About Mitchell

Background

Mitchell is a man in his thirties. He was diagnosed with autism when a young child and with an intellectual impairment in his school years. He completed his schooling at a state-ran special school. As an adult, Mitchell developed epilepsy during a prolonged hospital stay to battle a viral infection. It took over a year to get the seizures under control, during which time Mitchell lost further cognitive and motor function.

Mitchell requires a high level of support, has poor gross and fine motor skills, and consistently demonstrates a range of challenging behaviours.

Before NDIS

Mitchell attended an early intervention program at what is now Autism Queensland.  He then attended state-run special education facilities through to his graduation in his late teens.  School was a largely positive experience for Mitchell.  His family saw Mitchell progress at his own pace.  Mitchell’s behaviour was generally manageable, and he had a relatively pleasant disposition.  In hindsight, Mitchell’s family realised the major contributing factor to Mitchell’s overall demeanour was:

• 

  the competence and commitment of the teachers who knew and understood Mitchell,
• And who were supported by specialists such as occupational therapists and speech pathologists.

At the conclusion of Mitchell’s schooling, he transitioned to a day program four days a week.  The program was run by a local service provider.  For the first few years Mitchell seemed to enjoy the program.  As the service provider grew and staffing changed it become clear to his family Mitchell was not enjoying the program as he once did.  Mitchell’s behaviour became more difficult to manage, both at home and at the day program.

The year after Mitchell developed epilepsy he started regularly accessing short-term stays in a group home setting.  This provided his family with short breaks from supporting and caring for Mitchell, which was beginning to have a significant impact his mother’s health and wellbeing (Mitchell’s father was working full-time at this point).  Mitchell’s family felt ‘trapped between a rock and a hard place’ as it became clear this group home setting was a trigger for Mitchell’s increasingly challenging and unsafe behaviours.  At a particularly low point Mitchell’s mother reflected, “I feel like we are punishing Mitchell when we send him.”

By the end of 2017, Mitchell’s challenging behaviour had become so frequent and intense that his family – fatigued and stressed by the continual conflict with Mitchell, and tension with his service provider – feared they would have to formally implement restrictive practices (explained below). 

Since NDIS

Mitchell’s experiences before his first NDIS plan motivated his family to explore a different path, with a focus on improving Mitchell’s quality of life.  From the end of 2018 they ceased using service providers for Mitchell’s direct care.  NDIS enabled Mitchell’s family to select, hire and train the right kind of people to support Mitchell.  NDIS also afforded access to competent experienced professionals to help the family and support team build an understanding of how Mitchell experiences the world and how best to help Mitchell make his way in that world.

Mitchell’s transformation in this environment has been nothing short of amazing – though he still has his moments of stress and frustration, he is a much calmer happier young man (a fact backed up by the behavioural data routinely collected by the family and support team).