Posts

restrictive practices the reality of it.

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 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 ...

If it's not documented it didn't happen.

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So this is to go along with a couple of pieces of content I have posted elsewhere,  about documentation and it’s really important to recognize that if you are working, with people with a disability, either in a housing situation or in a day/ community center it’s important to realize that if you haven’t documented it, it didn’t happen, and everything needs to be documented as it protects everyone so this isn’t just clients and supports staff but it’s family and other in your care team, and if you document things that don’t seem to be a big thing but they can be if you start to see a pattern of behavior and this can go towards a person funding and ratios of care. So, a person who is struggling in a sil (supported independent living,) at a one to three ratio might need extra support this then would provide the evidence for that person to have extra support and it might be a two-hour shift where the basics are done such as showers and toileting, feeding, and housework. We need ...

Grooming with a disablity

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 Hey all, so I was at the local op shop for some Christmas presents and I realized something when they had an influencer section in the shop, and this I have known for a long time but haven’t really acknowledged, basically that it is that grooming and presenting yourself well doesn’t have to be expensive, so I wanted to go through a few things that you can do to look presentable and I have also considered mobility aid hear as well, the first one seems really basic but a lot of people don’t know how to care for there clothing, so this is the first thing know how to clean your clothing and how to iron as I do find that having an ironed t shirt and jeans I feel so much more presentable.  Also learning how to get stains out is really important and how to keep whites white is important I know how to Dad does have some basic tips as well as asking your grandmother and I know that some universities have teamed up with Red Frogs and CWA to teach these skills, but you can also find som...

what is an ADL let's Break it down

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 So this is going to be a very basic post and it’s one that I discovered needed doing as people are not understanding the NDIS and disability Jargon. I do admit it’s a lot to get used to and to be aware that you have to learn a new language essentially and if English isn’t your first language it gets even harder.  I have done a video on this that is embedded in the blog post but, ADLs are the foundations of life, they are Activities of Daily living, the really basic stuff, being able to move around without a mobility aid, being able to dress yourself, being able to eat, grooming and toileting and showering. There is a crossover between these and life skills and some could be considered both like hygiene in the home such as cleaning, changing bed sheets being able to vacuum or mop a floor, and cooking goes with being able to eat, but they are what make up the foundations of life and you can see how we say that it’s where you are first assessed on with applying for the ...

What can I do with NDIS funding? Part one.

    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 li...

a life more ordinary what does it mean lets unpack disability jargon

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 This is the first thing we need to know is what is an ordinary life as we have content creators and YouTubers as a legitimate career option these days, we are also seeing that lives are mostly lived online and people who choose to on their weekends go hiking, canoeing or fishing are called extreme, I know that there is such a thing as extreme hiking where you go long distances with very little prep and the city version is to go urban exploring ( generally at night or in abandoned palaces to find interesting things. In Australia we don’t have much scope for extreme hiking due to the heat and cold but long distance is definitely a thing, but we then get to what is an ordinary life when it comes to disability and this is straight from the NDIS website, about life more ordinary,  and how they use it to decide support’s and this then goes into we need to know what is a disability. “An ordinary life is a life where you have the same opportunities as people without a disability....

Choose and Control sometimes it can be a myth.

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 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 ne...

OMG reaction time, lets talk about Ablism.

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 When I saw this clip, I was like this must be a setup but know it was a real reaction and I know that I am hypersensitive at times as well, and entitled, but to say that people who use wheelchairs aren’t paralyzed is just plain wrong and uneducated about disability. Both Strollers and Wheelchairs are mobility aids, and they are a tool. We see in the Clip that the person is suffering from a valid health condition known as obesity, but I am fairly sure that she would be a part of the body positivity movement, this body positivity denies one fact, that  health isn’t health at any size, you can be thin and very unhealthy as I was for many years, but to be obese we need to point out some difficult and challenging facts that there is a higher risk of, Heart disease Stroke Sleep apnoea High blood pressure Depression These are just a few and it’s not healthy to be obese at all, a little overweight in case you get sick I got told by my own health professional that it’s a...

Recovery the movie 2007 staring David Tennant.

This is going to be a hard one to write about and I am not sure if I should post it to the media blog or the main one. Still, I will post to both, and I have to admit I haven’t been able to finish the film but I have been watching the David Tennant movie Recovery and it’s on Tubi if you want to watch it legally. But you can also find it online as well. It is a well-done movie and it is a very accurate portrayal of a brain injury. It tells the story of   Allen head of a construction firm that suffers a traumatic brain injury and I have to say that its portrayal is accurate as it not only focuses on him as a brain injury survivor but also the family trying to accept that the person that they knew is gone and that there is a different person in place and the frustration of a person who “ present’s” as able-bodied but isn’t and has what we now know as a hidden disability as we don’t say invisible as this means that it may not be their, but hidden well it’s simply hidden from public v...

Support workers you do have options and not stuck , lets talk about it.

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 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 o...