As NDIS Disability Support organisation Carinbundi continues to be on the look out for new support workers, current dedicated support worker Tony Slattery highlights just how wonderful this role can be.
Tony commenced as a support worker in October 2023 having had a number of different roles throughout the years, even installing garage doors before starting with Carinbundi, but said there was more job satisfaction in this role than any he had before.
“Every day is a chance to have a positive impact on someone’s life, and vice versa,” he said. “The pure joy that some clients greet you with is heart lifting, and there is such joy in the things that so many of us glance over, it’s hard to have a day where you haven’t had a good laugh or smile at something.
“The highlights would definitely be the moments of pure joy and laughter I share with clients, sometimes it’s for the simple things and it is a reminder about how fun everything can be.”
For Tony, some days his role involves taking clients out and about, sometimes to specific appointments or therapies, sometimes it’s to support them to be involved in the community. Other days it’s supporting clients with daily living tasks, some more involved than others. Most typical things across the work day, would be chatting, laughing, and helping.
“There’s a client I have on the same day, every week, we nearly always go to the same place, but every time it’s different and there is always the fun and laughter side of things that I have been drawn to.”
For Carinbundi HR manager Lee-Ann Hammer, Carinbundi continues to have a strong commitment to delivering the highest quality training and ongoing professional development for their support staff, which was noted as a highlight in their recent NDIS accreditation audit.
“We go above and beyond what is required by legislation because we want our staff to be confident and capable,” Ms Hammer said.
“We are not just training support workers for their roles – we are training the future leaders of our organisation and our industry.
“We want our clients and their families to feel secure that our staff are highly skilled and that they are committed to supporting clients to achieve their goals.
“Apart from high quality training, we offer flexibility – we prepare rosters four weeks in advance so that you can plan your life.
“We do require our staff to have the ability to work sleepovers and weekend shifts, however our rostering team work to spread these out among the teams so that it is fair to everyone.”
As a not-for-profit Carinbundi are very much a values-based organisation.
“We value maturity and life experience and our company values are Respect, Empathy, Teamwork, Communication, and Confidentiality – we are looking for support workers who actively demonstrate these values not just for their clients but also for their colleagues and the community in general.
“Our client base is incredibly diverse, and we are looking for staff from all walks of life, ages, cultural backgrounds and genders.
“We want our staff to be actively engaged with our clients, and to understand we are advocates, mentors, and coaches – there is so much more to the role than what meets the eye.”
