Support workers you do have options and not stuck , lets talk about it.
So, this is a quick
post to talk about Support workers, and the options you have. There is several
options that we see are open to you to keep working in disability support. The first
one is to stay a direct support worker, and being happy with it as many people
are, but if you are unhappy with an agency there is several options to work
around it. The first one is really challenging
is to stand up to the agency and to try to change it from the inside in, their
also may be some situations where it’s a legal requirement to report to the commission, things like
unsafe practices, or restrictive practices used without the proper support and
documentation, and processes and being used as a first line instead of a last
resort, there is other options but we need to be aware that they are their for
a reason and need to be updated not just eliminated.
The second one is to find a new agency but this can be fraught
with danger as in small towns it may not be an option to go to other agencies
or to move as you if you have reported bad behaviour and people taking advantage
of other’s in the agency both support workers and people with disabilities, but
it does happen that clients can take advantage support workers so it is needed to have strong
boundaries, and professionalism, this will vary from agency to agency.
Then the other option is to go to a private worker and to
set up your own business but this is something that needs to be done with
caution as it comes with much more flexibility but with that flexibility come’s
a lot of danger, in that you may not have the protections of an agency so you
would need to look into the insurances and how to structure a shift to have a
proper income and this for some clients and support workers in regional area’s
it may be the only option, but it something that you really need to consider
and for some clients in supported housing their will be rules that you need to
consider as well and what they can and can’t do due to the insurance. I have talked about how choose and control is
a bit of a myth when it comes to housing but we see that people need to be
aware that at times it might not be practical for people to change providers
and to work on it but we see it’s for insurance and their just may not be the facilities to work with
the person and lets be aware that for most people choose and control is limited
by their options as well as it can be overwhelming to have to many options so
we need to start talking about how we need to transition from support worker lead care to client and support
worker care in a mutual way in a person caring for a person in a mutual benefit and to include people who are
important in people’s life such as family, friends and other medical and care
staff without overwhelming the person.
It's a challenge to be aware of and we need to start having
this conversation to start change around how support is given and how support
workers do have options, and going and training others is another option to be very
aware of as well, and that might be in house in an agency or being an informal
mentor but let’s keep the conversation going in what support work means for people.
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