Carole’s achievements over the last 30 years

Yesterday, Jennifer Reeves wrote a touching message about her mother Carole Caswell in celebration of both International Women's Day and Carole’s achievements over the last 30 years during her time as Chair of Rural Lifestyle Options Australia. ✨

Carole has recently been recognised as a Lifetime Ambassador of Rural Lifestyle Options Australia in addition to recently receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the organisation over the past 30 years. 🙏

We would like to extend our sincerest congratulations to Carole and from the bottom of our hearts thank you for everything that you have done to make Rural Lifestyle Options Australia what it is today. 💖

You can read Jennifer’s original post below. 👇

"It's quite fitting that on International Women's Day, I am writing to say how proud I am of our wonderful Mother, Carole Caswell.

Recently, Mum resigned as Chair of the Board, after volunteering for an amazing 30 years of her life with a disability group now known as Rural Lifestyle Options Australia. Mum has given up so much of her time, has had to make many decisions, sometimes under challenging circumstances and has moved with the various organisational changes throughout the years, including seeing NDIS rolled out.

I remember I was 18 when Mum started a committee with a few parents in the Beaudesert & Jimboomba community who wanted a meaningful future for their children with disabilities, and for them to reach their potential. They applied for their first grant from Qld Gov't to start the ball rolling... and that's how it all started, 30 years ago. RLOA now employs 237 staff and they support 430 participants like my brother Martin.

Mum has now been awarded the very fitting title of "Ambassador" of RLOA, along with our dear family friend Ann Armstrong.

Martin would not be the wonderful, confident & jovial man he is today without the support of RLOA. Dad was Martin's full-time carer and when Dad passed away, Mum was still working full-time & I don't like to think where Martin would be today without RLOA. Martin may not know what Mum actually did at RLOA, but he certainly knew that she held some sort of importance there, which he loved being part of if he saw Mum when she visited for meetings!

To Mum... through all the adversity that life has thrown at you, you amaze me with your resilience, positivity and your outlook on life - and your dedication as a parent to provide the best life possible for Martin. I speak on behalf of darling Dad, dear Jayne & our special Marty when I say YOU ARE LOVED so much by me and by so many. Now you can say that you are fully retired! You can put this award proudly next to your Australian of the Year Award, Regional Local Hero 2007!"

To learn more about how Rural Lifestyle Options Australia enriches the lives of the people we support, please visit www.rloa.org.au

#30Years#LifetimeAchievementAward#NDIS

Social and Community Participation 🏘👫

At Rural Lifestyle Options Australia, we enable you to meet your NDIS goals by supporting you to participate in activities of your choice in your local community.

Socialisation and community participation are essential to our overall health and well-being. Under this service, this is front of mind for our Lifestyle Support Workers who can support you to try new things, get out and about, visit new or familiar places and meet new people.

The benefits associated with being an active part of your community are limitless. We proudly deliver a tailored service supporting your involvement and connection with your community. ___________________ To learn more about how Rural Lifestyle Options Australia can support you or your loved one under the NDIS, please visit www.rloa.org.au/socialandcommunity

NDIS and your eligibility!

Have you or a loved one considered applying for support to help you to achieve your goals through the National Disability Insurance Scheme? Also known as the NDIS. We all know the NDIS can be a little overwhelming, so in today’s blog, we will be helping you understand what the exact criteria are for NDIS eligibility.

The NDIS is based on several criteria: age, residence, and disabilities. In addition to this, specific requirements apply for children aged 0-6 as well as those with psychosocial disabilities.

To break this subject down, the eligibility checklist looks similar to the following questions…

AGE REQUIREMENT:

Q1: Are you aged between 7 and 65?

These questions are asked under the NDIS requirements; if you are over the age of 65, you are not eligible to apply for NDIS support due to the scheme's principles.

Although it is stated that if you have received NDIS support before turning 65, you can continue receiving them after turning 65 and beyond.

RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS:

Q2: Are you an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or Protected Special Category Visa holder?

Q3: Do you live in Australia?

It is essential to know that these residence requirements apply when a person uses the NDIS and continue to apply when you are a participant. It is worth noting that if you stop meeting residency requirements, access to your NDIS may be cancelled.

DISABILITY REQUIREMENTS:

Q4: Do you have a disability caused by a permanent impairment? This can include intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory, physical, or psychosocial.

Q5: Do you usually need disability-specific support to complete daily life activities

For NDIS eligibility, the potential participant must be living with a disability that affects the ability to perform everyday activities such as communication, social interaction, learning, mobility and even self-care.

EARLY INTERVENTION REQUIREMENTS

Q6: Do you need some support now to reduce your future need for help?

Q7: Do you need some support now for your family to build their skills to help you?

Early Intervention aims to provide support for a child with a developmental delay or disability within their early years to help them achieve the best outcomes to develop their full potential while reducing the likelihood of needing ongoing support in the future.

Now we have gone through all the questions and provided a little more insight into the meanings behind these questions, if you’ve answered yes to the following questions and believe you may be eligible for NDIS, it is time to apply for the NDIS with an access request form. If you need assistance applying for the NDIS, our friendly Business Development Officers offer this service free of charge.

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Suppose you want to know more about accessing support or understand your eligibility better. In that case, you can speak directly to one of our Rural Lifestyle Options Australia specialists by calling 1300 032 175 today!