Background knowlegde can help you to prepare for a job as a Disability Support Worker. Some of the knowledge areas that are helpful to Disability Support Workers include:
- Disability Service Standards
- Duty of Care
- Understanding Disability
- Values and attitudes
The following links and information will provide you with background information helpful for a career in Disability Support work.
- Disability Service Standards - The nine Standards have a primary focus of ensuring results for consumers of Disability Services that are consistent with the Principles and Objectives of the State legislation. The emphasis in WA is on using the Standards to encourage continuous improvement of services. Click on this link to find out more about the standards. Disability Service Standards Booklet
- Duty of Care - A duty of care is a duty to take reasonable care of a person. A Disability Suppport Worker has a duty of care to anyone who is reasonably likely to be
affected by their work activities. These are likely to include the person with a disability that they are the support worker for, the families and carers of clients other support workers and the general community when working within a community environment. A duty of care is breached if a person behaves unreasonably, fails to act (which can also be unreasonable in a particular situation). A duty of care can be breached either by action or inaction.
- Understanding Disability - It is helpful to understand about disability and how they affect people. There are many different types of disabilities such as intellectual disability, cerebral palsy and autism. Links to the folllowing website has general information about disability.
Disability Awareness Kit - A training resource developed for public library customerservice staff, has some general information on the range of different disabilities.
- Values and Attitudes - The attitudes and values that we bring to our role as a support worker has a large impact on our success. If we want to make a positive difference in our work with people with disabilities then having the right attitude and values is essential.
People (with disabilities) need to be seen as as valued individuals: We need not look too far back in history to find examples of people with disabilities portrayed as sick or a burden.
People (with disabilities) as having potential: Many people believe intellectual and other disabilities mean that people cannot learn and develop. In fact all people with disabilities are likely to have an abundance of untapped potential, regardless of perceived ability. It is important that we support people in ways that acknowledge and encourage them to achieve and maintain these abilities.
Our values and attitudes are apparent in all that we do; it is often the small things that we do that make our attitudes apparent like:
• how we speak to people;
• how we speak about people; and
• our body language, for example whether we look at people when we speak to them.
Strategies to Harness the Right Attitude
• Be genuine
• Look for good role models - seek out other support workers who seem to have an appropriate attitude
• Take the time to get to know people
• Acknowledge the person’s disability and support the uniqueness of each individual
Unhelpful Attitudes
Some of the unhelpful attitudes that support workers sometimes adopt include:
• Mothering people– doing things for people that they can do for themselves or talking to a person (adult or teenager) as if they are a child.
• Being controlling – bossing people around and not listening.
• Pitying –feeling sorry for people and doing everything for them. These are unhelpful attitudes to be avoided.