Annie in wonderland

I Am a Disabled Content Creator: Podcast Insights on Ethics in Support Work As a disabled content creator, I often draw inspiration for my podcast from personal experiences. Today, I want to explore the ethics of support work—a topic deeply tied to the realities of my life. Some of my housing team, who are pushed forward by our provider despite lacking the necessary training, struggle to de-escalate difficult behaviours. Despite a doctor’s note and my advocacy efforts, progress has been slow due to red tape and regulations surrounding harmful practices. These situations often leave low-support-needs clients like myself bearing the brunt of the fallout. Before you wonder why I’m discussing this online, it’s worth considering that many people haven’t spoken with those directly impacted by poorly trained support workers. Often, the issue isn’t what they do—it’s what they don’t do. This lack of action underpins the need to thoroughly examine ethics in support work. By unpacking what ethic...

 This is my current deep dive, and I look forward to finding an answer. A young person in my life asked an innocent question, and it sent me on a profound path, resharpening my research skills. The question was: if a community nurse comes into a Supported Independent Living (SIL) home and trains the staff to perform a medical task, say injections or simple wound care, and the client is harmed by a support worker carrying out that task, who is to blame? This seemingly simple question raises a host of ethical and practical issues: Was the training adequate? Were the staff paying attention during training? Was the nurse qualified to train others, or were they a registered nurse rather than a nurse educator? Were there enough resources, like time and hygiene, to safely perform the task? What role do the overall cleanliness of the house and the behaviour of other residents play in this? But then the bigger questions arise: Where does one go to report harm? Whose code of ethics applies? ...