We need to talk about it, support worker abuse part two.

So as I write this I am  upstairs in the new unit and it’s something that I didn’t feel safe to do in my other unit unless there was a support worker, in this house there is a support worker most of the time and I have much better access to support and they are much better suited to my needs and my team from the other house, has started to move with me but it’s a really difficult topic to talk about due to the fact that so many support workers come into the job with great intentions, but when the reality hits of people with what is called behaviour’s of concern we see that people need to be very aware of this and that the behaviour’s can be extreme to the point that no organization will take them on or they need to employ a private worker, but we see that this is a massive issue at the moment. 

Due to people not understanding “hidden disabilities” these being Autism, brain injuries, ADHD, and mental health issues and you physical health can effect your mental health, so if you don’t feel safe in your environment your unlikely to  be able to relax and  you are stuck in flight of fight mode and need to be aware of this and work toward getting out of the situation, but the question is what happens when you don’t have the option to move or get told you are moving very quickly.

So we are able to understand what is happening, we need to be told what is happening to them and understanding what is happening, we need to have things communicated on our level  but this is where things get tricky as in agencies there is a lot of moving parts and one big one is staff and clients, so many agencies, require people to use smart phones to log into shifts and do shift notes but won’t provide  the phones, they might pay part of the data costs but how do you keep client information private, we need to be very  aware of this and work towards having as part of a support workers kit a mobile phone.

I also see that we need to have trauma informed support workers as behaviour’s of concern if your not used to them, can become a massive issue as a support worker can unintentionally cause more harm this is a well known fact, but we don’t talk about the flip side or that clients  can cause harm as well, so we need to talk about respect and consent as a support worker yes in a housing satiation, you are coming into someone’s home but we see that its also someone’s work place and that they don’t deserve to be abused, they are there to support people, not to be abused, and they are able to work with you and with me its about meeting me in the middle, so that being prompting me to eat and drink and to rest when required, to also to take my medication and to prompt me to do house work as well.

I see that people don’t realise that support workers can get abused as well, so this could look like, being on shift for 24 hrs, being expected to support more than one person when it’s not safe to do so.  Being expected to shower a person of the opposite sex that has no concept of boundaries, or has inappropriate behaviour’s towards people of the opposite sex.

So we need to be able to talk to support workers, and clients about consent and we see that people need to be able to work out  what consent in a disability relationship looks like as it looks different for everyone, people don’t consent to me having alcohol in the house but I can have some when I go out( this  is despite the fact that I really shouldn’t drink.

I also see that I unintentionally do hold up support workers, as well so I see that people need to be aware that I have “ mild behaviour’s of concern.  but in my previous posts I have talked about what behaviour’s  of concern are so they are, in there groups,  and in a lot more detail, being :

Physical

·       Hitting

·       Kicking

·       Punching

·       Biting

Verbal

·       Emotional abuse

·       Emotional manipulation

·       Verbal abuse

·       Yelling

Inappropriate behaviour’s

·        Not being able to wait your turn.

·       Eating other's food

·       Stealing from others

·        Manipulation of other behaviour’s for gain, so this could be attention seeking, they could be lacking positive attention, they could be also working towards not having a certain worker in the house and due to not understanding what is happening we see that people need to be able to talk freely to the support team about what is working for them or what isn’t working.

 

I also see that people need to be able to work with people, to be able to understand that people need to respect that this is a hard job and that we need to be aware that people need to work with others, and to respect others. So this being respecting boundaries, so being able to wait your turn, being responsible for who you are living with, understanding that a support worker needs to be a professional and to have professional boundaries, as well and being a emotional support person. So this is a very difficult thing to do but we need to be able to talk about it as a person that is over 18 earns more working at Macca’s, than being trained in disability support, so many people do see it as an easy job through university, doing nursing or social services.

 

It needs to have more specialist training than a certificate 3 in support and to have medication management  training as well as hoisting and lifting a person.

 

This has been a really difficult one to talk about but we need to have a serious discussion around the role of support workers as I new that people need to be able to work with them and they need to be able to support people to be there best selves, but we see that people need to be able to respect the role and I am even asking the question do I need a support worker or do I need a Personal Assistant, because the reality is for clients that are higher functioning,  there support workers walk a fine line between being a support worker or a Personal assistant.