My name is Jiwan Dhanoa. With the help of Vela and my family, I set up my Microboard which I have been using to manage the support services I receive from Fraser Health. Having my Microboard has meant my home life and support services have been stable and ongoing.

Prior to my Microboard being established in early 2013, my home care situation was rather chaotic and unorganized. That is because my family and I had to go through several different agencies to find health care workers to come provide me with services at home. My family and I found that situation really stressful because these agencies would send new people every day, twice a day, leaving me and my mother to have to go and explain everything from how to bathe me, how to dress me, or how to even feed me properly on a daily basis to the new workers.

Ever since we incorporated my Microboard, and have started hiring our own staff, I have been working with only two or three people at a time. This is really good because my mother doesn’t have as much stress put on her like when we had to deal with all the different workers from the agencies and had to constantly train them on how to properly do my personal care tasks.

Since I have been employing my own staff it gives me a lot more opportunity to be flexible with the hours of the homecare services that are provided. Under agency guidelines I wasn’t able to dictate the times when different people would come in and help me as they were working on the agencies timeline. With my Microboard, I am the one in charge of who helps me and when they work because we are the employer.

I am thankful for the services that are now provided to me because they have given me the autonomy and independence to live my life with confidence without having to worry about my homecare services.