A disappointing experienceThe good things1. Initial training is reasonably good and you are paid to complete it.
2. Rostering app is stable.
The challenges1. Many clients are very disrespectful and engage in unwelcome behaviour (yelling, swearing, inappropriate touching / hitting, suggestive comments, defecating on floor and in one case refusal to wear clothing on every shift). Managers need to work harder with clients to inform them of acceptable boundaries for these behaviours to ensure safer working environments for supports.
2. Having to work in hazardous environments without adequate PPE.
3. Too often care plans seem to miss important client information, or only focus on one aspect of a clients disabilities. (For example, not informing the support of epilepsy or providing a risk management plan for response, or focusing on vision impairment but not mobility challenges, in one case the care plan did not even mention a clients autism).
4. Some supports in care plans make no sense such as providing personal hygiene support to simply wash a clients back when there is no physical impairment or being made to search the community for a client because they are not home when you arrive for your shift.
5. Managers often don't return calls or messages. For example, I spent three weeks trying to get a reply from a manager about a performance review before just giving up.
6. Wages were not paid reliably and manager did not prioritise its resolution.
7. Inability to build a reliable schedule / hours make it hard to pay the bills.
8. Too many IT systems to navigate, these need to be consolidated.
9. Automatically generated notices arrive at midnight so if you don't have your phone on silent you will be woken.