Support workers and common sense.

 

So this is a post that I am not even sure will make it to publication but hey sorry there is not a nice way to say it, so I am going to come out and say it and this isn’t an attack as there are some amazing workers out there that do understand the assignment.

 Some of you support workers need to go back to school.  A lot of support is basic common sense, don’t overcomplicate it, so some of the really basic things that you should know by the time you graduate high school are and I can’t believe that I am saying this, and some of you young ones need to get off your phone and learn about the reality of the world.  It’s not the LGBTIQ community that is the biggest minority in the world it’s actually people with disabilities and we don’t see the community celebrating our existence, we actually see them complaining about the cost blowout to the NDIS but do you know how many pages the final Royal commission report is? ( that is a whole other blog post.  But let me lay down some facts for you that you need to know.

 

·        Support isn’t an easy job. 

·       A lot of in-home support is common sense, please learn the basics if needed.

·       Routines are amazing, but how would you feel if you were doing the same thing every day/ week? 

·       If you have supported one person with a disability, you have supported one person.

·       Respect is a two-way street, I have to be respectful to you, but can I have some back?

·       Sometimes clients have more to teach you than you realise get to know them on a personal level.

·       There are some basic skills you need to have to be a support worker and they are basic life skills can you please learn them,

o   How to keep to a basic budget as you're going to be monitoring spending.

o   Learn how to cook from scratch a support worker at home who can’t cook isn’t a great idea, how can you teach or assist someone to cook if you can’t yourself?

o   Learn how to do laundry and how to clean as some people will need help to do it, as they genuinely can’t do it themselves.

o   Lean on how to de-escalate and how to regulate as behaviours aren’t all about you and what you want to do.

o   Remember that all behaviour is a form of communication and that includes difficult and challenging behaviours.

o   Sometimes you need to learn to accept the cup of coffee or the present and record it

o   You can be friendly but it’s a job please remember that and that you can help us to have friends

Learning helplessness isn’t a great thing so please understand you need to help us build skills, basically, you need to do yourself out of a job or to have less to do on a shift. 

o   If we work it's not your place to out us as disabled would you do that to someone who you knew was in a same-sex relationship, no so why is it okay to do it to someone with a disability?

o   Please don’t gossip in our house, we don’t need to know unless we ask and it could put us at risk.

o   If you smoke, drink soft drinks and buy fast fashion please don’t complain to me about not having money. ( there is a lot of support to kick addictions)

o   Lean on what a healthy relationship looks like as sometimes you might be the one educating us about consent.

o   Yes the pay isn’t great but it’s a starting point and you can work up the chain if you learn about disability and get qualified you can negotiate your wages.  

o   If you're independent please don’t treat us as a cash cow.

o   Understanding what is going on in a person’s life can affect their behaviour and this is something that you need to look out for

o   Please learn the technical terms for disability.

o   Please learn our names it is basic respect and if we can do basic grooming ourselves please don’t touch us without consent.

o   Learn what consent in disability looks like as it might be different to what people expect.

o   Please understand every day is going to be different it’s the nature of the beast.

o   Please be aware that it's not all taking people out and coffee it’s hard work,

o    it's looking at ways to engage them,

o    It’s getting them to appointments.

o   If we live in the family home please engage with the family it doesn’t have to be much but it makes a world of difference to family relationships. You might be surprised at what that relationship looks like. 

o   Please push us to achieve our goals but know when to stop pushing us.

o   We know you're going to have favourites but please don’t make it so obvious that it makes people jealous

o   Remember that disability and trauma go hand in hand so please don’t re-traumatise us.

o   Please know that we aren’t faking it and assuming we are it doesn’t make it any easier on us.

o   Please don’t talk about us in public this is a breach of privacy.

o   If you're constantly getting frustrated with a client please understand what is happening and don’t take it out on other people in the house this isn’t OK.

I will be explaining each of these points a lot more as I  start to post more regularly and get back to basics about disability and talking about the issues.