When I speak to people about my job and career there are always a couple of generic reactions or comments that follow. Anyone working in the disability sector I’m sure will read this and roll their eyes thinking “That’s so true! I always get that!”.

After the common question of “What do you do for a living?” I explain what I do, usually briefly, and the most common replies or comments that follow are: “Wow that must be very hard, I could never do that” or “Doesn’t that make you sad?” or my personal favourite “Oh that’s so kind of you, you’re such a good person.” I find that the more people I meet the more I begin to understand just how little the general public really know about disability work and people with disabilities in general. This concerns me. There are a number of misconceptions about people with disabilities that anyone in this sector would understand are very challenging to overcome or change.

For anyone reading this and thinking in their heads “I would probably ask that,” yes, disability work is a challenging career choice. As workers we are constantly faced with challenges and obstacles and sometimes just ‘hard days’. In saying that though, I don’t believe people take up a career in this field because they want an easy job where they wake up, go to work, use absolutely no brain power, clock off and forget about it until 9am the next day. I personally love a challenge and wouldn’t be able to work in an environment that wasn’t psychologically, physically and intellectually stimulating.

This job requires initiative, flexibility, creativity and energy. We are working with people’s lives, their families, their children, their mothers and fathers, their futures. Yes it can be difficult and at times taxing, but the rewards far outweigh challenges. It could be the simplest of things such as the first time a client rides a bike on their own, the first time they write their name clearly without you holding their hand steady, a smile, a laugh, a finished artwork that has taken weeks of commitment from them to complete or one lap of the swimming pool. Whatever their goal, when we see progress or achievements, however big or small, it is a step forward and can make a huge difference in that person and their family’s lives. All of the hard days put together are worth it when I see progress and happiness in an individual.

As for the whole “you must be a kind person” response, that’s one that I’m sure everyone has experienced at least once throughout their career. Having a kind heart and a good soul is a personal thing; it’s not actually in the job criteria, but I guess it does help. Each and every one of the people I work with are good people. They are good at their jobs and in order to be effective in their role they need a certain element of understanding and flexibility. I don’t believe that working in this field gives you an instant invitation to Heaven, but I do believe that it makes you a humanitarian: someone who sees the value in each and every individual on this planet regardless of ability, gender, age, race etc. and who believes that we all deserve a chance to reach our full potential.

The only way we can change these misconceptions is if we as workers and advocates of people with disabilities use our voices and get the word out! When you speak to people and you get one of these responses, turn their attitude around! Educate people, explain to them what we do and what you enjoy about this work.  If you are thinking of a career working with people with disability, but have no experience or prior knowledge I would suggest volunteering. You can volunteer as little or as much as you like with hours that suit you and this will give you a real insight into the diverse and energetic world of disability and community care.

Here at Northwest Disability Services we continually aim to provide a fun and energetic work environment for our staff; sometimes due to the nature of this work, our staff face difficult situations. Having a close knit group of people working together makes for a much more productive day and means that staff can really “get into” their role and work together.

Community services and disability work in particular can be a challenging job at times. Our staff work directly with service users and their families so understandably it can be hard to “clock off” at the end of the day and focus on home life. I think it’s really important for staff to feel comfortable in voicing their opinions and concerns on a daily basis and I feel very strongly about keeping communication lines open to all staff at all times. This gives staff the opportunity to talk about any concerns or issues that they are experiencing in the programs and basically just get things “off their chest”. The staff and management of NWDS strive to create this open environment every day and continue to work towards solutions and brighter futures for everyone.

Recently we have developed an NWDS “Social Group” which is made up of staff and volunteers from all of our buildings that get together every now and then for social gatherings. We have put together a volunteer “social committee” to meet regularly and plan fundraising events for our organisation to help raise some funds for our end of year staff Christmas Party.

This has been a huge success so far, with volunteer participation from many different members of our staff, carers, service users and management. This is a great initiative to get people together outside and inside work to socialise and get to know each other. The fundraising element is a massive bonus, but the main objective of the group is to get people together on a social basis and involve all staff from various locations and age groups. As a member of management I find these events to be a fantastic opportunity to gather feedback from the staff on what they really enjoy and also find challenging about their roles in this industry.

Do you think something like this would be useful in your workplace? I would like to know what other organisations are doing.

So the holidays are over and everyone is back at their desks and working hard to launch a new year at North West Disability Services (NWDS). As for myself, 2011 started with a bang with our Flexible Respite & Leisure Link school holiday program!

These 2 week programs run alongside the school terms and are held during the school holiday breaks, for children that have Flexible Respite or Leisure Link packages. The fortnight includes a range of different activities including rock-climbing, movies, farm days, jumping castle fun, arts and crafts and bushwalking.

Our groups consist of roughly 10 children with disabilities per day and around 5 staff members, as well as additional volunteers or students. As the coordinator of this program I worked in the groups on the frontline to ensure safety and supervision at all times (and secretly I just wanted to be there too!) I know 10 children doesn’t seem like that many, but with the range of disabilities, ages and personalities we have here each day, it’s a recipe for mischief, fun and a very messy building!

It’s a fantastic program and the children have a great time. It’s also a valuable source of holiday respite for our carers, as school holiday periods can often be a stressful time for them with the children at home all day, especially when one parent still has to go to work.

We also ran a 3 day camp to Camp Breakaway in San Remo on the Central Coast at the beginning of January. This took a lot of planning and organisation to get underway as well as strong encouragement to get our carers onboard with the idea. I find that in my area, as I generally work with families and children, I have some carers that can be concerned with sending their child away on camp for a few days.

Fortunately, the camp went ahead with 8 clients aged between 14-18 years of age and 4 staff. It was a great success for us and a huge support to the families to have that respite. I will be planning more sleepover events and camps in the future.

For now, I’m onto continuing with our individual respite programs to make sure I’m on target with hours delivered and moving smoothly towards the end of financial year when I will receive my 2011-2012 referrals.

International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) is a globally celebrated day of activities and events held on 3 December each year, which recognises the achievements and contributions of people with disabilities within communities all over the world.

The day represents empowerment to people with disabilities and gives them a turn in the limelight.

At Northwest Disability Services our aim for the day was to showcase the incredible talents of our aspiring artists with the launch of our ‘Access to Art’ exhibition, to rally together with members of our wider community and to have some fun!

By 10am the building was abuzz with people. Phil Knight performed music in the morning and everyone danced, sang and enjoyed his renditions of song classics, such as Mustang Sally and My Girl.  

There were fun group games set up in each room, painting in the art room and a coloured hairspray station in the backyard. Michelle Gilan and her pet therapy dog Jade also came in for a visit.

A talent showcase was then held in the community hall and we saw some fabulous performances from some of the service users at North West. After a delicious BBQ lunch everyone enjoyed some line dancing with Julie Talbot to finish off the celebrations!

As I walked through the halls and rooms of our building at Baulkham Hills that day, the spirit and excitement of everyone was infectious. Around 100 people came along and there was not a face to be seen without a smile.

When I first started out in the disability sector I entered into the Post School Options (PSO) Program. Which is designed to bridge the gap from school life to adult independent life for people with disabilities. All of the clients I worked with were over 18 years old. I worked in PSO for about 2.5 years in different levels of management and this is where my passion for the industry truly began.

At the beginning of this year (2010) I was interviewed and offered the position of Area Coordinator of Flexible Respite. I was stoked, as I wanted to move up the management ladder, but also because this area of respite was generally directed at families with children with disabilities. This was also an area I had not had much experience in.

In this post I’m going to discuss a few of the issues, challenges and highlights of my journey so far working with children.

One of the most difficult things I find, about working with children with disabilities as opposed to adults, is that it is quite hard to tell the difference between a behaviour due to disabilities (eg, over stimulation, frustration with communication, too much noise, etc) and a 'normal' child behaviour.

I have read over case files that have information such as “Child may throw a tantrum when they are hungry – this could result in biting, hitting and verbal abuse”. I’m pretty sure that when I was a small kid I chucked a few tanties over not getting my icecream too, but that is not necessarily due to any form of disability, it is simply an average child’s behaviour.

Being able to understand that children, disabled or not, are still children who are learning and growing is essential for success in this area of disability work.

In the disability sector it can be quite difficult to ensure effective communication with clients. When I was working with adults, most of them were able to communicate their needs in some way. However, when working with a child, most of the time they do not yet understand what they want or how they are feeling and in turn, it proves very difficult to comfort and support them.

In saying that, I have had some of the most fun days of my career working with various children in our holiday programs. During these programs we have had groups of up to 15 children participating in different activities - my inner child has especially enjoyed the jumping castle and ball pit!

Being able to have fun and connect with each child is an experience that moves you. And seeing someone that usually just sits in the corner and doesn’t interact, jumping around with other kids and playing ring-a-round-the-rosie is incredibly rewarding and makes all the morning tantrums forgivable.