Having a support worker helps individuals with disabilities live a self-directed life. Whether someone is born with a disability, has acquired a disability, is a disabled veteran, or a senior that needs support, having a support worker can greatly improve quality of life. Having a support worker is important to give the person getting support either in their homes or in the community; value and integrity.
The disability community relies on support workers assisting them with daily life. This helps individuals in the community because daily life can be very cumbersome. Individuals who hire a support worker can feel empowered and connected to the community.
What does being a support worker mean?
For the disability community to have a support worker the support worker has to build lasting impressions by:
- Listening
- Having an Attitude of humility
- Understanding
- Acceptance
- Assisting even during the worst of times for the individual they work for
- Building bridges for the individual, so they do not feel out of place or too upset to avoid a situation
- Making the individual feel their own humanity by reinforcing the individual has strong boundaries, relationships, and feels like they belong
- Being nice so the individual can learn kindness
- Ensuring the individual they work with has the choices they want for their lifestyle.
- Connecting them to people who care
- Accepting other people’s choices
- Assisting the individual to assure their own authority
- Respecting the autonomy of the people they meet in the community
Without a support worker, some individuals with disabilities would have limited communication with people or the community. Also, the individual may need a support worker to help manage life’s many complications as they arise every day. Support workers help build autonomy and self-determination for the individual they work for.
Articles About the Significance of Support Workers:
- Support workers help to create a healthy mental quality for individuals
- Veterans even can benefit from support workers
Videos to view on the ideal situation for support workers for people with disabilities, veterans, and seniors:
- How Self-Direction benefits everyone in the disability community
- How the disability community both born with, acquired, veterans, and seniors benefits from support workers. The key: Interdependence!
Cartoons About Support Workers:
It is all in perspective
Image Description: ‘It’s All in Perspective’. At a supermarket. An individual using a wheelchair being tended by a caregiver. A person walking by the caregiver and individual say “Oh my, what happened to him?” and the caregiver replies “He caught a cold”.
Picture About Support Workers:
Support Workers
Image Description: A support worker carrying a person with a disability in his arms out of the wheelchair. Both the support worker and disabled person smile looking happy.
