Annie in wonderland

    Hey guys so this is   the start of the new year and I am going to be focusing on the YouTube and podcast a lot more but this is a topic that is very close to my heart and it goes right to the heart of disability culture and it’s support worker culture, and I know I have to be very careful about what I say but can I say that some of you need to have a refresher in ethics in support. As some of you are doing one of two things that people that doesn’t help people with a disability. Either treating them like a friend and gossiping with them, and forgetting that this is a massive breach of ethics and privacy for support workers, friends and family and depending on the client a massive risk to yourself. Or going the extreme other way and treating   a clients right to privacy as an excuse to not check in with them, and to leave them isolated and without support and favouring other clients. So we need to find the middle ground of what support they needs. I am also needing to make it cl

    Hey, guys, this is a back-to-basics post and I recently discovered that some support workers don’t know what services are out there that can help people with disabilities or have misconceptions about what some of these places can provide, this is focused on my area Toowoomba but in the comments feel free to add what you have in your are as well and feel free to add to in for your area’s and even things that I am not aware of online. As we see despite the digital divide in the disability community some sometimes people will help them access things, such as education, training, or even websites that help communication and sell things.     Also, this won’t be everything around it’s just what I am aware of and how to work with clients that are motivated as I know that some people aren’t motivated to save or to achieve their goals, and need to be pushed as well. As there would be more work in meal prepping and or for clothing might need soaking before wearing.   I am not going to list b

   This is going to be an end-of-the-year post and it’s going to be a more in depth one, so I have one of my community access team (support organization) going on personal leave. But she is so on the ball and a true team leader in that she suggested to my mum we get my finances in order and it’s never too late or even to early if you have a disability to have your finances in order and the first step we are doing before we even need to think about doing a budget is doing something really basic, a list of things that I am no longer allowed to buy and this then shift me from the day to day goals and living to being able to have a holiday or a trip of some description, so this is going to be the start of that list   as I think most people as we are heading into Christmas are doing a combination of planning for Christmas and the new year as it makes sense when a lot of gift type items are around to by them when they are on sale and put them aside for the new year. I have a wardrobe full

 There has been a lot of talk around restrictive  practice   s since the royal commission and we have had a lot of well meaning but under-informed advocates advocating for the abolition of these practices but this shows me that they haven’t worked with clients that have behaviour’s of concern.  That can cause extreme harm to others, or distress. As behaviours are a form of communication, and it serves a purpose as it might be attention seeking, it might be the result of a mental illness and intellectual disability, or the result of a brain injury and the frustration of being able to remember that you once could do things but now you can’t. A  frustration that I experience on a regular basis as I have to be reminded to keep in touch with friends and family and that ghosting isn’t ok, and to make the doctor's appointments and  to look after my health, both physical and mental. But what I am advocating for is having support worker trained in behaviour’s of concern and the next l

    I saw this on Facebook overnight as I suffer from what is [i] called Peripheral neuropathy and we can’t figure out where it came from and how to stop it, but it is nerve damage and it gets worse at night because there isn’t a lot I can do to stop it, I have tried medications but I am sad to say their side effects where worse than the pain itself. I manage it but some really basic means, a good diet, exercise, and at times forcing myself out of the house, to do things that I don’t want to do, basically being an adult and not over-relying on support workers, but it’s a really common question, that we need to start answering. The question   What can I do with my NDIS funding besides getting a support worker we are all starting to understand what a support worker can and can’t do the options for employing one and the housing options and providers are starting to move to be compliant with what the commission has said about, Housing, Food and providing the basics of life, and the us

  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

  We need to do better. I am writing this as an observation that in Australia we are failing people with disabilities on so many levels and this is not great at all to see and observe.  I saw on the news stream that we on a federal level have a surplus and I understand that this is a good thing but we need to be aware that people need to do better for people with disabilities.  Those of us in the disability community are waiting for the final reports from the disability royal commission and we are still counting the cost the cost is just fiscal it’s the harm that has been caused in people's lives and not only that how many people through the impact’s of not having the care they need or the encouragement they need to be better or to achieve what they are capable of, as we need to be aware that people with a disability as we have seen are at greater risk of harm from the very people supposed to protect them. We are seeing that many disability service providers don’t pass the bu

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’

  This post is on the back of a few Netflix specials that I have watched and I am starting to transition to less chemicals and preservatives in my life so this requires a little more organization than I was expecting but organization as I am learning isn’t a one off it is a process and I am also learning that for me being blessed to have access to support workers ( care givers to the USA readers) I am then able to ask them for help.   But one of the things that I am realizing is that natural doesn’t equal safe all the time I am watching, unwell about the wellness industry and we need to be able to think critically about this industry as if you put industry after a word you need to ask what are they selling and for me, I am an amazon associate and I am honest about it as well but I do state that I am not a medical professional and to check   if it’s ok for you. But I am starting to go over to natural washing up and cleaning tools as I am going though my existing stash of cleaning

 So safety does mean different things to different people, for people with a disability there are extra things to think about given that people with a disability are more likely to be the victims of abuse and neglect from the very people who are paid to support them or even family who don’t know how to best support them.  This is a heartbreaking topic to talk about but it is something we need to start talking about because we are in disability pride month and we are still talking about the basics, of disability rights, the basics being, the right to privacy, the right to work, the right to relationships, and the right to freedom of movement, and the right to freedom of expression and the ability to socialize without judgment, but to have advice on healthy and unhealthy relationships. As well as the ability to feel safe in their own home, which could look like living in the family home, living with others in a “normal” share house, or living in disability services accommodation, such