As I have been writing this article, I have further realised how truly awesome my staff team are! Considering our non-conventional homecare support model has allowed me to clearly see how emotionally, physically, and mentally demanding the delivery of complex care and support can be. Our work is 24 hours a day - the office may close at 5pm, but we work around-the-clock. Our team is made up of Registered Nurses, Administrators, Educators and Support Staff who understand that they are more than support workers: they are the difference between a client being able to remain safe and well at home or having to be cared for in hospital or other community institution. A huge thank you to my team.
Supporting people with complex needs
At Support Unlimited, we have been delivering complex care at home since 2016. Our client group is anyone 18yrs and over with complex behavioural needs, deemed ready to make the transition to a new home in the community from a long-term mental health or learning disability institution. This includesprison, mental health hospitals, and learning disability institutions. For many this may be the very first time they have lived on their own in the community.Mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism are the primary conditions that our clients live with, making behaviour management our primary focus as a support provider. A large percentage of our clients are non-verbal, which requires our staff to be able to understand an individual client’s method of communication. Our basic teaching to staff is that; “Allbehaviour is communication”.
"five years. This means that when they transitioned from Children’s Social Services to Adult Services, they would not have experienced much of the outside world in their adult life. Their understanding of what works for them is limited to the environment that they have been living in. The thought of moving to a new home may be daunting, exciting and everything else - complete sensory overload. This requires a carefully managed and staged transition to their home environment and community – which is where wecome in."
"We do not teach how to deal with specific situations, but we teach principles for managing different situations, as each client is so different."
