Annie in wonderland

Support workers play a vital role in providing care and assistance to individuals who require support due to various challenges they face. In Australia, the ethical considerations surrounding the role of support workers are paramount, and it's essential to delve into these complexities to ensure the highest standards of care and respect are maintained. Let's explore some key points: Uniforms: A Personal Choice : In the realm of support work, the issue of uniforms often arises. While some organizations may have guidelines regarding uniforms, it's crucial to recognize that the choice to wear a uniform should ultimately be a personal one. Respecting an individual support worker's preferences regarding attire can contribute to a sense of autonomy and dignity. Responsibilities of a Support Worker: Navigating Gray Areas : The responsibilities of a support worker can often be multifaceted and nuanced. Unlike more rigidly defined roles, such as those in traditional healthcare s

This is going to be a controversial topic and let’s keep the conversation going as we need to talk about it, but we need to define what consent is and let’s see what it is, as consent is going to be different depending on the context. The different types I found are, ·        Informed consent around medical decisions and care so this is knowing the risks and benefits of medical procedures or knowing what the risks of medications are. ·        Intimate consent in relationships, so this is being able to have intimate relationships and be physical with that person, but also knowing that it could be risky and knowing how to maintain relationships as well. ·        Implied consent so this could be for care and self-care tasks they need help with so for someone who needs help dressing or showering so being able to consent to this care. [i]   This is where  the  complexity of disability  comes into play as  some people are able to consent but if a person has a mental illness or ment

 So Let’s unpack what I am saying here it’s not that Choose and control in disability support doesn’t exist at all, as it does but at times depending on where you are located it can be a bit of a myth around what you can do, as for some people having absolutely no limits placed on them can be dangerous even for people without disabilities. Some of the restrictions can be because of a couple of reasons and they can be as simple as behaviours of concern, a lack of impulse control, or the lack of cognitive awareness to be able to understand that their actions have consequences, and this leads to where restrictions as are needed to be put in place. But when it comes to disability accommodations it can get complex to get into the system simply, and even in a rural, regional, and remote area, there aren’t the disability accommodations that we know in other areas. So, to get into the system you need to take what is out there and this can be challenging as you might get the care you need h

So, regarding the duty of care, we saw that this is a topic that not a lot of support workers understand in depth. At the time of writing and recording, I am currently in the process of changing support agencies for community access. We see that people know the term but at the same time do not understand it since people are unable to define the concept of duty of care and support and they need to be tightly defined to be able to understand what people are talking about. As we do hear and see a lot about a lack of duty of care and it is a legal concept in nursing, childcare, foster care, teaching, and disability services, just to name a few services that have it embedded into the model of care as it is a part of the care that is needed for a person.  It is defined as that a person who is responsible for a child or an adult is responsible for the other person a child or a vulnerable adult and this means that they have a legal obligation to protect the person they are caring for or resp