While support workers play a key role in care and rehab provision, do they really have the profile and recognition they deserve?
Lucy Fallon, co-founder of Ariya Neuro Care, discusses how to build a culture that properly appreciates these professionals and enables them to thrive
In a multi-disciplinary team, we all have our role to play. To ensure we deliver the person-centred care we aspire to, a quality partnership must be built so everyone can work together for the good of the client.
Within this team is the valuable and actually quite vital role of the support workers. The ones who tie together the rehabilitation, who are the ‘ever presents’ on the ground delivering the round-the-clock care, and really being at the forefront of the whole team effort.
But often, the role of the support worker is not valued as it should be. While they are playing a key role in the MDT, their contribution can be seen as ‘less important’ than others. This is not new, and is something that persists – but is something that can be damaging to the support worker, their ability to do their job, to the work of the whole team, and to the rehab a client receives.
For this reason, support workers can struggle with confidence. They can feel inadequate, less qualified, less worthy. But for them to deliver the best care they can, they need to be enabled to shine – and therein lies the problem.
Within the profession, roughly, we see three groups of support workers – those with no qualifications, who can lack confidence; graduates, who lack experience; and those who are semi-retired, who often work part time and are no longer wanting to work all hours.
Each of these groups, while carrying out worthy work with commitment, can experience that same level of alienation from the rest of the MDT. Despite their qualifications or experience, they can feel left out through the use of unfamiliar terminology, their lack of similar skills to others on the team.
Recruitment is an ongoing challenge; but with the perceptions of their role that most are all to conscious of, retention of support workers only becomes more difficult.
And this must change – we need to change the focus, so that rather than support workers feeling inadequate, we empower them to build a strong identity. An identity imposed from outside does not have resilience and is superficial. To truly empower our colleagues, we need to make them feel and believe their identity as a valued professional and crucial component in the MDT.
By doing this, we are not only creating more confident, capable support workers – but we are building an amazing space around the client, where their rehab can thrive.
So how do we achieve this? It is certainly something that needs to be approached carefully and with genuine dedication to overcoming long-held perceptions – but with sensitive interactions, support workers can become exceptional parts of the team.
While many people believe they are taking these steps, it is worth reflecting and honestly assessing the approach that is taken by asking these questions:
- are support workers made to feel valued and respected?
- are they clear on the objectives of the team?
- do they feel part of the group efforts and the group’s identity?
- are they treated as valuable?
- are they given opportunities for learning or development?
By implementing these steps, we are creating a safe therapeutic space to grow, where support workers will have the confidence to ask questions, play a greater role within the team, and be given the tools to truly excel as people and professionals.
If they are treated with genuine kindness, trust and integrity, that is a fantastic culture for support workers and other members of the MDT to be part of. It can only impact positively on retention.
In employing or working with support workers, ask yourself:
- am I holding them in kindness?
- am I supporting them to be their best selves?
- are they able to use their strengths and achieve potential?
- am I mindful of the culture and continuing to develop that?
While it is a simple approach, and revolves around basic principles, it can make a huge difference to those working within a team.
Support work is an essential profession – we couldn’t do without support workers. So why not make sure we are doing all we can to support them, develop them, praise them, appreciate them, retain them.
For the success of our MDTs, and for the best possible rehab for clients, this is an essential step to take.
- Lucy Fallon is a founder of Ariya Neuro Care, a specialist community brain injury support provider rated as Platinum by Investors in People at its first inspection, in recognition of its outstanding service delivery and strong and supportive staff culture.
This piece is taken from her presentation at the Redrawing Identity conference, held by Social Return.
