As a Support Worker we have great power in contributing to a participant’s success or failure. It’s up to us to make the participant – support worker relationship work. We must work towards making them independent individuals and reduce their reliance on us for all their needs. They need to be able to make decisions, participate and be productive in society. To do this we find their strengths and use these as building blocks to build other skills while gently steering them towards correct decision making to help them enrich their lives.
Our aim for this book is to support you with tips and strategies to build independence in the participant that you are supporting. This book is designed to be a guide as you will need to individualise the support for each participant always aiming to empower them and support community inclusion.
Often you play an important role in providing guidance and mentorship to the participant.
You will need to constantly re-evaluate whether the strategies are effective and are assisting in meeting the goals of the participant.
That is why this book is full of tips and strategies and can be constantly referred to for new ideas, new adaptations and modifications and more understanding.
Although this book is written with adults in mind, most of these strategies can be applied to participants of all ages and stages.
