The founder of Freedom Housing Christos Iliopoulos was taken aback by the lack of living choices for his wife who was suffering multiple sclerosis (MS). With the assistance of carers, Christos kept his wife at home, to live with her family, but before his eyes, he watched his wife deteriorate. Mobility was hard for her and her ability to look after their children was harder. Christos and his family were faced with the heartbreaking decision to put her in an MS care facility.
“It was an enormous thing to do,” remembers Christos, “to take a person out of a family home and place them somewhere else.” Whilst in the facility, the family noticed not only was the service deteriorating, but their mother, Christos’ wife and the one-time rock of the family, was rushed to hospital where she nearly died. Thankfully, she recovered.
“I decided there and then I didn’t want to place her back in the facility,” Christos tells Neos Kosmos. He remembers ripping out the bathroom and replacing it with a modified one; he brought his wife back home and looked after her 24/7 until the day she passed away.
The family of someone in need face this kind of emotional roller coaster – that lasts for years – from the time their loved one is diagnosed. Guilt, love, need, respect, dignity – all these feelings are thrown into the mix on a daily basis. And at the very core of it all is the desire to be there, to provide the assistance they need but understand at the same time, they need the support in which to do this.
In Christos’ words, what prompted the inception of his company Freedom Housing was the huge gap that he found not just in Australia, but internationally, between caring for someone at home and placing them in an institution, a custodial institution.
“Their freedom is taken away,” says Christos of care facilities, “they can’t direct their lives; they are being directed and it’s really a horrible place to be.”
“When our loved ones are most in need of our company and our overseeing, the system tells us to relinquish them to an institution – they are compounding tragedy for them.”
Thinking “there has to be a better way”, Christos came up with this concept where the family can stay together but where their loved one can receive the care they need.
“The concept of Freedom Housing is allowing people to chose where they want to live and who they want to live with but still be able to get 24/7 care.”
Freedom Housing is designed to accommodate persons with disabilities – and their families, or friends – under the same roof, whilst 24/7 high care is provided to the persons with disabilities, giving the possibility to have superior care and accommodation in a normal home, at a much lower cost than a nursing home; a hospice; group accommodation; supported accommodation; a respite centre; day care; and a retirement village.
The mission of Freedom Housing is that persons with disabilities – and the frail elderly – can continue to enjoy life, choose who they live with and be free to do what they want to do – to their full potential.
This is done by: designing and/or choosing the Freedom Housing apartment or house that best suits them and their families, or housemates; selecting the location of their Freedom Housing apartment or house; leasing or purchasing their Freedom Housing apartment or house; choosing who they live with; and moving to Freedom Housing apartments or houses across Australia, to suit their changing phase of life, lifestyle, vacations, and career.
As it stands, the model is four conjoined houses for economic reasons, and ‘human capital generation’.
“They are living among family and friends, which is great for security and promotes the opportunity to integrate with the community,” says Christos, adding Freedom Housing is perfect for ethical investors wanting to invest in this unique private model. For the first build, they are looking at land at Armstrong Bay, just south of Geelong. If all goes well, they are looking at integrating Freedom Housing on a national level.
“Freedom Housing is about focusing on the needs of the person and the family primarily, and making everything else secondary.”
However, the model itself represents so much more than just a physical space. Christos uses this example to explain how far-reaching and instrumental Freedom Housing is in providing assistance and support to people with disabilities, the elderly and, importantly, their families.
“Let’s say a family has three children and one of them has a disability. Let’s say it’s a teenage girl and the mum stays home and becomes her full-time carer. So she receives a very small amount of money from the government, but is there for her daughter.
“So this person is removed from the workforce so she loses income for her family and she doesn’t fulfil her career objectives. Apart from that it means that the family also feel awful and the person who is receiving care feels vicariously sad for her mother because she sees the impact she is having on her wonderful mum and the others that have to care for her – that’s an example of the current situation.”
He says if the family were to be placed in Freedom Housing, the mother is free to work, giving her the respite she needs to take a break from care, and this also relieves the daughter of any guilt associated.
“In the situation where the mother could no longer care for her daughter – and that happens when the disability becomes so severe – she would have to relinquish her daughter to a facility. Now, relinquishing her daughter would mean she could go to work but it would also come across as feeling terribly guilty and having terrible remorse that the daughter no longer lives in the house, and that impacts on the family and the daughter having been removed from the family.
“That’s what Freedom Housing avoids.”
*For anyone interested in buying or renting Freedom Housing, visit www.freedomhousing.com.au