Being Support Workers and Managing Support Workers by Mo
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a support worker and what it involves? This blog will provide an insight on the role that support workers play in empowering clients to live their best life. Additionally, I will also explore what it is like to manage support workers and what that also involves.
For Support Workers: How to create meaningful experiences for people with disabilities
The role of the support worker is to support their client in their everyday tasks but also ensuring that they are living their best life. This is done through providing them opportunities to expand their horizons by planning activities and giving them a choice whether they would like to participate in those specific activities. It is important to be aware of what the client enjoys and doesn’t enjoy to be able to explore activities that are in their best interest. This gives clients greater autonomy and a sense of accomplishment of achieving something that they never thought they could. This is only achieved through the support of the support worker. It is also important to find the best way the client prefers to book these activities. It is the support workers role to push boundaries however not break them. For example, I recently participated in a hot air balloon adventure. Initially, I was quite hesitant to engage in this activity as I thought I would plummet to my death. However, with the reassurance of the support worker I felt comfortable enough to push my boundaries. I would like any support worker that is reading this to find one activity for their client and bring it into their conversations, as one idea can lead to many experiences.
For People with Disabilities: How to manage support workers
In my experience, finding support workers is difficult because they often lie about their capacity to do the job. This can make it difficult to trust the next support worker. I often like to initiate interviews to weed out the dodgy support workers from the decent ones. I also put the new support worker through a manual handling test with my skilled support worker to assess whether they have the skills or they require buddy shifts. I believe that it is really important to be transparent and honest with the potential support worker and what you expect from them and what happens if they are not able to fulfill their obligations. I do my best to treat my support workers with the respect that I wish to be treated with. I manage my support workers through a weekly roster schedule to ensure that all my responsibilities are met without inconsistency. I feel that rosters work best as it gives us a clear structure of what the week looks like, however the roster can be flexible. In terms of providing my support workers with holiday breaks, I have been very clear in stating that their breaks are during my university holidays to ensure that my studies are not jeopardised. By giving support workers time off if needed, it allows them to recharge and not feel overwhelmed by the level of support that they are providing and duration.
This information is targeted to both support workers and people with disabilities to help make meaningful experiences possible for people with disabilities. I would like support workers to not be shy to step outside the clients comfort zone and help them figure out their endless possibilities and for people with disabilities to not be shy to stick to your standards and create a schedule.
Note: if you are a support worker or a support company and would like more information about our support worker training, content writing or any other of our services please fill out our booking form, message us on facebook or instagram or email us on onourowntracks@gmail.com