planning for a trip, or building a house. A person with a disability has many plans written for and about them, be it to receive adequate and appropriate services, to guide and inform a child's education plan, to plan to move out of home, to find suitable support workers, to name a few. As life unfolds, the quality of life for a person with a disability is often dictated by available services or funds, and families will often accept whatever comes along, whether they want it or not. The type of plan upon which a network is based is one that looks at 'whole of life' issues, is informed by the person and their family, and which invites them to focus their thoughts about the future, work out what they don't want, and arrive at a vision of what they do want. How that vision is achieved and who will contribute to its achievement are a vital part of the planning process.
How can I get a plan?
While PlanNET does not facilitate plans, we can connect you to organisations that provide assistance in planning and can support you as you undertake this.