For some
participants, personal care, lifting and other physical support needs means you
can’t avoid having direct contact with support workers.
But there
are many people in the NDIS, who don’t need that physical support. If you are
one of those people, you can ask your support workers to help support you, but
to work to not touch you or get close to you. Here are a stack of ideas. Please
feel free to add your own to share!
The most
important thing is to always make sure they wash their hands,
really well, as soon as they arrive or meet you.
So, depending
on your support needs, your worker could maybe:
meet
you outside and go for a walk together, keeping a few metres apart
sit
outside, 2 metres apart, and learn to play an instrument together (like
ukulele, or the recorder
make
and/or fly a kite at the local park
leave
your laundry outside the front door, and ask your support worker to pick it up,
take it home, wash and dry, and then return it if they’re ok to do this
get
a free skype account and talk, and read books, help prompt or direct you with
cooking something yummy, watch a TV show or movie at the same time as you, play
online games together or even do your online shopping together
take
you for a drive (with you in the back if you’re not driving!) with the windows
down and play the music loud and sing (this may not be a safe enough distance
apart, however)
help
you find and collect some free or cheap basic gym equipment, set it up outside,
and have the worker direct, from a safe distance, a great workout
if
legal and safe, have a fire pit set up and sit either side of it and tell ghost
stories, or eat lots of marshmallows
google
outdoor yard pranks and have some fun with neighbourhood friends
try geocaching
sit across an outside table at home,
and pain rocks, and then walk to a local park and hide them for others to find
(google “painted rocks” to learn more)
letterbox the neighbours with you and
offer to walk their dogs for free or pay
do your shopping and errands without
you if you are at risk, so you are less likely to be exposed
find a free or cheap outdoor table on
gumtree or facebook, make a net from an old pair of stockings, grab some table
tennis bats online and play ping pong outside in the driveway (or beer pong if
you’re old enough and like beer as much as my son!)
wash the car together, but always on
opposite sides of the car, and wear gloves
build a garden together and grow some
food, herbs or pretty flowers
have your worker help you facetime
with your friends
learn a new language together (maybe
Auslan – sign language)
tennis is a low contact game, and
maybe renting a couple of kayaks or going for a bike ride could work to get
outside
remote art programs
have them help you sort out a home
budget
check out the bazillions of online
learning apps and homeschool resources
do some virtual tours of some of the
world’s greatest museums and art galleries
play Pictionary or scrabble by zoom
develop a daily routine and make some
visual schedules together
learn to do some outdoor household
chores – like sweeping or picking up the dog poop
teach the dog a few new tricks –
tonnes of great YouTube videos to learn this
learn a magic trick together
but a cheap blind from the bargain
bin, and see if you can borrow or score an old cheap projector, and set up an
outdoor cinema at home for an evening – just keep those bean bags a few metres
apart
learn about botany, and collect
samples from your local parks and build an album of dried leaves and flowers
make a podcast remotely together
I’ve not included links for all of these – a quick google will probably get you a bunch of good answers!
