Georgia Options Annual Training
John O’Brien & Connie Lyle O’Brien
March 2005
Participants shared stories that, for them, answer the question, “Why is doing supported living worth the work it takes?” They wrote headlines that summarize the main ideas in their stories. These two diagrams summa- rize the reported headlines.
Holding on to one another through good and bad times is vital to experiencing the benefits of supported living. Sometimes it is the person with a disability who is in a difficult place in their life; sometimes it is the staff person. Participants in this discussion drew a lifeline that identified high and low times in their experience of supported living. Then they described the ways that have worked for them to lift themselves out of the low times and find their way back to a sense of satisfaction in the work. This list summarizes their strategies. People and situations differ a lot, so these possibilities often include the word “sometimes”
