Matthew Cartas, support worker and Gellibrand Customer Wellbeing Team member, discusses what it means to ensure clients are always in the ‘driver’s seat’ of their own lives.
Assuming for a moment you are not a person with a disability, imagine you’re at home and cooking dinner for friends and family. You’re new to cooking, still learning, but you’re keen to give it a go. However, you move to dice a carrot and a well-meaning family member says, “Here, you look nervous, I’ll do it for you”, and they take the knife from you and dice the carrot.
For a moment you think, That’s nice, they’re only trying to help. But then they do it again and again – whether you’re a cutting a vegetable or adding spices. Now you feel frustrated. Do they think you can’t handle the task, that you can’t be trusted? Eventually, you stop trying to cook, even though you know you could have done it you were given the chance.
This is what can happen if support workers take over a task from people with a disability, whether it’s cooking, cleaning, shopping, getting dressed or RSVPing for a party. When we make decisions without involving the client, even in the smallest tasks, we send the message that their voice doesn’t matter. This disempowers clients, diminishing their sense of autonomy and confidence.
It’s vital to encourage clients to take ownership of their decisions and create an environment where they feel supported but in control. When support workers seek to ensure clients are in the driver’s seat of their own lives, they feel empowered and grow in confidence.
Culturally, people without a disability are geared to be ‘in charge’, using experience and expertise to be fast and efficient. But the reality is support workers are not here to be in charge of clients’ lives. We are here to support.
There are many practical ways support workers can ensure clients have control. On a day-to-day basis that means we must keep in mind the need to take a step back and ask clients if they would like to have a go at a task – whether making coffee at home or paying for an item at the supermarket – even if it would be faster and more efficient for the support worker to complete the task.
It means encouraging clients to choose what they’d like to eat and, where appropriate, involving them in the cooking process. It’s all about asking questions and encouraging clients to do whatever they feel capable of doing, to maximise being control of their own lives.
A client’s capacity and mood can impact their desire to complete a task, along with whether they’ve had success in the past. But it’s vital to keep trying. Even if they need more support initially, every daily event is an opportunity for clients to be part of the decision-making process and the completion of a task.
Intention and consistency are the keys when it comes to ensuring an ongoing emphasis on doing with clients rather doing for. Every moment has potential. It might not work perfectly every time, but what’s important is that support workers keep looking for those opportunities, however small, to involve clients in their own lives — to ask rather than assume, to step back instead of stepping in, and to believe in clients’ potential, even when they may not yet believe in it themselves.
