Hi everyone, I’m Sue Jamieson and I’m the Participants & Families Transfer Manager with Life Without Barriers. Welcome to our first newsletter! We will be sharing regular information to provide you with updates on the transfer of your services from DHHS to Life Without Barriers, which will occur during the first half of 2019. In September, we had the pleasure of meeting with many transferring staff and families at meet and greet sessions held across metropolitan Melbourne. It was great to have the opportunity to meet you, share more about our organisation and answer questions from transferring staff and families. Answers to some of your questions are available on lwbvictoria.org.au. As new questions come up, we will continue to add these so you have all the information you need. Over the next few months, before the transfer, we will be visiting each of the houses. We are really looking forward to meeting you and your family, along with house supervisors and staff supporting participants at the time of our visit. We have just received the ‘About Me’ introduction documents from DHHS for participants who provided their consent and we are working with DHHS to arrange dates and times for the house visits. We know many participants are out and about during the day and families have a range of commitments, so it might take a bit of time to find a suitable date and give you enough notice. Please don’t be worried if you don’t receive a date for the visit for a number of weeks. We will be visiting the houses in the Northern and Southern suburbs first as they will be the first to transfer next year. As participants in the Eastern suburbs and their families will not transfer until around April next year, our visits to these houses are likely to occur after

Christmas.We will make sure that you continue to be updated during this time. If you have any feedback or ideas about how you would like us to communicate with you and what topics you would like to know more about, please email us at asklwbvic@lwb.org.au or call 1800 955 229. We can’t wait to meet you and welcome you to Life Without Barriers!

Sue Jamieson Life Without Barriers Participants & Families Transfer Manager, Victoria

Common Questions We understand that you may have many questions about changing service provider. Answers to some of those questions are below. Q. What will the first day after the transfer look like? A. Just the same, really. Your current staff will be providing support and you won’t notice anything different except some new branding around the house, such as handbooks and notices with the Life Without Barriers name on them. One thing that will be different is that LWB will respond to any questions or feedback you have (rather than DHHS), and we will be responsible for managing and reporting any incidents.

Q. Will I still be able to do the things I enjoy and go to places I want to visit? A. Yes! Our approach at Life Without Barriers is to partner with each person to support them to live the life they choose and achieve their goals.

Q. Will my family get a say in how the houses are run? A. Absolutely, we view our relationship with families as a partnership. Life Without Barriers regularly connects with families to discuss our support services through resident meetings, by phone, and written communication.

News for you

UPCOMING HOUSE VISITS

As your support will soon be managed by Life Without Barriers, we will be visiting you in the coming months to discuss this transfer. During our visit, we will chat about:

• what will stay the same• what may change• any questions you may have

Our goal is to deliver the best support to suit your needs, so it is important that we learn what makes a happy lifestyle for you.

How to contact usFor more information on joining Life Without Barriers, you can visit our website and sub-scribe to receive regular updates, email our team, or call us.

VISIT THE WEBSITEwww.lwbvictoria.org.au

EMAILasklwbvic@lwb.org.au

CALL1800 955 229

Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

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