Bobspage is based on tools that my family developed in 2009 to help address the support needs of my aphasic brother, Bob. During the years prior to 2009, even though Bob's actual support needs had risen only modestly, the time and effort the family was spending supporting Bob had increased dramatically. To make matters worse, the situation was creating frustrations and tensions that were taking on a life of their own. And there was no end in sight.

My sister decided something had to change and we began looking for ways to get a handle on the situation. It soon became clear that we were more in a crises management mode than in a support mode. The crises arose from the fact that we had not grasped all of Bob's support needs. As a result, we could not effectively foresee or respond to small issues that would arise, and those small issues would quickly turn into big problems.

We realized that if we could wrap our arms around the full range of Bob's basic support needs, we could be more effective at planning the support. This would help eliminate crises in the first place, provide Bob much better support with less effort, and, hopefully, reduce the frustrations and tensions.

However, we also realized that we did not have the right tools to move forward. We found that emails and phone calls alone kept us stuck in crisis management mode. So we created a website that helped us facilitate the right conversation about

• the core problems and challenges we were facing: (Too many avoidable crises and issues..);
• the best solutions: (Develop a support structure for Bob .. );
• additional benefits of these solutions: (Greater support with less energy; better relations..);

The effort was a huge success. We were able to provide a support structure that is more effective yet requires less energy. In addition, we reduced the frustrations and tensions.

Since 2009 several people have commented that they wish they had access to such a website when they were dealing with a difficult situation in their family/group. This site is intended to help others benefit from our efforts.