Zena has a full and happy life. ADEC disability support workers visit her at home twice a day. She also attends Carlton North Learning Centre twice a week, travels to physio sessions by taxi, and enjoys family trips to church every Sunday.
She has also travelled to Lebanon at least a dozen times. Her parents moved to Australia from Lebanon in 1955, and her brother Moses – now her primary carer – was born in 1959. Zena came along four years later in 1963, and still has strong family ties to Lebanon where she enjoys spending time with her cousins.
Back home in Australia, Moses says finding appropriate home care support for Zena was more challenging before NDIS. But that changed when Zena and her family connected with ADEC’s Disability Support Services in 2019 after a support worker recommended the organisation.
“Our first impressions of ADEC were exceptional,” Moses says. “ADEC is client-based, so they always put the needs of the clients above everything.”
Zena needs help going to the bathroom, showering, grooming, and getting into bed. Moses explains that her ADEC support workers also help Zena with light exercise and gentle massages and provide valuable companionship.
“Our ADEC support workers are very holistic and empathetic,” he says. “They are company for her too. Zena loves continuity. She likes building relationships and quickly gets attached to people.”
Zena particularly likes it when her support workers play music for her while she showers. “I feel good,” she says. “They talk nicely to me and make me happy. My life would be much harder without them.”
Moses adds that organisations like ADEC play a critical role in the community, and that ongoing government funding is important to maintain and expand services for the most vulnerable in the community.
“I think bodies like ADEC are indispensable for people with disabilities,” he says. “They are an integral part of society, because a society is only as good as what you do for the underprivileged or people with disabilities. It’s tax-payers’ money very well spent.”
Moses also gives Zena’s support workers full marks, and he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend ADEC to other members of the Lebanese community in need.
“I’d rate ADEC 10/10 for Zena,” he concludes. “We’ve never had a bad carer, ever. Our current carer is well and truly above what is required. She goes the extra mile with everything.
“ADEC takes a lot of pressure off of our family. Anyone in the Lebanese community who is interested in connecting with ADEC would have my blessing. I would tell them that they’d be fortunate to be dealing with such an incredible organisation.”
Please click here for more information about ADEC’s Disability Support Services or contact us on (03) 9480 7000.
If you’re interested in joining our support worker team, please click here.