Jan: I’m Jan.

Allen: And I’m Allen.

Jan: And our son, Ben, comes to Disability Macarthur. Ben has epilepsy. He’s had it since he was about seven years old. It became worse in puberty, but it’s well under control now that he’s got the right medication. Some of the challenges, I guess, as we’re getting older, we really are concerned that Ben be very independent, as much as he can possibly be.

Allen: We do a lot of looking after for him. We help him with his medication, he couldn’t do that by himself.

Jan: And we realised he needed more social contact. He was quite lonely, but he didn’t have the social skills that he’s gained from being with Disability Macarthur.

Allen: We wanted him to have something to do during the day, rather than just watching TV or playing games so that he could socialise with other people.

Jan: I think we’re looking for more social contact so that he would learn how to make friends and be a good friend too. And that’s where we found Disability Macarthur very, very good, wasn’t it?

Allen: Yes.

Jan: They’re kindly people.

Allen: That’s right.

Jan: The first contact he had was with Peer Support, and he found that so good to mix with other young people. And that is still continued. It’s now a little more formal, but it’s excellent. He loves it. His art program last year-

Allen: Was very good.

Jan: … he really responded very well to that. His moods even changed. His artwork at the beginning, interestingly, was very gloomy. And by the end of it, it was much brighter. He obviously really enjoyed the whole idea of putting it all on paper and colour and adding things. It was very important to his development.

I think I would certainly recommend it to other parents when they’re looking for somewhere for their child and young adult child to find all these things of friendship and education, experiences, and yes, life help. Only a few weeks ago, he cleaned up after getting his breakfast. He made himself a banana milkshake and he cleaned up and I sort of looked at him surprisingly, and he said, “I’ve learned that at Day Program.”

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