Disability Support Worker - General Support Work
Position Title: Disability Support Worker
Position Type: General Support Work
Location: Victor Harbor
Employment Type: Casual
Pay Range/Award: SCHADS Award
Working Hours: On a fortnightly roster with regular hours
Work Setting(s): Individual participant(s) home, Group home(s), Community settings, Activity centre(s), Central or head office
Empowering Connection is a registered NDIS provider offering comprehensive support services to individuals with disabilities in the Fleurieu region and across South Australia. We specialize in delivering personalized, inclusive, and innovative care that enhances community connection and empowers individuals to achieve their personal goals. As a leading community services provider, our commitment to advocating for human rights and freedoms ensures that our participants receive the highest standards of support, respect, and empowerment.
Position Purpose
The purpose of this position at Empowering Connection is to support individuals with disabilities in the Fleurieu region to enhance their daily living skills, build their independence, and foster meaningful community connections. By providing personalised assistance and guidance, the role aims to empower participants to achieve their personal goals and improve their quality of life within the community.
Essential Requirements: NDIS Worker Screening Check (State-based), NDIS Worker Orientation Module, Current Driver's Licence, Working with Children's (WWC) check
Essential Skills or Experience: Experience working with participants with challenging socio-economic factors; Experience working with participant with challenging behaviours
Desirable Skills or Experience: Experience with mental health; Experience working with people with disability
Organisational Relationships: You will be a member of our Disability Support Team and your team leader will be the Disability Stream Lead.
Other Conditions: Training required / training opportunities; Driver's licence and use of the employee's own car. Flexible hours
Core Capabilities
The below core capabilities are requirements for any person working in General Support Work for the NDIS. Review them carefully. For more information about the capabilities, or to understand to a greater extent the behavioural indicators please visit the NDIS Workforce Capability Framework.
Participant Relationship:
Uphold participants' rights: Understand and respect the rights of the participant. Speak up and support the participant if those rights are not respected.
Communicate effectively: Support participants to express themselves and adjust your communication style to suit their needs and preferences.
Build trusted relationships: Develop and maintain professional relationships with the participants' and others present in their lives (friends, family, etc.), based on mutual trust and respect.
Work collaboratively: Recognise the roles and expertise of each person in the participant's support team and work with them to provide support.
Your Impact:
Show self-awareness: Think about how your actions impact on the quality of support you provide, seek feedback, and keep improving your practice.
Work within your capabilities: Know your role and responsibilities, and when to seek support from others to develop your capabilities.
Look after yourself: Take care of yourself and manage your wellbeing.
Supporting Participants:
Understand what a good life means to the participant: Find out what a good life means to participants' without imposing your own assumptions.
Support participants to make their own choices: Support participants to understand, explore and think creatively about their options, and uphold their decisions.
Build the capacity of the participants' you work with: Understand how the person you are supporting would like to participate in society and support them to build their knowledge and connections so they can live the life they want.
Be Present:
Observe and respond flexibly to the changing needs of participants': Be present, pay attention to how the needs of participants may change, and respond accordingly.
Manage health and safety: Support participants to look after their health. Take action and manage any health and safety risks to them or yourself.
Engage and motivate participants': Support participants to build on their strengths and engage them in meaningful ways.
Check In:
Review quality of support and service: Work with participants to make sure services and supports are enabling them to live the life they want and support them to make changes when needed.
Support participants to speak up: Build understanding and confidence of participants to exercise their rights and support them to provide feedback and to raise any concerns, complaints or incidents.
Specialist Capabilities
For this role in particular, the below specialist capabilities are required.
Be responsive to participants' Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander identity:
Understand and respond to participants' desired connection to culture, country and community. Be aware of your personal assumptions and biases, and adapt your approach based on what's important to participants', such as acknowledging the role participants' want their family and community to play in their life and decisions.
Be responsive to participants' LGBTIQA+ identity:
Understand participants' rights, the importance and impact of inclusive language, and respond to participants' lived experience of sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression. Be aware of your personal assumptions and biases, and adapt your approach based on what's important to participants to foster a sense of belonging and participation.
Support participants to implement health and allied health support plans:
Work with participants' and their health or allied health practitioner to ensure participants' have access to the health, allied health and mental healthcare they need, and that participants' can put their health and allied health support plans into practice. Understand when and how to seek input or advice.
Support participants to implement their mealtime plans:
Understand participants' mealtime plan and work with participants to put it into practice. Understand and watch for things that might make it difficult for participants to eat (eg difficulty swallowing). Know what to do to support participants to eat safely and enjoy their meals and act promptly if participants are experiencing a problem.
Support participants to implement their medication plans:
Support participants to understand their medication plan. Use appropriate aids and methods to support participants to take their medication.
Support participants to implement positive behaviour support plans:
Work with participants', and their behaviour support practitioner, to support participants to implement their plan to better understand and adapt their behaviours.
Support participants with their psychosocial disability:
Understand how participants' psychosocial disability can influence their capacity, confidence, relationships and circumstances. Work with participants in ways that support participants to lead the life they want. Apply principles of recovery-oriented and trauma-informed practice when supporting participants to meet their needs.
Support participants with their experience of trauma:
Understand how participants' experience of trauma influences their capacity, confidence, relationships, circumstances and sense of safety, and respond appropriately. Support participants to use their strengths, build their confidence, and put their chosen coping strategies into practice.
Support participants with their complex, challenging or changing social circumstances:
Understand the impact of interacting with multiple systems and supports, changing circumstances and potential barriers to accessing supports. Be aware of your personal assumptions and biases and work with participants' and others to negotiate solutions and support participants' strengths, capacity and circumstances.
Ready to Apply? To apply for the role of Disability Support Worker, complete our online application form and attach your resume and cover letter.