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Aged Care
Aged care and disability support are in high demand nowadays. There is a vast need for individual support, providing personalised care and assistance to people requiring help with their daily activities and tasks due to age and disability, among other physical restrictions or conditions. Hence, the emergence of reinforcements through different training programmes is eminent and pervasive.
In context, an individual support worker aids clients with activities, including but not limited to eating, dressing up, and movability. One also gives clients companionship and emotional support. That being so, they’re sometimes also referred to as a personal support worker or a direct support worker. To become one, you need to acquire certificate iii in individual support.
This course is an entry-level qualification for becoming a direct support worker. The program teaches the set of skills required to provide personal support to individuals who need help with moving around, taking a meal, drinking medicines, dressing up, and other personal needs that entail physical movements or actions.
Studying a cert 3 individual support course helps students prepare for a career in aged care as well as in disability support by providing and teaching procedural, realistic, and technical skills, including theoretical knowledge in individual support areas that cover care-setting careers like home and community care, aside from disability support and aged care.
The aged care course and the disability support course that come within the certificate iii in individual support training program, provide fundamental skills and knowledge, which include effective communication, medication administration, and personal care, to name some.
As initially discussed earlier, you will learn certain types of skills in an individual support training program that help you become an effective and competent personal support worker. Here are some of the skills you will get to learn in this training.
1. Students can learn the necessary skills that are essential in individual support care.
The most basic essential in providing personal support care is the ability to communicate effectively. It is important to understand the client very well. You need to comprehend easily and patiently what they want to say or what they’re asking from you. In support, you also need to be able to explain to the client with ease, comfort, and clarity what you’re trying to say that will aid them better to go on with their daily activities easily and conveniently as much as possible.
Also, another necessary skill that is significant in taking care of people with disabilities is their medication. It is very important to make sure that they take their medications promptly or on schedule and make sure to administer the right amount or dose. In addition, as we are personal support workers, we need to provide personal support and care to our clients, like helping them eat, walk, change clothes, and move around.
2. Students will be equipped with the proper and pertinent level of language literacy as well as numeracy.
In relation to the above skills, students' appropriate level of literacy in language and numbers is honed and improved as the necessary need for effective communication is highly required in individual support jobs. The program will help in assessing their competencies with these skills and, thus, refining their abilities to listen, speak, read, and write and let them communicate effectively to their respective clients.
3. Students will learn and enhance their basic computer skills.
As everything is done almost always online, it is also a must that individual support workers learn and enhance their skills in basic computer applications and processes like emailing or messaging, as well as tracking their client’s record and their work hours online to align with their schedule and ensure that the required support was provided to the client effectively.
4. Students will obtain the physical skills and strengths required for a physically demanding job.
Working as an aged and disability support worker involves physical demands. Evidently, you need the appropriate physical skills and strengths, including the proper fitness and stamina, to fulfil this job. Following through, many employers need direct support workers to pass a medical examination to make sure that they also have the right physical fit suited for the job.
5. Students will inculcate empathy and patience greatly needed for this work.
Among the most important skills to acquire as you work your way into becoming an individual support worker are empathy and patience. You are taking care of the elderly and people with disabilities. These two skills are highly relevant to this job, as empathy provides you with the ability to understand your client and be able to share the feelings of the elderly.
With so many physical, mental, and emotional requirements necessary to carry on the duties of a personal support worker, having patience is also vital. This training program will help you gain the ability to be more patient and take time as well as slow down in providing quality care effectively.
6. Students will gain the ability to provide individual-centred support.
As we are supporting older people and people with disabilities, we need to have the skills to be able to provide person-centred support, focusing on one client only at a time. Each person has different needs and adjustments. Hence, it is important to learn to be able to provide support in a way centred on or focused on the individual.
7. Students will have more opportunities to choose their careers once they graduate.
The cert 3 individual support provides an array of job selections in a variety of roles that include home care assistant, nursing, and residential care worker, aside from being a personal support care worker, and more. So you will have many careers to choose from once you finish this course or graduate.
Upon the completion of this training program, there are many career outcomes and opportunities that are ready for you to grab. Some of them are as follows.
The demand for trained support workers in the industry, may it be in private households or residentials and other healthcare facilities, is very high. The continuous prevalent need for aged care and disability assistance is concurrent and consistent. It’s increasing day by day. So, going down this route can lead you to many career opportunities that are high-paying, not to mention the fulfilment you get from being there for people who need your help, which is rewarding.
My name is Adaeze Aniefuna, a trainer and assessor in Apex Training Institute. I have 15 years of experience teaching students both young and old with the ability to edit, develop and design curriculums. In 2016, I moved to Australia and have worked in the aged care and disability sector while completing my Masters. I worked part-time as a disability support worker for CareChoice Agency, Cerebral Palsy Support Network (CPSN), Healthcare Australia (HCA), Mable and for private clients.
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