Rediscovering The Positives

Rediscovering The Positives

Sandra Leehy
14th July 2010
As the parent of someone with a disability I don’t think I am alone in saying that life often has its fair share of negatives. We spend our lives having to prove to authorities what our children can’t do, seeing them defined by their deficiencies rather than their attributes, hearing promises of services and opportunities that never bear fruit and so on and so on….. How wonderful was it to finally be involved in two things where absolutely everything was based on positives – appreciating all the good points, all the strengths of my young adult, focusing on the way forward, the possibilities and most importantly how to make those possibilities a reality.

The first mind changing event was a get together of family, professionals and friends to support my daughter to formulate a personal plan to help her to achieve fulfillment, direction, happiness and a sense of place in life. Interchange’s Lydia and Marcelo did an excellent job of running the meeting and we all came away with renewed enthusiasm, a list of ‘to do’ actions and a great sense of purpose, achievement and a rekindled appreciation of my daughter.

The second was taking part in the Families at Work workshop, part of the Seeds for Employment project, a series of workshops for people with disabilities who are interested in finding work, their families and professionals who are interested in supporting people to find work. The series was facilitated by Deb McLean, an employment specialist from Oregon USA and had Interchange Outer East as one of its partners. Again the focus was on the positives, the attributes and the possibilities. Led by Deb, families combined to brainstorm over possible opportunities and employment avenues for each other’s job seekers, to explore where each individual’s gifts could take them - thinking wasn’t constrained by the can’ts but opened by the can dos. 

It is easy to become overwhelmed by our situation. Stopping, taking stock and getting to the good stuff underneath is a great feeling.