Mandy and Thomas’ Story Support Brokerage Training

I attended Imagineer Support Brokerage training in November 2014 and all I can say is that it truly helped me, giving me the confidence I needed to navigate the daunting bureaucracy of the care system in a very creative and person-centered way!

As a mum,(even with a professional background as an OT), I have found the constant ignorance, low expectations, diagnostic overshadowing, and ‘pigeon-holing’ from education, health and statutory care services at best soul destroying and at worst exhausting and depressing!

Since my son was diagnosed with Autism and learning disabilities, navigating the education system and then the care system, especially through transition from children to adult services had always been a battleground in order to get the best pathways for my son to have the future he deserves but more importantly help facilitate and secure a future with purposeful goals and aspirations!!

I was very aware that I would need extra skills beyond my core OT skills to combine the 2 worlds I inhabited, a world as a parent and a world as professional. I also knew these new skills had the potential to help other parent carers in the same situation.

The week’s training was brilliant, it was extremely informative, very creative and thought-provoking. I worked in groups with other students on the course, including my colleague and long-term friend who, through her persistence in telling me there are other ways to create support plans for my son, encouraged me to enroll.

I gained in confidence, knowing HOW to get creative and secure the best for my son and his future. Through the workbooks provided as a reference and guide as well as the discussions and learning materials, I was able to understand what ‘true personalised support plan should look like, with costings but all set to achieve a positive future.

Once completed, my social worker came to my son’s Annual review and could plainly see the detail in my son’s plan, the linked activities with future goals, his aspirations and all costings. Without this plan, he would’ve been stuck in a less than satisfactory future, one decided for him without ambition, and one that could have easily escalated his frustration leading to more challenging behaviour and risking going down an overly ‘medicated route’!

Thank you Imagineer for helping me and my son and giving me the courage to make it all happen!!!

Here is the Living proof!!!