Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / You Are Not Just a Support Worker — Em Hoskin from Your Best Support on What You're Really Worth

Transcript

You Are Not Just a Support Worker — Em Hoskin from Your Best Support on What You're Really Worth · Sarah Knows Support Workers

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, Tonight I've got it.
• 0:02
  Hello M how are you? I'm.
• 0:03
  Good, Sarah, thank you for having me.
• 0:05
  Yep, I'm I'm so excited to have you on Sarah, No support
• 0:09
  workers. The great thing about this
• 0:10
  podcast is we get to explore the people in this sector and what
• 0:14
  they do and and why they do it. And you've got a bit of a juicy
• 0:17
  story and I can't wait to dig into if you're ready.
• 0:20
  I'm ready when you are. All right, Emily, you're very
• 0:23
  lucky when it comes to having a name as a provider because you
• 0:27
  got a really good name, which I thought was kind of like, I
• 0:30
  would have thought like back then it would have been really
• 0:32
  hard to get that name. You've got your best support.
• 0:35
  How did you nail that and how did you get that?
• 0:37
  Because I'm sure there would have been people out there dying
• 0:39
  to have that. It actually came to me from a
• 0:43
  support coordinator that I was working with before I created
• 0:47
  your best support. So when I was in the, you know,
• 0:51
  realm of do I don't, a support coordinator said wouldn't it be
• 0:57
  great if you called it something like your best support?
• 1:01
  Because at the time my name was Emily Best.
• 1:04
  So best. It literally was perfect.
• 1:09
  Yes. Fits us to a tee.
• 1:12
  It still does now. But yeah, it it was just fate
• 1:15
  that that was the beginning. What were you doing before your
• 1:20
  best support? Lots of things.
• 1:22
  Yeah. Right before your best support I
• 1:25
  was working as a support coordinator in a regional town,
• 1:29
  NSW. And what made you go right?
• 1:32
  I reckon I could give this NDIS business a bit of a crack and go
• 1:36
  out and do it myself. Probably a number of things,
• 1:40
  COVID mainly and I, you know, a lot of people started during
• 1:44
  COVID, a lot of people, you know, in that time of unknown
• 1:50
  went without support. And I was just in a really good
• 1:53
  space where I had 15 years of direct support with both
• 1:59
  intellectual disability as well intellectual, physical and
• 2:04
  psychosocial disability. So essentially I was seeing
• 2:08
  there was so much need that wasn't being met because of
• 2:12
  COVID. And I tracked my hat into the
• 2:14
  wind and I was servicing people within a 2 1/2 to 3 hour region
• 2:19
  of where I was living, just doing really just coaching.
• 2:24
  I did a lot of cooking. I turned my kitchen through
• 2:27
  this, I don't know, mass production of food services.
• 2:32
  A lot of people weren't able to access services to go to do
• 2:36
  shopping. They weren't able to access
• 2:38
  services to come into their home.
• 2:40
  So I essentially met that need during COVID and that's how it
• 2:45
  all sort of came to be. So.
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  It's kind of an accident. Definitely.
• 2:49
  I did not expect to still be going five years later.
• 2:52
  And as a registered provider, I literally thought I would coast
• 2:57
  through COVID and go back to support coordination.
• 3:02
  That was that was the original plan.
• 3:04
  For support coordination, we were a support worker.
• 3:07
  Yes, I have had been a support coordinator, a support worker
• 3:12
  since 18. All I've done, I don't know
• 3:16
  anything else. We must be similar in age.
• 3:19
  I turned. 30 I turned 38 this year.
• 3:23
  Yeah, it's so funny because I actually, because of COVID, I
• 3:28
  unofficially take a year off. So I always think I'm younger
• 3:31
  than what I tell people, but. I'm going to take that.
• 3:36
  Yep. But you know, the wild thing
• 3:38
  about COVID is it did expand a lot of people's opportunity to
• 3:42
  open businesses and it really put a lot of people in a
• 3:45
  different direction than ever before.
• 3:47
  So from support work, what got you into support coordination?
• 3:52
  I was in Sydney working two jobs.
• 3:58
  I was working in a day program. I absolutely adore the Dope day
• 4:05
  program. I love it, just managing family
• 4:09
  life and at the time I'd not long had my little and my
• 4:15
  youngest child and I was doing some in supported independent
• 4:20
  living homes and I accidentally found this wonderful woman
• 4:25
  through a friend of mine and she said I want you on my team.
• 4:30
  I know you've got these two jobs, come and work for me,
• 4:34
  please. So again, I threw my head into
• 4:37
  the wind. I went with her and then
• 4:40
  probably about four months after working as her support worker, I
• 4:45
  actually approached her to do some training for behavioral
• 4:50
  therapy. And that was I was set.
• 4:52
  That's where I wanted to be. And she said, you know, you've
• 4:56
  got too much for behavior therapy.
• 4:58
  Like, yes, you will be amazing at it.
• 5:01
  I can see you meeting need, but to make a bigger impact, come
• 5:07
  and be a support coordinator. And at the time, the NDIS was
• 5:11
  still brand new. I didn't even know what a
• 5:13
  support coordinator was really. And yeah, that she trained me
• 5:19
  how to be a support coordinator. And then from there I managed
• 5:24
  her team regionally. And then I wore 2 hats, regional
• 5:28
  service manager and support coordinator.
• 5:31
  And, and yeah, that's, that's sort of how that all came to be.
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  That was my introduction to support coordination and to
• 5:38
  senior management very quickly. That's a lot of support workers
• 5:41
  stories, to be honest with you. They start as a support worker
• 5:44
  and then they branch out because can, can I work in people with
• 5:48
  behavior or could I be a support coordinator?
• 5:50
  And they really do expand themselves that way.
• 5:53
  Because I, I can see why, like I can see why you went send paths.
• 5:59
  And I, and I do recall and I and people find this really wild,
• 6:02
  but Once Upon a time, before the NDIS support workers, we used to
• 6:07
  have to write people's behavior support plans.
• 6:10
  There were no practitioners. There were nobody in place and
• 6:13
  we had to write them. So that means that we had to we
• 6:17
  upskilled a lot easier and we had a lot more skills than
• 6:20
  before because the expectations were there.
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  Exactly even I remember working in Group homes, the expectation
• 6:30
  of the support workers to manage homes without having that, you
• 6:34
  know, official title of, you know, house manager.
• 6:38
  You had a house manager that sat in the office.
• 6:41
  The staff ran the day-to-day, the staff ran the budgets, the
• 6:45
  staff did everything. So it was really easy then to
• 6:48
  upskill and transition into positions now.
• 6:52
  And I feel like the way the space is now, it might make it a
• 6:56
  little bit more difficult for some people to transition higher
• 7:00
  because those skills are so set inside of roles.
• 7:04
  And the the skills are taken two other roles.
• 7:07
  You're right. And I feel like for me, I had
• 7:10
  the best opportunity to grow my career from support work into
• 7:14
  leadership roles. Absolutely.
• 7:16
  And honestly, I think that the most, the most value that you
• 7:21
  get to be able to give back these days is when you've got
• 7:24
  experience and, you know, there's amazing people doing
• 7:28
  great things that have come in from different industries.
• 7:31
  But to have that serious impact where they, you know, take
• 7:35
  impact with knowledge and intentional knowledge, that's
• 7:39
  where I think that a lot of people are very, very lucky to
• 7:42
  be able to upskill and grow row when they've got that ground
• 7:46
  level sort of feel in the space. Yeah.
• 7:50
  Well, because you've had a variety and you've got to trial
• 7:54
  different things throughout your career.
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  What does person centered support mean to you in real
• 7:59
  life? That is so hard.
• 8:03
  Look, I think person centred support is it's a one-on-one
• 8:07
  thing. It's how the person interprets
• 8:10
  the way they get their own support, the way that they're
• 8:13
  able to create their support flexibly, the way that the
• 8:19
  support impacts on them individually.
• 8:23
  You know, you can have so many people with the same sort of
• 8:26
  diagnosis or be on the same spectrum.
• 8:29
  Every one person has that one support that's tailor made for
• 8:34
  them and with them, not not for them to be delivered to them.
• 8:40
  I for you, like I know you were talking that at one point you
• 8:43
  worked in day services, you've worked one to ones to support
• 8:47
  coordination. Do you believe that is like the
• 8:50
  reason why as a support coordinator now when you see
• 8:55
  somebody'd plan come in that you're able to pick it apart and
• 8:58
  pull it apart, how this person can be best served?
• 9:00
  Yeah, I do. And I think again with having.
• 9:05
  Such depth of industry knowledge standing.
• 9:09
  First of all, what is a goal standing?
• 9:11
  How does that goal relate to that person?
• 9:15
  Does that person even understand what that goal means to them?
• 9:19
  You know, when we get the goals and I see seven or eight goals
• 9:23
  now that are coming through and they're saying, well, how do I
• 9:27
  do this? You know, you go into full task
• 9:30
  analysis and break it down and understanding the depths of how
• 9:34
  to get to that end goal. Again, it comes back to having
• 9:38
  that knowledge of being able to work flexibly, be able to pivot
• 9:41
  where you need to have really good understanding and knowledge
• 9:46
  of services and accessibility and what those goals are going
• 9:50
  to, you know, achieve for that person in the end.
• 9:53
  So with your business, you do parts of support coordination.
• 9:57
  How many people do you provide support coordination to?
• 10:00
  I've got a very small group. No, I love small.
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  Don't Sometimes I didn't interviews like oh, like I've
• 10:08
  got this like and really downplay it.
• 10:10
  No, don't, because it's about quality over quantity.
• 10:14
  Which is the reason why I've got a small groups inside of your
• 10:17
  best support. I obviously sit at the very top
• 10:21
  and we've got direct supports and I've got staff and a
• 10:26
  management team, but I'm the only support coordinator
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  intentionally. I've only got 12 participants
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  that I do support coordination for.
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  Is it? Do you love it?
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  I do. I do love it.
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  Three of which have followed me continuously, one for eight
• 10:45
  years now, you know, and then two others that have sort of
• 10:48
  just clung on because they just get really great support.
• 10:53
  I'm not necessarily a fan of it, but they know that when they
• 10:57
  call they're gonna get that outcome.
• 11:00
  But yeah, I mean, support coordination, I just have got a
• 11:03
  spot for it and it it's changing and I've seen the way that it's
• 11:08
  changing and I've seen the way that the industry has changed
• 11:13
  along with support coordination. I like to think that I've got a
• 11:17
  little bit of that old school mentality when it comes to
• 11:20
  support coordination, which I think is really wonderful to
• 11:23
  have still. Do you feel like a support
• 11:25
  coordinator, like elder? Because we're millennial elders.
• 11:29
  But like, did you, do you feel like that?
• 11:31
  Yeah, yeah, sometimes I feel like I say, I say to people when
• 11:37
  I first started support coordination.
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  And I think, jeez, that's, you know, my, my grandma saying when
• 11:43
  I was during. But it has it's changed.
• 11:47
  It's, it's evolved, it's become, it's become more tangible with
• 11:52
  people. It's, it's become quite a sort
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  of again, a person centered thing where when I started
• 11:57
  support coordination, we were quite limited to how we could
• 12:01
  support people. But then providers were also
• 12:05
  limited on how they worked with us as well.
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  And we sort of had that underlying sort of management
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  space of support coordination when now it's more flexible and
• 12:16
  it's more relaxed. But yeah, I still sort of have
• 12:19
  that old school community. Your service agreement, we'll
• 12:22
  send it to the plan manager. We check the budget.
• 12:24
  We're running a budget. You know, we still have all of
• 12:27
  those really good structures in place now.
• 12:31
  Has changed dramatically. Yep, 100% it what where it is,
• 12:35
  where it was to where it is now. But also like I was talking to
• 12:38
  somebody the other day about churn rates that support worker
• 12:42
  churn rates are actually quite high, but so our support
• 12:45
  coordinated churn rates as well. And I like, I'm just going to,
• 12:49
  I'm going to make an assumption. I'm going to assume that the
• 12:52
  people that have stayed with you is because you've been so
• 12:53
  consistent. I.
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  Think consistency is very important, but I think it also
• 12:57
  comes back to how we apply our knowledge to the people that we
• 13:02
  service as well. You know, it's it's really great
• 13:06
  for people to understand that if this is not working go and
• 13:09
  explore go and find other providers.
• 13:12
  You know not one provider is going to be the right person for
• 13:16
  everybody. However when you sort of go from
• 13:19
  provider to provider to Friday, it's the same as support
• 13:22
  workers. You lose, you lose information,
• 13:25
  you lose important connections that you need to be maintaining
• 13:30
  with your providers. You lose that faith in the
• 13:34
  system where I have a saying, like we dig our heels in, we dig
• 13:39
  deep and we sort of stand firm because consistency is so
• 13:42
  important. And in such an unknown space,
• 13:45
  the most reliable thing that we can provide is consistency.
• 13:49
  Yeah, it's really important to maintain even on a shitty day.
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  Just Ding, Ding, today might not be the day that we're going to
• 13:57
  have that conversation. We'll pick it up again tomorrow.
• 14:01
  You don't just, you know, today you really gave me the shits.
• 14:04
  I'm firing you. Hang on.
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  We'll reassess. And then if it's not working,
• 14:10
  then we'll look at other options.
• 14:12
  But it's it's important that that rapport is build.
• 14:14
  Yeah. So besides sport coordination,
• 14:17
  you also do other things in your business.
• 14:18
  What other stuff do you do? We're a tailor made service to
• 14:22
  people and we focus mainly on upskilling in home and in the
• 14:28
  community where the participants are wanting to maintain
• 14:34
  achieving goals and they're wanting to maintain current
• 14:37
  skills. Or I've actually been having a
• 14:39
  lot of talks lately about trying to get people back to some sort
• 14:44
  of baseline before NDA. We conversations big ones
• 14:52
  primarily. We've got a lot of participants
• 14:55
  with psychosocial disabilities and they're really important,
• 15:00
  but I think that for so long they've kind of they've just
• 15:03
  been put in this sort of space as everybody else.
• 15:08
  They sort of just go through the motions and they keep it going.
• 15:12
  Where now I'm having conversations with people about
• 15:14
  not wanting it, not needing it, moving away from it, redefining
• 15:20
  how supports are looking for them to get them off it.
• 15:24
  You know, where do you go from here?
• 15:26
  How do you achieve that? You know, some people have been
• 15:29
  on the NDIS now for nine years and they are sort of like, well,
• 15:34
  where do I go? When does this end?
• 15:36
  How do I get back to So yeah, we, we are just, we're moving
• 15:41
  into a space now. We're actually starting to have
• 15:44
  realistic plans and goals in place where in two years maybe
• 15:50
  there's not going to be an endurance plan for some people.
• 15:52
  And if it is, well then we'll keep on reassessing.
• 15:56
  But yeah, so we're just that tailor made service.
• 15:59
  We do a one-on-one employment service where we break down
• 16:02
  communication, learning disability, find out what their
• 16:07
  interests are, and we we literally just put them in a
• 16:10
  real world scenario just as if you or I were looking at getting
• 16:13
  a new job and we just support them through the process.
• 16:16
  You brought up something that some people are struggling with
• 16:20
  at the moment, the idea that people may not be on the NDIS.
• 16:24
  And I do recall at this millennial elder, when the NDIS
• 16:28
  came through, the aim was never to keep people in it.
• 16:32
  It was to expand people's horizons, to make sure that they
• 16:35
  were independent as possible, so they could live independently as
• 16:38
  possible, not keep them. Have you found that when you've
• 16:42
  been talking about this, you've come across a bit of like
• 16:47
  pushback? No pushback, but it's definitely
• 16:50
  taboo conversations too. I suppose we'll go back to that
• 16:56
  old school support coordinator in me.
• 16:59
  Remember, Once Upon a time, support coordination wasn't
• 17:03
  supposed to be for everybody forever.
• 17:06
  And you know, one day you wouldn't need a support
• 17:09
  coordinator. I love that philosophy.
• 17:12
  I love that sort of approach that again, this is what the
• 17:15
  probe the scheme was meant to be for.
• 17:20
  You know, people needed some support short term and we needed
• 17:26
  to, you know, upskill them a little bit and, and get them to
• 17:30
  where they need to be. So that's what we do.
• 17:32
  That's they're the conversations that I have with 95% of people
• 17:37
  and it kind of blows their mind that these are the conversation.
• 17:41
  From the For me, that was the norm like that was what was
• 17:44
  expected as a even prior to the NDIS is to get people into
• 17:47
  community. So when the Mark Butler came out
• 17:51
  and said that we're going to spend 2 million, was it 200
• 17:54
  million on community like neighborhood houses and footy
• 17:59
  clubs and all that? So that was that was what we
• 18:01
  were always intended to do. So it wasn't anything that was
• 18:05
  new or outrageous. Yeah.
• 18:08
  No, you're exactly right. And I think that, you know,
• 18:11
  missing, missing key points about keeping people in the
• 18:16
  momentum of moving forward in life.
• 18:19
  You know, that's where we all need to be.
• 18:21
  We need to be all moving forward and looking at, you know, better
• 18:26
  things because everybody's got the capacity to learn or you
• 18:31
  know, get back to where they were a few years ago.
• 18:34
  And I think everybody needs to be sort of working and honestly
• 18:38
  intentionally working with that momentum of moving forward for
• 18:42
  people it got. Really like fried for a bit and
• 18:46
  I don't know whether it is because the NDIS just exploded
• 18:49
  so quickly. So a lot of people that had done
• 18:52
  the before the NDIS that had those skill sets, they're the
• 18:56
  ones like you and I right now in businesses directing, doing
• 19:00
  things outside, not at that base level of being a support worker
• 19:04
  to support the support worker to mentor them through that because
• 19:08
  you've got a team of support workers.
• 19:11
  So as a provider now you have this meant like you talk about
• 19:16
  networking people into community, going back to skill
• 19:19
  sets. How do you support support
• 19:21
  workers to have these type of skill sets?
• 19:24
  To support people to be as independent as possible?
• 19:27
  In my team we have got regular meetings that we run.
• 19:32
  We obviously have got the goals in place that the team see
• 19:36
  directly in our systems, but it's just a part of our everyday
• 19:40
  discussion that we have. We have the discussions with the
• 19:45
  participants themselves. They've got their expectations
• 19:48
  on what they expect from us and and vice versa.
• 19:53
  You know, it's about having that transparent conversation around
• 19:57
  service delivery and how they receive and accept the support.
• 20:01
  When I go through recruitment and I sit down with the people
• 20:05
  who I interview, it's already part of our culture.
• 20:09
  You know this, the skill set is there, and then just talking to
• 20:13
  everyone and nearly every conversation.
• 20:15
  We have these days is about moving people on, you know,
• 20:19
  getting people ready. And I've been talking about it
• 20:22
  as a business owner now for eight years or five years.
• 20:26
  But it's, it's conversation that's it's happening.
• 20:29
  You know, we we need to have people ready for changes.
• 20:33
  And if you know, as providers, it's our responsibility to be
• 20:36
  getting people ready. It doesn't seem to bother or
• 20:39
  phase you, which is a fantastic thing to hear.
• 20:42
  Like, you know, it's actually really, it's a relief because it
• 20:45
  is, because that was always what was intended.
• 20:48
  And look, I think that if you were a part of the original
• 20:53
  process, the handover of the AD Act funding and you're a part of
• 20:58
  the, I wasn't directly a part of the roll out, but I was in the
• 21:02
  industry. So I saw the changes.
• 21:05
  I was a part of the conversation with participants.
• 21:08
  I already knew what the expectations were for the
• 21:12
  scheme. So it's sort of ingrained
• 21:14
  already. I mean, yeah, being being in the
• 21:17
  sector for. Nearly. 20 years has also had
• 21:21
  such a large impact as well. Now you know I'm a sucker for a
• 21:24
  story. OK, so Yep, I am with your
• 21:30
  business and how it runs. Can you give me without like
• 21:33
  disclosing anyone's names? Please do that.
• 21:36
  Can you go? Can you tell me a story about a
• 21:38
  participant win? Yeah, I can.
• 21:41
  And this one is, this is an ongoing win for me.
• 21:46
  So I've had one participant in particular for eight years.
• 21:52
  He started off He was one of my first complex sort of support Co
• 22:00
  participants and he just had already such a shitty run with
• 22:06
  the system providers making promises that they couldn't and
• 22:09
  shouldn't have delivered on his expectations still following
• 22:14
  through. I was like, I was green to
• 22:18
  support coordination when I got him.
• 22:20
  And one of our first conversations was just over the
• 22:23
  phone and he said to me, oh, you're nothing but a fucking
• 22:27
  suit sitting behind a desk. And that's how we got started
• 22:31
  off. And again, like I just had that
• 22:34
  dig deep. He needed somebody to understand
• 22:39
  his story and hear him understand how he needs services
• 22:45
  to work for him. He was and so kind of is he
• 22:51
  electronics, no Internet, no Internet banking, everything is
• 22:56
  still you go to the post office. It has taken me a really long
• 23:01
  time, but he has an e-mail, like he emails me now and he does
• 23:07
  electronic signatures, which is amazing, and he's taking photos
• 23:12
  and letting me post them on social media.
• 23:15
  And he's actually talking to me about setting up electric and
• 23:19
  gas accounts. Is this like it's taken 8 years,
• 23:24
  but you know, something so small like that for somebody.
• 23:28
  If he had of gone through providers, you know, his faith
• 23:31
  in the system would have stayed. Exactly.
• 23:34
  And you know, like that, you know, there's lots of big wins.
• 23:38
  But for him to be connected, being an A bit of an older
• 23:42
  gentleman, but being connected and moving with the time, that
• 23:48
  is just, I'll take that win. 100% I.
• 23:51
  Would take that. I've had a participant very
• 23:55
  similar and it does, it's a, it's a long field and support,
• 24:02
  but it can be done. And it just, it is that
• 24:04
  consistency and you know, holding like you said, like
• 24:07
  holding your ground and supporting him the whole way
• 24:11
  through. It isn't easy.
• 24:12
  It is definitely challenging at the best of times, but God, it's
• 24:17
  like a like what an outcome to be able to e-mail you.
• 24:21
  Did you got further than I did? Yeah, look, I didn't actually
• 24:25
  ever think we would get this farm.
• 24:27
  Mind you, I created the e-mail address for him about 3 1/2
• 24:31
  years ago and it was this year he decided he was going to send
• 24:38
  me an e-mail. We went and had a coffee and he
• 24:40
  said, oh, I have something to tell you.
• 24:43
  My God, is this today? You're going to fire me?
• 24:45
  Like is this today? You found somebody else.
• 24:49
  It's like, I'm going to send you an e-mail.
• 24:51
  And I was like, what? It genuinely went through a
• 24:54
  whole process of like, did you just say these words?
• 24:58
  And it's like, yeah, I'm going to send you an e-mail and then I
• 25:01
  want you to send me a service agreement so I can sign it.
• 25:05
  It was honest. I was in shock, but he's doing
• 25:09
  it now and I've even got providers emailing him now and
• 25:13
  he still emails me and calls me and he has a rant about the
• 25:17
  Internet and I'm like, yeah, this is welcome to the real
• 25:22
  world. You know what I find that's
• 25:27
  really cool about what you do as well because you do the 1 to 1
• 25:31
  supports and you break that down.
• 25:32
  Don't mind you said about communication and do
• 25:37
  communication aids or do you built them like how does it
• 25:40
  work? Because a few people would be
• 25:43
  listening to this podcast wanting to be inspired of what
• 25:46
  they could do differently. Communication, it's, it's so
• 25:50
  powerful, right? Like if you can't communicate,
• 25:54
  you're already not doing what you need to do as a provider or
• 25:59
  as a person trying to have an interaction with another.
• 26:03
  We learn essentially people's communication and then we adapt
• 26:08
  to their communication. So obviously us being able to
• 26:12
  transfer our knowledge onto somebody else, that's really
• 26:16
  helpful, but it's more helpful for us to learn theirs and us to
• 26:21
  have that that knowledge to be able to pass on and educate.
• 26:25
  You know, we've already got it. We just need to then share it.
• 26:29
  And it's it's a lot easier for us to learn somebody's finger
• 26:33
  signs or different sorts of vocal.
• 26:37
  It's a rabbit or. Worked in a day program and I
• 26:41
  was much younger and one of the criterias was I had to be either
• 26:47
  hearing or vision impaired. So very early on I learned
• 26:50
  keyword sign language. Not the greatest.
• 26:53
  Definitely need a refresh. However, you know, a lot of
• 27:01
  people I learned really early on had their own adapted sign
• 27:06
  language, which was really hard because nobody understood what
• 27:11
  they were saying. So for us to learn what they
• 27:15
  were saying, obviously we had to learn that first and then teach
• 27:20
  them how to then correctly sign back.
• 27:24
  So they had their adapted sign, which was amazing.
• 27:27
  But then to have efficient communication back, you know,
• 27:30
  you would acknowledge, but then be like, well, this is the right
• 27:34
  way. And then I just, I think I've
• 27:36
  just been really lucky with where I've been and it's always
• 27:40
  been about learning and educating.
• 27:42
  So yeah, it's, it's just about us learning their style and
• 27:46
  then, you know, then we just work with it.
• 27:49
  Like, I like the fact that I've created the ring sling.
• 27:54
  It reminds me of so many memories that I've had.
• 27:56
  So you know, too, back in my head, I was in a group program
• 28:01
  and on the weekend, I remember I was like at Kohl's and I was
• 28:03
  just doing my grocery shop as normal.
• 28:06
  And then the person like I could hear, but they didn't use words.
• 28:10
  They used sounds. So I was like, oh, that's so.
• 28:12
  And so in the next, oh, they're, they're not happy.
• 28:15
  They're. Like, oh, it's yeah, it's crazy
• 28:18
  what you can learn because you are really adapting to somebody
• 28:22
  else's communication style and taking it on board.
• 28:25
  Because I've already predicted it.
• 28:27
  Oh God, I love that stuff. Do do you gonna get me?
• 28:30
  Like this could be like a whole podcast, and I hope for it where
• 28:35
  I talk about communication and how important it is and what we
• 28:39
  learn from it. I think originally communication
• 28:42
  is probably where I wanted to sort of move around and
• 28:46
  especially in like the behavioral therapy space, you
• 28:50
  know, behavior is communication. Behavior is somebody not being
• 28:55
  heard initially. And then you go through the
• 28:57
  escalations, you know, I mean, when I not heard, I definitely
• 29:01
  have got levels. My whole family can, can tell
• 29:04
  you my levels. You know, it's, it's not, it's
• 29:08
  not aggressive or anything, but you know, behaviour is
• 29:11
  communication and how it's interpreted.
• 29:14
  But then, you know, it's about learning to, to deliver what
• 29:18
  you're trying to communicate in that safe space as well as you
• 29:22
  know, communication is fundamental.
• 29:24
  And if you're not getting it right from the beginning, I'd be
• 29:27
  pissed off too. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
• 29:31
  you've got me. You know what I find like that?
• 29:35
  I've always said so at previous times I had oversaw a large
• 29:38
  amount of support workers and one of the things that I was
• 29:42
  very good at doing is updating ACRM to have all the
• 29:45
  information. But what I found sometimes with
• 29:47
  the information in the CRM is that you might have had somebody
• 29:50
  for 10 years and it has 10 years of somebody's life.
• 29:54
  A support worker will read that and go, Oh no, you know, there's
• 29:57
  a possibility that this might happen and to explain to
• 30:00
  somebody we'll know that was like that was five years ago,
• 30:03
  moved on. They're at this point and
• 30:05
  they're doing these type of communication that we really
• 30:08
  want and have that. Have you found that because you
• 30:11
  sound like a systems person as well that the data that we
• 30:14
  collect and then how we portray that to our support workers to
• 30:19
  to grow and learn that that might be a possibility if their
• 30:23
  their book user missed. Yeah, you know, you see RM and
• 30:26
  the information that your staff get is, is essential to your
• 30:30
  staff being able to deliver support.
• 30:33
  I'm a little, I'm quite lucky with being a smaller provider.
• 30:37
  I'm generally the first point of contact for every participant
• 30:42
  and every staff person. So we're able to really get a
• 30:47
  good understanding of who the people are that we're supporting
• 30:50
  and then updating their information.
• 30:52
  You know, I, I give that to the staff.
• 30:55
  I let the staff who work with the participants, you know,
• 30:58
  we've got our base of the client profile, support plans,
• 31:03
  communication, but I don't work with them every day.
• 31:06
  You know, I get, I get a really important opportunity to meet
• 31:10
  them initially and get inundated with information that I have to
• 31:15
  process into a system. But the team are so
• 31:19
  fundamentally important to that. And then, you know, we've got
• 31:24
  our 12 monthly check INS. If things aren't working, how do
• 31:28
  we reassess? But long term, maintaining that
• 31:32
  communication profile or that person's profile that's that's
• 31:36
  important to maintain previously.
• 31:39
  So you know, you've got, you're updated and then you've got
• 31:42
  prior to and this, this and this has led to but yeah, it's, it's
• 31:48
  hard to maintain having that efficient information.
• 31:51
  But then, you know, when does that 10 year ago behavior become
• 31:56
  no longer relevant? When do you get rid of it?
• 31:59
  Exactly. Exactly.
• 32:01
  So I get to yeah. Having it for the sake of
• 32:07
  knowing it and being able to refer back to it, yes.
• 32:11
  But just changing. Changing the way your systems
• 32:14
  work for for each participant. It comes back to that person
• 32:17
  centered approach. If it's no longer relevant,
• 32:20
  update your system. Don't delete it, just have a
• 32:23
  current profile done. Get your staff to do it because
• 32:26
  the staff are the ones working, going to the appointments.
• 32:30
  They're in there doing the nitty gritty stuff.
• 32:32
  You love it because they it's because they we hear what their
• 32:37
  side of how it looks and because what I think at times a person
• 32:41
  does routine wise is completely different to what they're
• 32:45
  actually doing. So it's making sure that it's
• 32:46
  current. Exactly.
• 32:48
  You know, back to what we were saying before when we were
• 32:51
  working in in Group homes and and day programs, we would
• 32:56
  automatically just do it anyway. Our managers weren't doing it.
• 32:58
  Our managers were, I don't know, doing all their other stuff,
• 33:03
  right it. Was a wild time.
• 33:05
  I had, I had a manager, he started a desk for 8 hours a day
• 33:08
  and she just told everybody what to do.
• 33:10
  And I was like, OK, we just did it, you know.
• 33:13
  So I think having that responsibility ingrained through
• 33:17
  the systems and through the companies that I worked in,
• 33:20
  giving the staff the responsibility that's upscaling
• 33:24
  them as well, that's giving them the opportunity to to grow their
• 33:29
  skill sets. Now, I've had this chat with
• 33:32
  somebody the other day, which I'm curious to have your take
• 33:36
  every when we open a business, everyone's like you've got to be
• 33:39
  in a business, but you're not, you shouldn't be working in your
• 33:42
  business. You'll be working out of it.
• 33:44
  And I was talking to a owner the other day going, oh, stop that.
• 33:48
  I love working in it. That's why I did it.
• 33:51
  I didn't open this business to be on the outside.
• 33:53
  I don't want to get my hands in the thick of it.
• 33:55
  I feel like you're somebody that likes to be in the thick of it.
• 33:58
  Is that a bad assumption? No, it's definitely not a bad
• 34:02
  assumption. Look, I think, you know, every
• 34:07
  business needs to run how they want it to run to be an
• 34:11
  efficient business provider in this space.
• 34:14
  You can't be detached from the people that you're working with.
• 34:18
  You know, you can't have that hierarchy of I've just got
• 34:22
  staff, they'll go do it. I think you lose like a really
• 34:27
  important human factor if you're not going to get in and do the
• 34:31
  early morning shower shifts or go and do the shifts with the
• 34:36
  two to ones, you know, like what are you doing if that's not what
• 34:40
  you're doing, really? And people are gonna probably
• 34:43
  hate me for it. But guys, we're working with
• 34:46
  participants who are people, you know, like get out of your
• 34:51
  office and know your participants, know your staff,
• 34:54
  get in the thick of it. You know what?
• 34:56
  I thought was wild the other day so I interviewed the CEO of
• 35:00
  Higher Up. I found out he does support work
• 35:03
  to ensure that he knows what it's like to be a support
• 35:07
  worker. And I was like, are you doing
• 35:08
  like Undercover Boss? Like this is this is he's like,
• 35:11
  no, like this is legit. This is part of my company, like
• 35:14
  the part of the company that I'm a CEO for, that I have to be in
• 35:17
  the thick of it or else I lose sight.
• 35:19
  Yeah, wow. I'm actually doing support
• 35:22
  shifts tomorrow. I'm driving 2 hours to go and
• 35:26
  cover a full day and support shifts.
• 35:28
  Because you need to, you need to have that reality.
• 35:32
  But it gives the participants autonomy to have an an
• 35:37
  uncomfortable conversation if they need to talk about things.
• 35:41
  You know, it's hard to talk when a support work is around.
• 35:45
  It's hard to talk while you're by yourself.
• 35:47
  I have found out so much about my stuff just going and doing
• 35:52
  supports and just having those conversations and I'm like, OK,
• 35:57
  like maybe we need to sort of just fine tune that a little
• 36:01
  bit, you know, like that's really great, but you know.
• 36:04
  I did the same thing. I agree with you because you
• 36:06
  have to turn up and be present. It's not something that you can
• 36:09
  do over a Zoom. It is something that you've got
• 36:11
  to go to somebody's house, have those conversations
• 36:14
  continuously. Most definitely, yeah.
• 36:16
  And I just, you know, I'm all I'll say to everyone, I'm a
• 36:19
  support worker. Support worker.
• 36:23
  Well, like when people talk about this is nothing, this is a
• 36:26
  profession and a half. Like it is one of the best jobs
• 36:28
  I've ever had being a support. Worker you know I talk to my
• 36:32
  girls all the time my staff and. They say I'm just a support
• 36:37
  worker. I'm like, hold on hold.
• 36:38
  On Hold on. Like whoa.
• 36:40
  Just. A support worker.
• 36:42
  I'm like, what are you doing? You guys just grade this?
• 36:46
  Yeah, exactly right. Like you guys are the absolute
• 36:50
  glue that holds these people together.
• 36:53
  You know, like throw that word just out the window.
• 36:57
  You are a support worker. You are the goddamn show up of
• 37:01
  every day. You are the good day, the bad
• 37:03
  day, the fuck off of all days. You are there, you know, and I
• 37:08
  think that's why the team that I have is so great because inside
• 37:13
  of those conversations, it's very empowering when you take
• 37:16
  away just and you understand the depth and the complexity of the
• 37:21
  roles because we do, we take it for granted of what we do.
• 37:25
  It's not just a job. You change people's lives, but
• 37:28
  if you weren't there. Things were what?
• 37:31
  Like it's, Yes, I used to support a fella that would wait
• 37:38
  at the front door and for you and then it was the whole entire
• 37:43
  they'll talk about it and it was only like a 2 hour support,
• 37:45
  right? So you think only two hours
• 37:47
  support, but their whole week was talking about me to the
• 37:52
  weekend, get to the set day and waiting at the door for me to
• 37:55
  turn up. I mean, what an impact you're
• 37:57
  having on somebody's life. And if you think about the churn
• 38:00
  rate of support workers and how many they have, if you can have
• 38:02
  an impact on somebody and that they remember, yeah, there's
• 38:06
  still contact today, yeah, they can remember you for that long
• 38:10
  and have fantastic memories, What an impact.
• 38:12
  You know, when I was 19 and I did my search for in disability
• 38:18
  and this was well and surely long before the Ndas was even a
• 38:23
  thought process. My trainer then let me know that
• 38:27
  each person with a disability who received support at that
• 38:32
  point in time had 35 people as a support worker in their life.
• 38:39
  And I thought that's a lot like 35 people, 35 relationships
• 38:45
  built and broken, 35 people seeing these stock is in the
• 38:49
  shower, 35 people not screwing up your medication or your meal
• 38:55
  plan. Like that's a lot, you know,
• 38:58
  like, and I don't think that I don't think that sinks into a
• 39:03
  lot of people when they come in to support work.
• 39:06
  You know, I talk about when we hire, we hire casually, it's the
• 39:11
  industry, but we hire for permanent shifts.
• 39:15
  We hire with the discussion. And I often will say that to
• 39:18
  people as well. You know, the impact that we
• 39:21
  have, it has to have meaning, it has to have longevity because
• 39:26
  this person, I mean, if they've been in, if they've been scheme
• 39:31
  and in this funded space, 2 or 300 people is not unrealistic to
• 39:35
  think that somebody's had to teach how to.
• 39:38
  It's more hope to them. Sorry.
• 39:40
  You know, it is higher than that and if you've got a body with
• 39:44
  complex communication, somebody that is physical disability.
• 39:48
  It's around 6000 plus and I'm going off like a statistic that
• 39:53
  I've heard probably probably like 7-8 years ago in yeah, I
• 39:58
  am. That's thousands of people
• 40:00
  seeing, like you said, naked in the shower.
• 40:02
  Exactly. And that's where you know,
• 40:03
  consistency and digging deep, you know, from both sides, like
• 40:07
  you know, both sides of the table have to take
• 40:09
  accountability and responsibility here.
• 40:12
  But you know, digging deep and being consistent, it is so
• 40:15
  important and it's so important beyond the depths of just
• 40:19
  showing up and going shopping. You know it's.
• 40:21
  More than shopping. And then exactly, it's up to me.
• 40:24
  It's actually a breakdown of like to get to a location when
• 40:28
  you're at the location, pulling out your wallet, trying to
• 40:30
  figure out if you've got enough cash or not.
• 40:33
  Like it, there's a lot to it. And then like, I know you, but I
• 40:36
  did a lot of work locally and it felt like at times that I was
• 40:39
  like with this, like celebrity, like the street or the
• 40:43
  supermarket with this person. And I know everybody.
• 40:46
  So if, and I think this is a wild part with support work,
• 40:49
  right, is if they already know everybody, the likelihood of you
• 40:53
  doing something wrong and getting caught is so high.
• 40:57
  Yeah. Why?
• 40:58
  Like, yeah, I find that, you know, when people talk about,
• 41:01
  oh, support workers are on their phones and like, I hear all that
• 41:04
  type of stuff. And then I think to myself, why?
• 41:06
  Because you could get like, what's the point of it?
• 41:08
  You will get caught. It's not a matter of if, it's
• 41:10
  really when, because they know everyone.
• 41:13
  Exactly. And especially when they've been
• 41:17
  in the community for so long, they.
• 41:20
  Know. Yes, that my your biggest
• 41:22
  marketers as well because they because they, you know, been in
• 41:26
  the community for so long. So sorry, I got a little bit off
• 41:29
  topic with some of our questions.
• 41:30
  That's what do you hope people feel when they when people enter
• 41:35
  into your service for your best support, How do you hope they
• 41:38
  feel and. Participants or *?
• 41:40
  We'll get both. Why not?
• 41:43
  I'm OK. We actually are doing a survey
• 41:46
  at the moment because we're coming through into our midterm.
• 41:49
  I think a lot of the feedback that we get is that they're
• 41:53
  actually heard and their requests are met.
• 41:56
  If they're not happy, we fix it. If they need something, it's
• 42:00
  delivered. Being accountable to
• 42:04
  participants and to staff. That's that's sort of our main
• 42:07
  thing and that's what I continually to strive to do.
• 42:11
  You know, everybody needs an individual approach, staff also,
• 42:16
  so being able to be flexible, being heard and actually having
• 42:21
  the services met that are intended is so important.
• 42:25
  Now you guys are from Canberra. We originally started in Yonge.
• 42:29
  Where's that? Sorry, I'm not geographically,
• 42:33
  no, I'm. Not yeah.
• 42:34
  At the best of times. OK, Yeah.
• 42:36
  So Yonge is just on two hours from Canberra.
• 42:40
  It's considered regional NSW. It's like a cherry capital of
• 42:46
  something. I mean, cherries are a huge
• 42:48
  thing there, so they have like a cherry festival and everything.
• 42:52
  But yeah, that's where we started, yeah.
• 42:53
  So did you, how long ago did you move from there to Canberra?
• 42:56
  Well, that was like nearly four years ago now.
• 42:59
  Good move. Best move.
• 43:02
  I love young It's it's the town that like people don't want to
• 43:07
  leave. It's a very welcoming town.
• 43:10
  It's very families. There's a lot of independent
• 43:14
  business. I think I was just too big for
• 43:17
  young. I was a Sydney girl.
• 43:19
  I'm very, very different. I am a shitster, naturally.
• 43:26
  So coming to Canberra, you know, I can have the impact that, that
• 43:32
  I intend to have and I can spread it and I can share it and
• 43:38
  I, I can grow and learn on it as well.
• 43:39
  You know, I'll learn something new every day.
• 43:43
  And as much as I love young, that learning is just, it's not
• 43:48
  there. You know what?
• 43:49
  You'd be careful. Those small towns are telling
• 43:51
  you they talk and. Yeah, I think a lot.
• 43:55
  Of like I did a lot of regional work out of Melbourne, like
• 43:59
  regional and some little bit rural, like very little, but
• 44:03
  they, they're small towns. So if you're a provider in a
• 44:05
  small town, you want to be a very good one because you're.
• 44:09
  Known, yeah. So we don't we don't advertise
• 44:13
  for participants over in Young, obviously, because it's it's
• 44:17
  it's pretty well covered over there.
• 44:19
  They've got some pretty good providers.
• 44:20
  They've got some exceptional independents.
• 44:23
  But the participants that we've had over there, they've been on
• 44:25
  since like before I was a register, they've been on since
• 44:28
  COVID. Yep.
• 44:30
  So they're, they're not going anywhere, touch wood.
• 44:33
  And we just, we just go through the motion with those ladies and
• 44:37
  gents and we just continue doing the good work that we do.
• 44:40
  But I mean, that even speaks for itself.
• 44:43
  You know, being able to have participants who couldn't find
• 44:47
  providers, who weren't happy with providers, who weren't
• 44:50
  being heard with providers five years in, still getting the
• 44:54
  results that they got when it was me providing support.
• 44:57
  I'm pretty happy with that for them, that they've found their
• 45:02
  consistency there. Yeah.
• 45:05
  What? Is your big vision for your
• 45:07
  company for the next couple of years?
• 45:09
  The vision grows every day. Look, I think the vision still
• 45:13
  will intentionally be just building capacity, building
• 45:17
  resilience, you know, growing skills, new, old, wild, Yeah.
• 45:25
  And just keeping on, just providing that quality that
• 45:28
  people really, really are craving, Yeah.
• 45:32
  And if anyone was looking to join your service as a
• 45:36
  participant or a staff member, how do they find you?
• 45:38
  We have got a website www.yourbestsupport.com dot AU.
• 45:44
  We are on Facebook for best support.
• 45:47
  We're on Instagram, the best support ACT under SCORE NSW and
• 45:54
  my phone number is just everywhere.
• 45:56
  Oh, I mean e-mail. e-mail is always good.
• 45:59
  So Emily at your best support.com dot AU, we've got
• 46:02
  specific referrals for specific programs.
• 46:06
  Yeah, you know, just get in contact and have the
• 46:08
  conversation. Thank you so much for joining
• 46:14
  the podcast tonight. No, thank you, Sarah.
• 46:16
  It's been a blast.