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SIL & Respite Explained: What Every Support Worker Needs to Know | Pure Living Accommodation · Sarah Knows Support Workers

• 0:00
  Hi everyone. It's Sarah.
• 0:01
  No support workers. Today I've got Stevie Lee.
• 0:04
  Welcome aboard Stevie Lee to a podcast on Sarah No Support
• 0:07
  Workers. Hey thanks for having me.
• 0:09
  Well, you, let's just dive into this because your timing is
• 0:13
  perfect for this podcast because you are the director and founder
• 0:18
  of Pure Living Accommodation and Care.
• 0:20
  Yes, Yep. So as we as we're recording
• 0:23
  right now in May, there's some really big changes coming to the
• 0:27
  NDIS and in the SEAL space. How you feeling it?
• 0:30
  I'm feeling pretty good. I think we've been prepared from
• 0:33
  this from the start, so I actually feel pretty confident.
• 0:37
  I didn't listen to too much noise, to be honest.
• 0:40
  Yeah. Sometimes the noise really
• 0:41
  deflects some of the good work that we do and it just feels
• 0:45
  like a hold up. I would agree.
• 0:46
  I think a lot of people are freaking out and I think this
• 0:50
  change was always going to come. It's just something that's been
• 0:54
  talked of and you know, like support coordination for an
• 0:57
  example. I think that, you know, it's
• 1:00
  really scaring a lot of people and it's creating a lot of
• 1:03
  noise. There's lots of things in the
• 1:04
  media, there's lots of things filtering that aren't
• 1:06
  necessarily true. We're still waiting for these
• 1:09
  changes to pass and we just keep doing the work that we're doing
• 1:14
  and I have no doubt we will be more than fine.
• 1:18
  So you've been in the sector for a while.
• 1:20
  This is not like an overnight thing for you.
• 1:22
  What made you work in the disability sector to begin with?
• 1:25
  Yeah, OK, so I actually started off long ago doing support work.
• 1:31
  I went and got my certificate 3IN disability support work and
• 1:36
  my first role was with House with no steps, which is now a
• 1:39
  rumor. I was doing some transition to
• 1:41
  work training with those guys as well while studying community
• 1:45
  services and case management. And then I did a bit of aged
• 1:50
  care work and then I moved straight into crisis work and
• 1:53
  got a degree in social welfare. So all my roles from there were
• 1:57
  identified roles. And so I've worked at Carrie's
• 2:01
  Place for over six years with people experiencing domestic
• 2:05
  violence and homelessness. And I then went into child
• 2:10
  protection. I worked for Wandiyali with
• 2:14
  Indigenous families and that was literally preservation,
• 2:18
  restoration and keeping families together, which I'm super
• 2:20
  passionate about. And then I moved into the
• 2:22
  cultural hub with DCJ, again, keeping families together in the
• 2:26
  prenatal space. And then I went to disability
• 2:28
  advocacy, but it was a little bit too boring for me.
• 2:31
  Whilst it's a very important role, it's just very paperwork
• 2:34
  heavy in terms of, you know, it is different.
• 2:38
  You're sitting at a computer and there's not a lot of face to
• 2:40
  face happening. So for me, I was so bored I I
• 2:44
  could hear the clock tick in the background.
• 2:46
  So I love the crisis kind of driven casework.
• 2:51
  I guess I've always been drawn. To it.
• 2:54
  So I'm going to put it out there.
• 2:55
  Are you a millennial like myself and been through multiple
• 3:00
  seasons of this sector? Absolutely.
• 3:02
  Well, I'm 36 next week, so. I must be collecting millennials
• 3:07
  at the moment. Like I feel like this podcast,
• 3:09
  I've collected a few millennial. I call us millennial elders
• 3:12
  because we have been through before the NDIS to what it looks
• 3:15
  like now. So we are aware and prepared for
• 3:19
  what comes next. And I think it's always, it's
• 3:23
  always good to try and find different ways to make things
• 3:28
  work. In all my roles there's been
• 3:29
  very little resources and we always find a way to make things
• 3:34
  work. Do you like the thrill of it in
• 3:36
  the sense like being with people?
• 3:39
  I do being in the sleep of it, yeah.
• 3:41
  So I hate on the ground. I like, I hate computer work, I
• 3:46
  hate being tied to the desk. My passion is working with the
• 3:50
  awesome people that we support and it's connecting with
• 3:53
  families, it's getting out in the community.
• 3:56
  I absolutely love it. And it's hustle like it's always
• 4:00
  hustle, so. If you're a hustler, how did you
• 4:03
  end up with a business? Because they're very different
• 4:05
  when you're on, you know, when you're with working with
• 4:08
  somebody and then working on your business externally behind
• 4:11
  the computer. Yeah, Look, I.
• 4:13
  I ended up in a support worker role just doing casual work and
• 4:17
  I was asked to actually come to this company that had or sorry,
• 4:20
  another company that had one participant and they were
• 4:23
  providing the seal. Then I fell into the role of
• 4:26
  growing the company. So I was then the marketing and
• 4:29
  then I found a lot for marketing and I'm like, Oh my gosh, that
• 4:31
  way as I'm a people's person, right?
• 4:33
  So marketing twin moved into like OPS manager, but then I was
• 4:40
  still doing the support work. Then I was the recruitment.
• 4:43
  And look, I wasn't working for a fantastic stand alone one person
• 4:49
  company. And I can say that that company
• 4:52
  is no longer registered. So I was halfway through a
• 4:55
  mortgage with COVID, a house was being built and I couldn't make
• 5:00
  the jump, but I needed to make the jump.
• 5:02
  And my amazing husband in the background just started putting
• 5:08
  things together and said, you're doing it anyway, just do it,
• 5:11
  Just make the jump. So we got registered.
• 5:14
  I think we're registered three months into US starting.
• 5:17
  And he went away for deployment. He's in the raft.
• 5:20
  And he came back to a business which I never thought I was ever
• 5:24
  going to use. I thought, yeah, yeah, whatever.
• 5:27
  So I fell into this. I, I've never done anything as
• 5:31
  wild as this and it's had its moments, but I absolutely love
• 5:36
  it. I love the fact that it was kind
• 5:38
  of like accident, but in your I feel like you're somebody that's
• 5:42
  a builder by nature, whether it is building people up or
• 5:45
  building businesses, it's something that comes naturally
• 5:48
  to you. Yeah, I think the whole running
• 5:51
  of the place. But then I've never, you know,
• 5:53
  when you work for big organizations, you have all the
• 5:56
  departments. I don't have all the
• 5:58
  departments. I've had to learn it all.
• 6:00
  I learnt it all in the last role I was in when I was, I was like,
• 6:04
  what is all of this? I had to learn it.
• 6:05
  I had to look everything up. It was kind of good because I
• 6:08
  had connections and I had, I knew some things.
• 6:11
  I was absolutely petrified about the billing and that kind of
• 6:14
  stuff because I never did the billing.
• 6:16
  But with some awesome humans around me.
• 6:18
  I've definitely been able to work at our NCRM systems also
• 6:22
  help. I had to get a business coach
• 6:24
  and because I didn't know, I didn't know a thing about it.
• 6:27
  I was just a duo. What was your best investment?
• 6:29
  In terms of business coach, yeah, he's amazing.
• 6:35
  And I can tell you right now I wouldn't be here if it wasn't
• 6:38
  for him. So.
• 6:39
  How long has he been your? Coach for I think I've had him
• 6:42
  for over a year now, probably a year and a bit.
• 6:45
  So when I kicked off the house to begin with, I lived in that
• 6:51
  property for eight months. Yep, with some participants we
• 6:54
  won first then to and I had no dreams or ambitions of being any
• 7:00
  bigger and I needed to get home to my children.
• 7:03
  I was like how can I keep this going?
• 7:05
  I just want the one. And Paul said to me, you know,
• 7:06
  you need to, you need to go home, you need to start being a
• 7:11
  wife and a mum and all of those things.
• 7:13
  And eventually we came up with a plan on how I was going to get
• 7:16
  out of there. I packed all my stuff up and I
• 7:18
  was able to put a plan in place so I could pay staff and start
• 7:23
  my day fresh. And you build something, work on
• 7:26
  it and build more. Because you said you need 3
• 7:29
  houses, right? If you don't have three houses
• 7:32
  and somebody passes away like we have, something happens, funding
• 7:37
  gets caught, then what is your plan?
• 7:39
  Because you are straight back to the floor again, Yeah.
• 7:44
  It would be like, I know for my own business, I do find it
• 7:48
  really hard to hire and I think it's because no one loves my
• 7:51
  business like I love it and I could see that.
• 7:54
  Did you find that really difficult to hire support
• 7:56
  workers because no ones gonna love it like you?
• 7:58
  I had some amazing supports, I still do, but I guess it was
• 8:03
  more the financial side of I have to pay everyone started off
• 8:06
  on a pay point 1.3 because I was I can't even pay myself.
• 8:10
  So how am I going to pay you guys?
• 8:11
  But I had some really lovely passionate people come across
• 8:16
  and say, hey, I want to work with you.
• 8:17
  So I kind of had one come at a time so when I could afford to
• 8:22
  pay them yeah. So just it just happened and
• 8:28
  it's it's worked out. However, building is harder,
• 8:33
  getting amazing staff that think like you do, that can apply,
• 8:38
  that can follow policies and procedures.
• 8:40
  I find a lot of that is around training, supporting, investing,
• 8:46
  setting the standard from the start and building on that
• 8:49
  pillar. So it's not, you know, why
• 8:52
  haven't you done this or why haven't you done that?
• 8:55
  It's around. OK, help me to understand guide
• 8:58
  guide, drop in, have oversight and then have a chat, you know,
• 9:03
  So can I support you? Is there anything I can help you
• 9:05
  with? So like I will do check
• 9:07
  insurance at houses at 9:30 PM at night.
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  They don't know I'm coming. And that's my chance to set the
• 9:12
  standard and come from a place of understanding.
• 9:14
  Oh. I'm for it.
• 9:16
  I do because it no matter what time of the day you turn out, it
• 9:21
  should be across that we're we are serving people to the best
• 9:25
  of our ability. Yeah.
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  And I think if workers don't have oversight, then they can go
• 9:33
  astray or they can feel undervalued or they can feel
• 9:36
  like you don't care. And I think it's important to
• 9:38
  have that. You know, Paul teaches a lot
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  about as well around, you know, common sense isn't generally
• 9:43
  common sense. And sometimes we need to teach
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  that because what that looks like for someone is completely
• 9:47
  different for the other person. So, you know, if you come with a
• 9:49
  good attitude, a good attitude, I can work with passive
• 9:53
  aggressive. If I pick that up, you could be
• 9:55
  the best worker ever, like in terms of like what you come with
• 9:58
  and the support that you provide.
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  But if you can't work with a team and you can't take
• 10:02
  feedback, then this is not going to work.
• 10:04
  So I can attitude, love, love a great attitude.
• 10:07
  I can work with that and train. 100%, There's been people that
• 10:10
  I've had around for being in the sector for 20 years and I've had
• 10:15
  people that have come in for a couple of months and I bet the
• 10:18
  person with a couple of months because of attitude and their
• 10:20
  willingness to contribute and be a part of it.
• 10:23
  That's right, you just want people to love it as much as you
• 10:25
  do. And not the people we support,
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  like no, but you know what I mean?
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  Like really enjoy working with them.
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  Because we, I know. Amazing people, fact, the fact
• 10:34
  and actually me, I'd be like, Oh my God, I cannot believe I get
• 10:37
  paid to work with this person. They're so awesome and the
• 10:41
  things that they do in the experience and the banter and
• 10:44
  the fun, like there is fun with it.
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  Support work is awesome and I I do miss.
• 10:49
  I do miss, like I do drop in and I do go to the programs and I do
• 10:54
  go to the houses and we do have days where we connect and I, I
• 10:57
  do love it. And I, I do have this MP, I'm
• 10:59
  like, oh, to be a support worker again instead of at the desk
• 11:02
  having to do all this, you know, all these bills and stuff.
• 11:06
  It's yeah, it used to break my heart when I'd set up a support
• 11:10
  or an activity. And they get to do something
• 11:12
  really fun and you're like, God, I would love to go do that.
• 11:16
  I'd love to have that first experience with you.
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  But like there's also that fulfilment as well because you
• 11:20
  get to support people and line them up so they can have these
• 11:24
  experiences that they've never had before or the succeeding
• 11:26
  goals. Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely
• 11:29
  exciting and it's, yeah, it's not just turning up to sit on
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  our phones and provide nothing. So we don't, we definitely have
• 11:36
  a policy around phones and what we expect from staff in terms of
• 11:42
  interaction, engagement and what we're actually there for.
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  And some people, if they don't, they don't do those things, then
• 11:50
  that there is a conversation there and this isn't, this isn't
• 11:53
  for you. So what do you believe most
• 11:55
  people get wrong when it comes to SEAL?
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  Support in terms of like a business wise or?
• 12:00
  You tell me. I'm all for it.
• 12:02
  I'm all ears. I'm learning a lot.
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  So in terms of like what people get wrong, I think some people
• 12:07
  think it's easy. It's like a babysitter job.
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  You walk in and you walk out. And why do I have to do shift
• 12:12
  notes? Why do I have to answer all
• 12:13
  these questions? It's because it matters and it
• 12:16
  matters to everybody that supports this person.
• 12:19
  And that's a matter of getting funding over the line and not
• 12:22
  getting funding. That's a matter of, you know,
• 12:24
  being able to say we adhere to a meal time management plan or to
• 12:28
  let you know behavior support practitioners build something so
• 12:30
  they know exactly what's going on.
• 12:32
  So that is why it's important I think as well.
• 12:35
  What makes us still support not so great?
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  No oversight. No oversight.
• 12:42
  You will have everyone doing their own thing, what they want,
• 12:45
  when they want, and it doesn't create strong foundations for
• 12:49
  the people we support. Do you assist people into that's
• 12:53
  your provider? Like how many do you have?
• 12:55
  A lot? So we actually had, I think we
• 12:57
  had five or six and I think we've scaled back to four now we
• 13:01
  have a respite house as well and a hub.
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  And the reason for the scaled back was I got the business,
• 13:08
  coach Paul, he mentioned me and well, let's just say we went
• 13:13
  from 1:00 to 5:00 in like it was 8 to 12 weeks.
• 13:17
  Okay. And I think I almost had to
• 13:20
  experience that to just see where, where everything kind of
• 13:24
  fell apart. So what happened was, well, we
• 13:27
  did have some participants pass away, which is really awful, but
• 13:30
  we had people that were not the right fit.
• 13:32
  So we've we've people to support that we're not the right fit.
• 13:35
  So you know, some really high, high end behaviours which the
• 13:39
  staff were not equipped to deal with.
• 13:40
  And I don't think even if we had three to 1 supports, it would
• 13:44
  have been manageable. So we now know what our niche is
• 13:47
  and what we cannot support. Also around systems.
• 13:51
  We know CRM is perfect, right? But we did have gaps.
• 13:55
  The structure just was not there to support the growth.
• 13:58
  So we did, we took a step back and went, hey, we need to
• 14:00
  evaluate, I need to work with Paul.
• 14:03
  It worked with multiple people. So even within his little
• 14:06
  profitable provider, there's just so many awesome people and
• 14:09
  we all share ideas and we leverage our each other and we
• 14:12
  scale faster, whether that's scaling forwards or scaling
• 14:15
  back. Profit is great in terms of, you
• 14:18
  know, you need it for training, you need to be able to pay your
• 14:20
  staff, you need it to be able to work as compensation.
• 14:24
  And I do a lot of things with our participants that, you know,
• 14:27
  I, I don't know, I just love making them all feel lovely.
• 14:31
  And for me that's showing like putting into things like craft
• 14:36
  within the houses and taking them out.
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  So I do do a lot of that and you need profit to be able able to
• 14:42
  do that. So profits always good.
• 14:45
  But sometimes having more, so more houses, it's not, it's not,
• 14:49
  it's not profit. Sometimes it means less, more
• 14:51
  stress, less profit. So yeah.
• 14:54
  So you talked about your experience moving forward.
• 14:57
  Now, how do you transition somebody from home, their own
• 15:01
  family home, into one of your houses?
• 15:04
  So we see that quite a bit and I think we've got an ageing
• 15:09
  community and, you know, we see a lot of parents that, you know,
• 15:14
  are moving into aged care themselves and they're not able
• 15:17
  to look after their loved ones anymore.
• 15:19
  And we were seeing this more and more.
• 15:21
  So what that looks like is generally as a foot coordinator
• 15:24
  will contact us or the family or someone will reach out and just
• 15:29
  starts with a conversation. I invite them out to view a
• 15:32
  property, say well, I see if they're a good fit.
• 15:35
  So do a bit of an intake process and see if we potentially have a
• 15:39
  home that would be a suitable match.
• 15:41
  Then it's a walkthrough. I don't provide any like I don't
• 15:45
  do any pressure. It's more like just come and
• 15:47
  have a look so you can see what a seal home we.
• 15:51
  Kind of know what it feels like when you walk through the door.
• 15:53
  Yeah, there's a lot of anxiety that families feel having to put
• 15:59
  their loved one into a home and not not a group home.
• 16:03
  I don't call it a group in like a home, like an actual home
• 16:05
  where they belong. And it's important that they are
• 16:10
  not rushed through that process and there is no expectations.
• 16:14
  So when people contact me, it's very much a, Did you want to
• 16:18
  walk through one of our homes and get a feel for what a still
• 16:20
  home looks like? Even when we don't have a
• 16:25
  potential fit, we have people call where they've got children
• 16:29
  that are transitioning into the NDIS and they're from out of
• 16:32
  home care. And it's like just just come and
• 16:35
  have a look. So just giving them that idea
• 16:37
  because I think they need to be able to see it, feel it and
• 16:41
  understand that it's not, it's not a, it's not clinical.
• 16:45
  It shouldn't feel clinical. How do you make it feel like
• 16:48
  home? Because so I feel like there's
• 16:50
  that line at times because we are in somebody'd home, but as
• 16:54
  support workers it is our working environment.
• 16:57
  How do you balance the two to ensure that somebody has that
• 17:01
  feeling as this is my home? So it's definitely personalizing
• 17:06
  and, and asking them, you know, how much stuff do you have?
• 17:09
  What are your hobbies? What do you like to do?
• 17:11
  It's matching them with participants.
• 17:14
  I shouldn't even say participants, just awesome
• 17:16
  people, basically. I hate that word, but it's, it's
• 17:19
  matching them with the right fit, making sure it aligns and,
• 17:24
  you know, put that bookcase out there, put those books on that
• 17:27
  shelf, put stuff up on the walls if you like, But also like
• 17:31
  around Christmas and Easter and things like that.
• 17:33
  I do go overboard and I do spend Christmas with the participants
• 17:37
  and I love it. So it's more than just, you
• 17:41
  know, this is it and we're babysitting you.
• 17:44
  It's getting involved. It's getting the workers
• 17:46
  involved and making that a part of, you know, we're everything
• 17:50
  for them. Sometimes that's all we ask.
• 17:51
  So yeah, that's really important to me.
• 17:54
  Do you find the I'm setting up with somebody their room like?
• 17:59
  Yeah, so sometimes they come with their Star Wars figures and
• 18:03
  they'll have all their little Knick knacks.
• 18:04
  It's super exciting. But we also, when people come
• 18:07
  in, have a little gift basket and a welcome pack and they'll
• 18:11
  generally know the people that they're living with and the
• 18:14
  workers because they do meet the team before they come in and we
• 18:18
  will organize a few meet and greets.
• 18:19
  It's not rush. Yes, sure.
• 18:22
  We're not just filling vacancies because we have a sport.
• 18:25
  So what are some green flags in your experience?
• 18:28
  Green flags OK, so if you have you walking, if you walk in and
• 18:35
  you get a really good feeling, right, So it's like the house is
• 18:38
  maintained. It's not dingy.
• 18:40
  You go in and it's clean, like yeah, it's a home, but it
• 18:44
  shouldn't be super cluttered to the point where there's dust
• 18:48
  builds up. Like if there's support workers
• 18:50
  in there and they're working alongside and supporting the
• 18:53
  people in within the home, then this is a no brainer.
• 18:57
  So it's really important that anyone can walk into that home
• 19:00
  and that home is always at an acceptable level.
• 19:02
  Routines, so they can have their routine charts.
• 19:06
  They know exactly who the workers are.
• 19:08
  So someone's coming to view the house.
• 19:10
  They can see, they can see the board, they can see faces.
• 19:13
  So we use photos of their workers.
• 19:17
  They know it's predictable menus on fridges.
• 19:21
  Not that we not that we decide it's what the, what the people
• 19:25
  decide, but they want to have a deal.
• 19:26
  They sit down, they do it together.
• 19:28
  So that's playing that further because I, sorry, I've, I've had
• 19:32
  conversations in the past with people about how important it is
• 19:37
  to have choice over your menu and how you get to that.
• 19:40
  How do you support people in the house to choose their menu?
• 19:44
  So mostly available, sit down together and obviously they want
• 19:47
  people who have the capacity to be able to do so.
• 19:50
  And it's about working together to go, OK, what is it that
• 19:54
  everyone would like? We need to come up with 7
• 19:57
  dinners. We need to come up with, you
• 19:58
  know, 7 lunches and someone might not like fish, but I want
• 20:03
  a steak instead. So it's just about changing the
• 20:06
  meat up and just working out what they want.
• 20:08
  They also go and get the food together.
• 20:10
  So either have the capacity, it's writing the list out, it's
• 20:13
  working out what's within the budget.
• 20:15
  And then going out and purchasing that food, we also
• 20:19
  use what are they called portion plates.
• 20:21
  So that was super. I know I've noticed and a lot of
• 20:26
  people come to me and ask me about this.
• 20:28
  A lot of families like put on lots of weight.
• 20:30
  What am I, what I do? They're just eating chips and
• 20:32
  Nuggets, chips and Nuggets. So look, we encourage preferred
• 20:36
  foods and we do our very best to make that happen.
• 20:40
  And what we do with that is portion, portion is everything
• 20:42
  that we teach. So you've got like the veggies,
• 20:44
  you've got the meat, then you've got the the carbs.
• 20:46
  That's super important. Obviously, if people are hungry
• 20:50
  without any restricted practices, you can't just
• 20:52
  implement that. But most of the time you can get
• 20:54
  them on board. If you have a workout workers
• 20:57
  that come in and think they're doing a favor by, you know,
• 21:00
  they're making them really, really full and filling up their
• 21:02
  bellies. But then we've got someone that
• 21:04
  weighs, you know, 180 kilos, for example, then it's like, well,
• 21:07
  this isn't where does the duty of care kind of like here, we
• 21:11
  really do need to be supporting healthier choices, educating in
• 21:16
  that space. So it is walking around the
• 21:18
  block together as a group and it is using those portion plates.
• 21:21
  It's, it's important a lot of people have diabetes that we
• 21:25
  support as well. So again, that comes into play.
• 21:28
  Yeah. It's just also around education.
• 21:30
  And it does, it does work most of the time.
• 21:33
  Well. That's our jobs really, to
• 21:35
  support workers, to guide, inform, choice.
• 21:38
  Yeah, and look, I know that we've had, you know, and you see
• 21:41
  it everywhere. People think that filling plates
• 21:44
  with cheesy pasta and potato bake and like feeling it right
• 21:50
  up is, is doing is doing good because they've got full
• 21:53
  bellies, you know, as as the medical issues continue to arise
• 21:58
  and people need more support or can't do those personal cares
• 22:01
  themselves, you know, we're really taking that away from
• 22:03
  them. And we're not doing an amazing
• 22:05
  since we're not starving anyone by any means, but it's really
• 22:08
  about trying to get that education and balance.
• 22:11
  So besides like the plate is a form of communication, what
• 22:16
  other you talked about the board having photos of the stuff, What
• 22:19
  other communication aids do you implement into people's homes?
• 22:22
  So we've also got their own routine boards.
• 22:25
  So we have the routine boards ourself and they can put visuals
• 22:29
  up of what their week or day looks like and the times and how
• 22:32
  they'd like to be supported. But we also do one-on-one weekly
• 22:37
  meetings with the with the participant, with them, with our
• 22:40
  special person that we love. And that could mean if they
• 22:44
  don't have the capacity, we do invite the coordinator.
• 22:48
  We do invite families and stakeholders to be a part of
• 22:51
  that is if they are wanting to be a part of that.
• 22:53
  Sometimes we just have amazing coordinators that just
• 22:55
  continuously, you know, they're in contact all the time.
• 22:58
  So we've got that working relationship, but it's very
• 23:02
  important for the people we support to have a voice and how
• 23:06
  we go about that. It's one-on-one.
• 23:09
  Sometimes it's with me, sometimes it's with the
• 23:11
  coordinator and we go over what's working well, what's
• 23:14
  working well this week, what hasn't gone so well?
• 23:17
  What are the things you know? Have you had a fight with
• 23:19
  somebody? Are you angry at your
• 23:21
  housemates? Is there something that the
• 23:22
  support worker did that made you feel a certain way?
• 23:25
  Are you not happy with the menu? And same with the good things.
• 23:28
  What were the good things? Did you, did you go out on
• 23:31
  community access? Did you do anything that was
• 23:33
  awesome within the house? It could be anything.
• 23:36
  And we just kind of unpack and they love it.
• 23:39
  But then we also talk about anything that's happening for
• 23:44
  the next week and goal wise, NDIS goals are they're just like
• 23:51
  1234. And then at the planning
• 23:53
  meeting, you know, you get the whole, are they still relevant?
• 23:56
  And it's like, well, what are they?
• 23:58
  So we really break those goals down and we say every week,
• 24:04
  every week to a fortnight, we go, OK, what's one to two things
• 24:07
  that you really want to do in the next one to two weeks?
• 24:11
  And it could be, I want to go to the gym, I want to walk around
• 24:15
  the corner, I want to cook two nights a week.
• 24:17
  That gets filtered down to support staff and we monitor
• 24:21
  that. So we link it the next week.
• 24:23
  And before you know it, they've achieved so many things.
• 24:26
  So for anyone listening to this. Can you talk about the benefits
• 24:30
  because some people I know with agency staff, the turnover rate
• 24:34
  and the turn rate is so high that we miss all this
• 24:37
  opportunity to talk about how people can be really successful.
• 24:41
  Can you give us talk a little bit maybe indeed like a bit more
• 24:44
  depth or where a participant won because they were able to have
• 24:48
  that? Yeah, consistent communication.
• 24:51
  So we have, we have a very special lady and I'm sure she
• 24:56
  would not mind sharing her. So she's actually been on a
• 24:58
  podcast sharing her story herself.
• 25:00
  Yeah. So I've known this person prior
• 25:04
  to starting up and this person slept 23 hours of 24 hours fully
• 25:12
  incontinent. It was not good.
• 25:13
  Basically would not shower, slept, did not care and there
• 25:18
  was nothing going on. There was absolutely nothing.
• 25:20
  This person was completely tapped out.
• 25:22
  This person came to us and I thought I need to turn this
• 25:26
  around. How can I turn this around and
• 25:28
  thought about it. And I started using an evidence
• 25:31
  based model. We used it as MST can therapy,
• 25:36
  particularly with families who we're about to lose their
• 25:39
  children. But that was just what it was
• 25:42
  used from where I learned to it. And I thought I can apply this
• 25:44
  to support work. I can apply this to how we
• 25:46
  support our people. And what that looked like was
• 25:49
  for this person, it was breaking everything down.
• 25:52
  OK, can we just, can the goal be that we're going to be awake
• 25:55
  between these hours and these hours?
• 25:57
  It could be we're just going to stay awake 3 hours longer,
• 25:59
  right? That worked.
• 26:01
  So we had 1221 to two goals. It started off with we're going
• 26:05
  to rinse our plate. I'm going to show you guys this
• 26:07
  is this is all our participants in that property that I lived in
• 26:10
  and we're going to learn how to rinse these plates and put them
• 26:13
  in the dishwasher. And we had that happening.
• 26:15
  I can't believe how far this person has come because it
• 26:20
  started with being in the shower and having to the worker having
• 26:23
  to do absolutely everything right.
• 26:26
  And this person has become she's fully continent and the shower
• 26:30
  support. We it went from, OK, I know you
• 26:33
  hate showers, but if we can just get one in, I will support you.
• 26:37
  So I would do the washing and all of those things.
• 26:39
  And then it got to a point, you know, three weeks down the track
• 26:42
  when we had the showers and routine and, and the guidance,
• 26:45
  it was that I'm going to step away and then I'm going to guide
• 26:48
  you also. I'm sorry, up, you know, and
• 26:51
  then we got to a point of this person was showering themselves.
• 26:54
  This is the person that slept 23 hours for a few showers and was
• 26:57
  incontinent. Then it turned into OK, we need
• 27:00
  to get you walking. So this person, we then started
• 27:03
  going for walks around the block every single day.
• 27:05
  It was amazing, the mental health, the self esteem.
• 27:08
  Then we started going, OK, now we're going to cook 2 meals a
• 27:11
  week. We've already got the dishes
• 27:12
  down packed. Now we're having showers.
• 27:14
  Now we're cooking. This is friggin awesome.
• 27:17
  And then it turned into cooking for everybody, everything else.
• 27:20
  Then it turned into trying to mother hand the house and doing
• 27:24
  lots of activities. And this person actually has a
• 27:27
  friggin job right now, so they're awake all the time.
• 27:31
  What was the like? This is not something that
• 27:33
  happened overnight. Is this a year of progress to?
• 27:36
  Like, thank you. It was probably a good eight
• 27:39
  months. Yeah.
• 27:41
  And yeah, like it's really, really exciting.
• 27:45
  And I think back, you know, if we do see a little bit of a
• 27:48
  decline, it's it's working with all the stakeholders going, you
• 27:50
  know, what are we going to do? What's the next kind of plan?
• 27:53
  Because if you don't have that support, then the wheels fall
• 27:56
  off. And it's that those
• 27:58
  communications of what's working well and really, really diving
• 28:01
  into the small wins because they were all very small things.
• 28:05
  And I've got staff that find it very hard to believe that this
• 28:09
  person was that person. And I'm like these this is.
• 28:12
  Friggin amazing. Yeah.
• 28:15
  Yeah. It sounds like you broke down
• 28:17
  each activity for her and totally built that.
• 28:21
  Were you able to. So I know you were talking about
• 28:23
  the method that you use to follow and track how it went.
• 28:27
  Is that something that you get to bring up to the next planning
• 28:29
  meeting? Yes.
• 28:30
  So obviously capacity has increased and that's what we
• 28:34
  want for the people we support. It's not about going, oh, we're
• 28:38
  just going to have the four walls and.
• 28:41
  You guys just stare at the walls.
• 28:42
  I'm going to sit on my phone. Hey, let's do something
• 28:45
  together. Let's cook together, let's clean
• 28:47
  up together. You know, if you need support,
• 28:49
  I'll help you. And if you've got capacity, we
• 28:52
  will do with you. Not for you.
• 28:53
  Obviously it ranges. You know, if you've got older
• 28:56
  people or people that you know have physical limitations, it
• 29:00
  can look very different. But that doesn't mean that
• 29:03
  there's no goal for them or their family.
• 29:06
  So you've got the seal part, you've also got the respite part
• 29:10
  if anyone was to you like how do you get into using respite with
• 29:13
  you guys? Respites we have, we now have a
• 29:17
  dedicated property for respite. If on the odd occasion this
• 29:20
  person is a known person to ask and they get along with the
• 29:24
  group of people within a home and there's a space, absolutely
• 29:27
  we foster that. We leverage off that because I
• 29:29
  think it's important to know that like these people also go
• 29:32
  to activities with people within the home.
• 29:35
  So it's like a little holiday. But we do, we support a an
• 29:38
  amazing 17 year old for respite and it's really good.
• 29:44
  So she'll also join in on the activities.
• 29:47
  So we just try and do what we can and support where we can.
• 29:51
  Yeah, so. Where are you guys situated?
• 29:54
  Like where are you from? So we are near the Hunter
• 29:57
  Valley. We we service mostly Maitland,
• 30:00
  Cessnock, Curry, Curry, Head and Greed.
• 30:02
  We had a property in Head and greed are we've got a few
• 30:04
  properties in Annenburg, which is just behind Rutherford.
• 30:07
  And then we've also got our skills skills hub, community
• 30:12
  access hub in Gillison Heights, where I'm sitting now.
• 30:15
  And we've got the respite attached next door as well.
• 30:19
  Yeah. Can you give me more about the
• 30:20
  skills hub? So the skills hub, the skills
• 30:22
  hub is new, so we are doing a little bit in that space and
• 30:27
  we're gathering more data around what people want to see and what
• 30:31
  they would like to be a part of. I have just popped out a post
• 30:34
  tonight around that because we are getting referrals and
• 30:37
  inquiries, what's on what days. And we do have people here daily
• 30:41
  and that's really exciting because it is really taking off.
• 30:44
  And we had a gentleman, oh, we had two gentlemen in here and
• 30:48
  three ladies yesterday and there was a bit of cooking happening.
• 30:52
  So meal prep. So it's around, they're still
• 30:54
  taking meals home, but they're able to plan them out, prep them
• 30:59
  and then they have food in the fridge for later like that they
• 31:02
  can take home with them. And then they did a bit of
• 31:04
  crafts and Mother's Day crafts. That's, you know, like some
• 31:07
  people when they hear that they're like, oh, that is that
• 31:09
  is wild that you can do that. You can make a meal there and
• 31:12
  take it home. Yeah, millennial US known that
• 31:18
  that was an expectation that if you like, like you said about
• 31:21
  full bellies and health and well-being of the people that we
• 31:24
  support, that you don't need to eat at all and you can take it
• 31:27
  home and have it later. And there's like, there's a
• 31:28
  guarantee that someone's got dinner later for some people.
• 31:32
  That's right. And look, we do have some, we do
• 31:34
  have some, some clients that they, they don't have support
• 31:38
  independent living funding and they probably should and they
• 31:41
  don't have the skills to cook and they don't quite know what
• 31:44
  they're doing. They've never been shown.
• 31:46
  So, you know, one of the quests was can you please assist this
• 31:49
  gentleman to create meals that he can take home?
• 31:53
  And I think that's really important.
• 31:55
  So it's not just we've got a program, we're gonna cook
• 31:57
  muffins. It's not just that.
• 31:59
  And it's also, you know, resume skill, but like it's actually
• 32:04
  real stuff. We do, we make candles for pure
• 32:06
  start. We simulate what that looks
• 32:09
  like. So it's getting them job ready.
• 32:11
  Did you always did you have a background in job ready stuff or
• 32:14
  is this something that you like, a passion project that you?
• 32:17
  Look, I, I think I just have that background that just cares
• 32:21
  so much and just wants to give and support and, and kind of
• 32:25
  like, you know, come on guys, come in here like a mother hen
• 32:29
  kind of nature. But with that, I did do, what
• 32:33
  did I do with a rumour now a rumour.
• 32:36
  I did do the transition to work program, the training and I
• 32:38
  loved it. You'd have loved it.
• 32:41
  They're not easy skills to have like these, at least from the
• 32:45
  opportunity to having really good mentors in our life that
• 32:47
  we're able to. Do.
• 32:49
  And learn and adapt. But it's a different way of
• 32:52
  thinking. I don't know, Like I, I
• 32:53
  sometimes think there's not enough mentorship in our space.
• 32:56
  It's really difficult. It just exploded really quickly.
• 32:59
  That's the I knew and parents I worked with parents next for
• 33:05
  young mums who had children that were families under 7 years old
• 33:10
  and it was helping them try and gain some skills and write
• 33:14
  resumes and things like that. I'm just really passionate about
• 33:16
  it. I just love everyone.
• 33:19
  So what does the future got installed?
• 33:22
  Is there any big game plan next or is it just nurturing what
• 33:25
  you've got? It's really wild because I, you
• 33:28
  know, I'm sitting here going, you know, do we grow?
• 33:32
  Do we stay where we are and just kind of look at what we've got.
• 33:35
  My husband, he, he was the one behind pure start, which is a
• 33:39
  charity and we've just kicked that off and look, that's really
• 33:43
  exciting, but he also works in the raft.
• 33:45
  So it's like it. That's all good and well, but
• 33:47
  then more it's just like there's there's all that comes with
• 33:50
  that. But that's really exciting
• 33:52
  because I was even thinking about that tonight.
• 33:54
  And we don't just support people with disabilities.
• 33:57
  So it can be anyone. And I was thinking tonight a
• 34:00
  skills hub around, you know, marginalized, vulnerable people
• 34:04
  that haven't quite had the opportunity or don't have the
• 34:07
  same opportunities to develop skills, gain an understanding
• 34:11
  around, you know, what it's like to go and get a job.
• 34:15
  You know, what are the questions?
• 34:16
  Practice those, get their resumes in order.
• 34:18
  And I just said to my husband tonight, I should set up, you
• 34:21
  know, a certain time, whether it be once a month or twice a
• 34:24
  month, we're actually dedicate time to support people, whether
• 34:28
  disabilities or no, no disability, people coming out of
• 34:31
  out of home care, enjoying that transitioning because, you know,
• 34:34
  it is a scary, it is a scary space for people that, you know,
• 34:38
  they, they want to work, they want the same skills.
• 34:40
  And people with disabilities, I've seen it first hand.
• 34:43
  We've got people in houses that need stimulation, don't have the
• 34:47
  same opportunities. So it's like, hey, they don't
• 34:49
  have to sit in the home, let's get them into the hub.
• 34:52
  Let's get the skills happening. Let's create something that
• 34:56
  hopefully is self sustainable and can provide them employment.
• 35:00
  So some exciting news. We today got a tender.
• 35:04
  We did a little tender and we've got a tender with Curry.
• 35:08
  Curry Community Services washing their fleet of cars now.
• 35:13
  Missions, thank you. There is A and people like, oh,
• 35:16
  it's just washing cars. No, this is a whole skill
• 35:19
  breakdown to wash cars. It's really not.
• 35:21
  That easy so many people that would love to wash cars that we
• 35:25
  support all that are out there in the community, you know in
• 35:28
  and we'll we'll build those skills.
• 35:30
  We'll get it to a point where we will be paying people to come to
• 35:34
  work and have a job. Like that's friggin exciting.
• 35:36
  Same with candles. There's an art to making candles
• 35:39
  and going to markets and using iPads and using F plus systems
• 35:43
  and it's exciting. I, I, my my hope is that this
• 35:47
  really takes off so we can help more people.
• 35:49
  That's amazing. Did you?
• 35:51
  I bet you didn't expect this is where you'd be maybe 10-5 years
• 35:56
  ago. Absolutely not, no.
• 35:59
  Would you do it all again? If you asked me, if you asked
• 36:01
  me, would I live in a home again for eight months, I'd probably
• 36:04
  say absolutely not. I didn't have a time frame on
• 36:07
  that. I didn't know when I was when I
• 36:08
  was going to be able to move out of that.
• 36:10
  I honestly didn't. And I lost touch with my family
• 36:13
  and my children and I'm Ubering food home and integrating back
• 36:17
  home was really, really hard. So I probably wouldn't do that
• 36:20
  again. But in terms of where we are
• 36:23
  now, absolutely. If you have, it's just about
• 36:26
  having the right people in the right roles and the systems, all
• 36:29
  the systems align and everything's smooth sailing.
• 36:31
  This can be whatever it wants to be, but without those
• 36:35
  foundations. And we're in no rush to just
• 36:37
  hurry things along because that's just stress and reactive
• 36:41
  responses. So we're we're excited about
• 36:44
  moving at a pace that we know is manageable.
• 36:47
  So if anybody wanted to contact you to be a support worker or if
• 36:52
  they're looking to maybe look at transitioning to one of the
• 36:55
  homes that you provide or your skills, where is the best place
• 36:58
  to find and you and your business?
• 37:00
  So we have a website, purelivingaccommodationandcare.com
• 37:04
  dot AU, and there's an intake form on there.
• 37:07
  You can even just do a little inquiry and I'll give you a
• 37:10
  call. There's also our Facebook.
• 37:13
  Our Facebook showcases all the amazing things we do and the
• 37:16
  people we support and what they bring to the table.
• 37:18
  It's awesome. I yeah, it just makes me all
• 37:21
  fluffy. And we've got our pure start
• 37:24
  page as well for anyone wanting to kind of get involved in that
• 37:26
  program. And yeah, I guess LinkedIn as
• 37:29
  well if if you're a coordinator or a stakeholder potentially, I
• 37:33
  guess for the, I personally want to focus on children
• 37:39
  transitioning in out of home care youth.
• 37:41
  So it's a big step. Really passionate about people
• 37:46
  who identify as well because I feel like everybody deserves,
• 37:51
  deserves, you know, a good fresh start in a supportive
• 37:54
  environment where they have a place to make mistakes and feel
• 37:58
  like they belong. And yeah.
• 38:00
  Sounds like you've like got a big and bright future.
• 38:03
  We're going to have to do like a life update in like no, no
• 38:07
  serious because I'd love to hear about how the charity goes, how
• 38:09
  the tender to car washing and what where you're at in Seal
• 38:13
  Land. Yeah, and I didn't do this all
• 38:15
  alone guys. There's Michael Clarke, there's
• 38:19
  Christopher Lappa, there's poor Brian, there's Tanya Gomez,
• 38:23
  there's all of these amazing people and all the people in
• 38:25
  profitable provider as well. Like I haven't I have not walked
• 38:28
  this alone. So I think it's important to
• 38:30
  remember, you know, these are all the people that shape how we
• 38:33
  do things and the quality as well we.
• 38:35
  Didn't have to do it alone, but I think sometimes we forget that
• 38:38
  as business you should when, when in doubt, reach out.
• 38:42
  That's exactly right. Eight months I did alone, and
• 38:44
  all I needed was a network. Thank you so much for this
• 38:47
  podcast. Very welcome.
• 38:49
  Bye, guys.