The National Disability Insurance Scheme is an innovative support program prioritising customisation and individualism for people with disabilities. Moving away from support systems that promote a one-size-fits-all methodology, the NDIS provides participants with the opportunity to exercise their autonomy over their own support and care.
This means that a large part of the NDIS journey is considering what you want and need from the NDIS. Setting goals allows you and others to clearly see what you want to achieve with the NDIS, which leads to tailored supports designed to help you reach these goals.
We know that setting these goals can be tricky! Especially when you’re planning your first NDIS plan and you don’t know where to start. The team at Bright Plan Management have created a list of top tips to help you define your goals.
What’s important to you?
Pulling goals out of thin air is not a great way to define goals that you can consistently work towards. You first need to establish what’s important to you. Once you gather that info, you’ll be in a much better position to set some clear, achievable goals.
We suggest considering aspects of your life and rating their significance to your personal wellbeing. We’ve listed a few below, but there are many others that may factor into your decision:
Quality of relationships
Management of finances
Health and wellbeing
Communication
Employment
If you find that one aspect impacts your more than others, it’s a wise idea to delve into this to see if you would benefit from setting a goal around this.
Make the connections
Once you complete the above step, consider what your answers mean. If you find that one aspect is more important to you than others, it’s a wise idea to delve into this to see if you would benefit from setting a goal around this.
For example, if you found that communication was more important to you than other areas of your life, it’s a wise idea to connect this to one of your goals. Realising that communication is important to you may lead you to set a goal such as ‘Improve my communication skills’.
Repeat this process with other aspects of your life to create goals that resonate with you on a deep level.
Evaluate the goal
There is no point defining and setting a goal if it is unrealistic and unattainable. You want to make sure that there are clear steps that can be followed for you to achieve the goal. While it’s not your responsibility to know exactly what sort of supports you need, having an idea of what would help you achieve the goal is a great way to know if your goal is suitable.
Using the above example of ‘I want to improve my communication skills’, you could establish a rough idea of what supports you need. This could be help from a speech pathologist or to interact with others more in a social setting to practice communication.
Knowing that there are clear steps to achieve the goal will help you determine if you’ve created a goal that will serve you well on your NDIS journey.
Remember!
As you grow and learn as a person, so too can your goals. Your NDIS goals are not static or set in stone. At your yearly planning meeting, you have the opportunity to reassess your goals and adjust them if necessary. So, if you’re setting out for the first time with on your NDIS journey and you’re finding the goal-setting process daunting, you can rest assured in the knowledge that you have the ability to change your goals as you see necessary.
Want more info?
The friendly team of Plan Managers at Bright Plan Management are here to help! Want advice on goal setting or want to know how they can help manage your NDIS plan? Reach out today!