Tenants moving into Specialist Disability Accommodation are more involved in everyday life compared to their previous living situation, a new study has revealed.
The study, conducted by the Summer Foundation and La Trobe University, suggested that the 10+1 model better enables people with severe disabilities to fulfil their aspirations to live an ordinary life.
The study claims to be the first to provide evidence regarding the potential of SDA-funded contemporary housing for people with disability in that it improves the lives of tenants, maximises independence and reduces the long-term liability of the NDIS.
The findings support a worldwide trend and assumption that moving away from housing that is congregated and segregated to individualised housing and living arrangements, will result in better outcomes.
Case studies of six individuals who moved from a range of living environments into a 10+1 model, funded by SDA, were selected to represent a mix of disability types, support needs and moving experiences.
Pre-move living arrangements included group homes, RAC, private rentals and living with parents. The Tenant Outcomes Framework was utilised to measure the impact of change in the living environment across a range of life domains such as quality of life, wellbeing, support needs and community integration.
Results after living in an SDA-funded apartment in the 10+1 model for 6-24 months, found the first 13 participants with pre-move and post-move data experienced statistically significant improvements in wellbeing and community integration.
The findings of this study are promising as statistical significance indicates that the improvements are not due to chance. Given the small sample size and heterogeneous sample, researchers were expecting to find promising trends rather than statistically significant differences between pre-move and post-move data.
Positive trends were demonstrated in quality of life and a reduction in the average level of support needed by tenants post-move compared to pre-move. These results were also reflected in the qualitative analysis of interview data in which participants described their pre-move homes as ‘not a good fit’ and life in the SDA-funded apartment as ‘moving in the right direction’.
Overall, tenants had a greater level of community participation and were significantly more involved in household tasks such as meal preparation, shopping and electronic social networking post-move. There was also a positive trend towards improved social integration.
The preliminary findings presented in this interim report examined the tenant outcomes of people with disability moving into SDA funded apartments, with appropriate technology, support, design and location, in the 10+1 model. The overarching aim of the research project is to systematically evaluate individual outcomes of tenants moving to newly built, SDA-funded contemporary models of housing for people with disability over a 3-year period.