If you’re a person with disability living in a nursing home, or a group home, it can be really hard to imagine moving somewhere else – even if you don’t like where you are living and want to move.

My name is Helen, and I lived in a nursing home for 7 years. With so many decisions and choices taken away from me, and with everything being done for me in the same way each day, I lost my confidence and began to feel very passive. When you live that way for a long time, it’s hard to feel you can do things for yourself and make your own decisions. But, with support from other people I started to feel hopeful again about the future. I realised it was possible to move out and get back some of the things I loved about my life.

I moved into an apartment by myself, which was available through Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) in late 2020 – in the middle of the pandemic.

In this video series, I describe different aspects of my experience leaving the nursing home and moving into my new apartment, including: 

• Challenges and barriers to moving
• What supported me to move
• Coordinating my daily support
• What life is like now