What am I passionate about? Are you passionate about it too?

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Sue Hillis

When you read about blogging, all of the ‘experts’ tell you that it is important that you are interested in the topic, and that you are interesting – that is that you hold people’s attention and make them want to read. So I hope that you will read my blog, and make comments about it, provoke further discussion and participate in it.

Sometimes I will write the whole blog, and other times I will introduce or comment on a blog that someone else has written. So for a while, until I get a sense from you that the topic is no longer interesting, I am going to focus on “quality of life”. I believe that it is a vast topic, worthy of public discussion, although it’s definition is quite subjective, based on an individual’s interpretation, it is also influenced by cultural, and societal values, and often ignored when we have discussions about how best to utilize our tax dollars!

Improving or enhancing the ‘quality of life’ for people who need some assistance to participate in, and/or live independently in the community has been a passion of mine throughout my career. I have worked at DBIS for over 5 years, managing and advocating for services for persons living with the effects of an acquired brain injury. Prior to that I spent 5 years in the regional office of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care where I worked on policy development, planning, monitoring all types of health care services in the region. This gave me an opportunity to see how government really works, and how we need to influence policy makers to think about quality of life. Prior to that, I worked in services for seniors and adults with disabilities at the provincial, regional and local levels.

So from my perspective something that is important when considering someone’s quality of life is asking the person what is important to them, what their definition is, and not presuming or looking at it through my lens and my value system. That is a very challenging task, and one I think we all need help with, seeing things from another’s perspective!

So in this blog I’d like to introduce you to Sarah, one of our clients. She currently lives in our 24 hour Assisted Living environment and attends our program called Cornerstone Clubhouse. You can hear a bit about her perspective of what is important to her for her ‘quality of life’. I heard Sarah say these things at one of the Family and Friends events we have at Cornerstone Clubhouse, and asked if I could use parts of her speech in my blog.

Sarah said “When I lived in Stirling my life was very depressing, agonizing, and so bad that I just couldn’t really deal with it anymore. So after two years of waiting to get into DBIS I had finally got in and found that I had the chance of getting my own place, a job and almost all of the things that I wanted when I still lived in Stirling.

When I started the program at DBIS everything was still pretty bad but not too long after I started to slowly learn what I could and couldn’t do then the people from Dale got me set up with Cornerstone Clubhouse.

At the Clubhouse I had so many options and opportunities to do things and go places which I couldn’t when I still lived in Stirling. I can do things like meal prep, answering phones, go on picnics to the park with a group of people from the Clubhouse and when we do that we get to barbecue there, play tennis, football, baseball and a lot of socializing. I don’t know how to say it but I just love the Cornerstone Clubhouse so very much. My life has totally changed.”

So what does Sarah need to have an improved quality of life? What I hear is she wants her own place and a job. She wants options and opportunities. I think many of us would share these goals for our lives, so what are the barriers? What do we encounter in our lives that limit our options and opportunities, may prevent us from getting our own place, or finding a job? I am sure these barriers are different for each of us, and how do we remove these barriers? Are the barriers the same for people who require assistance and support to participate in the community as they are for us, or are they different?

Is it up to us (Dale Brain Injury Services) as community-based Health Service Providers to ensure that we try to support our clients in achieving the ‘best’ quality of life possible – from their perspective? Or, are we trying to achieve a minimum standard – ensuring that people have shelter and food, and keep them safe – the basic necessities? Is that all we can/should afford, on the taxpayers dime?

Lots of questions, so what is your opinion? Or, do you have questions to ask of us, or the community?