The NDIS ‘has been a saviour for our family’

Kirby Littley’s outlook changed when she got on a trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Carol and Kirby Littley: ‘I sleep at night now’. Picture: Aaron Francis

By the time she was 28, Kirby Littley had been a schoolteacher for six years, owned her apartment and was thriving independently. Then a few days after Christmas in 2014, she was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. She was in surgery within six hours.

When the Geelong woman woke, she couldn’t move, walk or talk — she’d had a series of strokes after her surgery.

This led to setbacks that forced her to live in a nursing home for a year, a place she found “lonely” and unable to treat her unique circumstances.

Her outlook changed when she got on a trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which enabled her to live at her parents’ house and dramatically improved her recovery.

“Things became better, I could go home,” she said.

“Modifications to home were made and the equipment I needed was purchased and the carers were organised, which meant I could recover at home without the loud noises.”

Ms Littley said the health team was surprised how much faster her recovery had been since she moved to her parents house. She is getting better at walking and talking and hopes to start eating soon, giving her faith that she could one day recover her independence.

“I am much happier at home, I am practising talking and walking, I am optimistic everything will fall into place,” she said. “I like having the choice to do what I want when I want; I want to be independent, to have my old life back again.”

Before her brain tumour, Ms Littley was teaching at a special needs school, which she “loved”. She lived alone and decorated her apartment in Geelong’s south. After the tumour operation, she couldn’t even swallow — needing to be fed through a tube into her stomach.

Her parents visited her twice a day in the nursing home, but it was still a lonely struggle being the only young person there.

Her mother, Carol, said the NDIS had been a saviour for the family. “I sleep at night now, I used to come home because she was really down: it was sort of like leaving someone in prison,” she said.