Stewart's Journey to Independence

I’m Stewart Porter, and I’ve been in Australia for 46 years. I worked in Perth for a while, and I had a chance to get a job in a gold mine. I’d been working twelve and a half hour shifts, doing two weeks on and a week off and I didn’t realise that it was just too much for me. I got sick. I got bipolar disorder. It got a hold of me and it wouldn’t let go. And I just went bang.
They sent me to St Jude’s hostel. I was there two and a half years. I met a lady at the train station, and we started talking. She was from St Jude’s too. Marlene. She wanted out, and I wanted out, but we knew we couldn’t get out on our own. We had to double up to get out.
So we met Stewart and Marlene very early as the NDIS had rolled out. It was pretty clear to us what the goal was, and the goal for Stewart and Marlene was to actually move out of a hostel environment, into their own home in the community with that little bit of support they might need.
We both applied to get into the NDIS and we were both accepted. And that was the best thing we ever did.
We decided our best route was to go knocking on the doors of the local real estate. We negotiated the rent on their behalf, so advocated for a reasonable rent that we knew they could afford. One of the local estate agents came on board very, very quickly and were really keen to assist. And I think within a couple of weeks they came up with the property that Stewart and Marlene are now living in.
It does take a while to get back into the everyday life. Going to the shopping. Paying the electric bill. Paying the gas bill. It takes a while to get back into the swing of doing things like that.
So Stewart and Marlene have a number of hours each per week for support to access the local community, support to attend their appointments. Anything else that might crop up on a day-to-day basis or a week-to-week basis for Stewart and Marlene.
I’d just like to thank the NDIS for all their help. They have been very good to us.