WA NDIS My Way personal story: Luther Frost-Barnes
Speakers
Luther Frost-Barnes
Lorraine Frost-Barnes, Luther’s mother
Leanne Sutton, My Way Coordinator, Busselton
John Thomson, My Way Regional Manager
Dr Ron Chalmers, Director General Disability Services Commission
Hon Helen Morton MLC, Minister for Disability Services
Transcript
(Luther flexes his arm muscles.)
Lorraine: We pumped them up this morning.
Luther: No we did not.
Leanne: Luther’s a 21-year-old, young, multi-faceted man who is living in his own
home up in Busselton, who’s got huge amounts of aspirations and dreams and he’s
slowly working towards making them all real for him. Luther draws people to him,
he’s just got a really good ‘can do’ approach to life and with that approach he
changes people’s lives because he opens them up to the possibility of what can be
done.
Luther: I love quad biking (because of the speed), rock climbing and going to the
gym.
Lorraine: Two years ago it seemed like a very distant, complex plan that might
happen, or it might not, but it actually did happen. We worked quite hard thinking
about Luther’s goals. It took a long time, it was a lot of leg work and a lot of support
from Disability Services Commission. But I felt there had come a time when Luther
actually needed to feel that he was able to do all these things for himself and be out
there. Through that, becoming independent, I think then he flourished. It’s like the
more he is given, the more opportunities, the more he’s wanting it and going for it
and achieving it.
Leanne: Luther has heaps of different strengths, many strengths, but the one that
people really are drawn to him with is his sense of he can achieve anything and give
everything a go.
Lorraine: Leanne was there big time for us, lots of support. The complicated issues
became easier; she would just defuddle them. She would kind of come in and just
say ‘look, don’t worry so much’ and it would just be made easier.
Luther (referring to rock climbing): I sometimes get some help, pulled up the wall.
Lorraine: So you are not very good then?
Luther: I am. I am good.
Lorraine: It’s a transitional period for us from, sort of, teenage to a fully-fledged adult.
Luther is now really pushing what he wants to do and I follow behind.
Leanne: One of the best changes is that I’ve seen him just start to understand what it
takes to live on your own. You know, he’s got to cook, clean and wash and do all
those things.
Lorraine: Having the control of your own life for someone like Luther is very
important. My Way really has been a launching pad for him to explore whatever he
wants to. The Thermomix, half of that was paid by My Way.
Luther: The Thermomix helps me cook things that I couldn’t otherwise do on my
own.
Leanne: He accesses support workers to help him get into the community to go to
Toastmasters, to the gym and to swimming.
Luther: Toastmasters is doing public speaking. You have to look at everyone in the
room. I would like to do public speaking, health, mentoring, combining all my skills.
(Luther shows his muscles. On his arm are tattoos.)
Lorraine: That one’s pretty cool. He likes kissing them. He’s so terrible. (laughs)
Luther: I don’t.
Lorraine: You do, you used to.
Leanne: If you really want to know about Luther, you’ve just got to meet him. If you
listen, Luther tells his story better than anyone. You can’t help but understand what
an amazing person he is if you just listen.
John: One of Luther’s key goals is to practise his public speaking and become more
confident around that. I know he’s been practising really hard and so we really would
really like to give him the opportunity to do that.
Luther (speaking at the WA NDIS My Way launch): My motto is never give up.
Leanne: It was so great to see Luther up there today, just having a go. It’s his first
speech ever and I think he did a wonderful job.
Luther: I’ve never spoken to that many people before.
John: I thought Luther was fantastic. I thought he told his story really well.
Dr Chalmers: That was just a wonderful experience, just to see how confident he
was, to be able to speak to an audience of this size. It was quite wonderful.
Hon Helen Morton: He epitomises exactly what My Way is all about: making sure
that people have these great connections in their local community, are enabled to do
the things that they want to do, that makes them feel like they are having a good life.
And so Luther actually showed us what it is all about.