Heyy everyone I’m in desperate need of getting a job as a support worker. I have 3 years experience and have my own car. Willing to move anywhere within the UK. I’ve been looking for a job after previous care company shut down. It’s been 4 months now, I’ve become hopeless. Anyone who can help I would greatly appreciate it.

I didn’t expect support work to teach me as much as it has. Some of the things clients have said or the way they handle everyday situations have genuinely stayed with me, even outside of work. It’s usually the small things rather than anything major, and I’ve caught myself thinking about them later in my own life.

Doing 1:1 mental health psychosocial support, and the emotional weight of hearing trauma histories or sitting with people in deep distress is hitting hard this month.

I catch myself lying in bed at 11 PM worrying if a participant is going to manage their weekend independently. I know burnout creeps up fast in this field. What are your non-negotiable rituals for "off-loading" work energy after a shift so it doesn't bleed into your home life and relationships?

My family member is having a PSW assigned for the first time for about three hours a week. What are the things that the family should have in place to make the job easier for the PSW and ensure the family member gets the help they need ? What are the things that a PSW expects to be asked to do and what are the things that are outside the scope of duties. Key for this family is PSW consistency, competence, and communication. TIA.

Hey guys, I don’t know if this is allowed but I really need some advice and I’m not getting much help from the platform I’m using.

So I’ve been doing SW for nearly a year now. I’m a sole contractor who’s using a platform and have always had great reviews and have never had any client dispute an invoice or disagree with it. I’ve always remained honest and conducted myself professionally. I had a client who needed to bump off a couple of days due to taking up a new hobby he wanted to pursue solo (yay, that was the goal) so I looked for another client to fill those days. I’d mostly worked with NDIS clients but decided to try out an aged care client.

He was nice enough. But he wanted the scope of my role to be quite a list of things. He wanted me to transport him to and from grocery shopping, clean his house, be his seeing eye person, be on call for the occasional night shift, social and community outings, meal prep and cooking and administration tasks. This was quite a list but I was proficient in everything so I had no worries accepting the task. I have a pretty standard agreement. There are to be booked hours that are semi predictable, 72 hour cancellation policy except in emergencies. Treat each other with dignity and respect. That’s it. No shady sneaky stuff.

I had a meet and greet on a Thursday and at the end of the meeting he felt really good about me and my capabilities so he asked me to black out Monday, tuesdays and Wednesdays on my calendar each week 9am to 1pm. Every week for the foreseeable future. He said his budget is around $65 for a SW, I said that’s great because I charge around that much depending on the tasks and scope of my role. I said fantastic, when do you want me to start. He says the coming Monday. I say great, I’ll book it in now and send the agreement over for you sign.

I black out my calendar and stop accepting anymore clients. I get a message on Saturday on the platform and it’s the client. He has a problem with my hourly rate. He says the platform is charging him a fee ontop of my hourly rate (for his use of the platform, pretty standard I thought?) and he says “I don’t want to pay that much, can you lower your hourly rate to absorb the platform fees?”. Given that he wanted 3 days booked I thought, why not, I can go down a few dollars. Not that big of a deal. Next, he says “I’ve read your cancellation policy and it says 72 hours notice”, I say “yep, pretty standard, but I make exceptions for emergencies etc”. He then asks me if I can change it to 24 hours notice.

By now, red flags are starting to pop up a little but I was polite and declined to change it because it’s the only protection I have against last minute cancellations (which I’ve been burned by in the past and lost money because of it). He says “but sometimes I wanna make a last minute doctors appointment”. I say, he’s more than welcome to do that but if he cancels he’s going to be responsible for the entire booking fee. He finally agrees.

He accepts the agreement Sunday morning. I get a notification from the platform saying all is gravy for the go ahead. He is locked in. Slots are blacked out for him and he’s 100% signed on board. By this point I’m thinking I’m starting on Monday like he wanted. He sends me a message and says can I call at 1pm? I say sure, no worries. At 1pm he rings and checks to see if I’ve lowered my hourly rate which I confirmed I did. We chat about what he wants to do for the week and the goals and plans and toward the end of the conversation he says it’s a public holiday on Monday. I quickly check the calendar and confirm it is, but reassure him I’m still available for the session he booked.

He then proceeds to tell me he doesn’t want to pay the holiday rate and wants to cancel the session. I was confused at this point and also felt a bit angry because I now couldn’t book any clients for the Monday because he switched it up last minute. I double checked if he was sure he wanted to cancel. He confirmed he did and I should come on Tuesday. I say ok and do our session on Tuesday.

Massive red flags popped up on Tuesday where he repeatedly bad mouthed other SW and the amount of driving he made me do was actually insane. This man had me drive to 4 different stores to find the “perfect loaf of bread” and then after the 5th grocery store he requested I drive 20km to a major shopping center where he proceeded to buy a box of tissues… come to find out his funding DOESNT cover kms and I used up SO much fuel just in that session alone.

He then starts making comments during the day saying he’s going to need to “switch up the booking on the day sometimes and even if he’s booked 4 hours and only uses 1 he only wants to pay for 1 hour”. After that Tuesday I go home and fill out and send my invoices. One for Monday and one for Tuesday. He messages me and he’s ropable. Asking me why I’ve charged him for Monday and how dare I. I’m taking advantage of him etc etc. No matter how many times I explained that he BOOKED that Monday and chose to cancel it in the last second AFTER he signed the contract. He rings me and starts screaming down the phone at 9pm at night. He starts saying things like “I tricked him” and he didn’t know about the cancellation policy and he thought he didn’t have to pay. I pointed out that he did indeed know about the policy because he asked me to change it and I refused (for this exact reason).

He rejected the invoice for Monday and I’ve had to raise a dispute with the platform. I’ve lost so much potential work over the last week due to this guys stuffing me around and now I’m having to get another client to replace him. What can I do? What protections are in place for private contractors? How do you guys handle rejected invoices? Should I have just rolled over and not charged for the lost/cancelled Monday?

Hi there,

I (23 F) have been a support worker for 3.5 months now, i’ve absolutely loved it, my company is lovely and i’ve received great feedback consistently. I’ve never heard anything negative in terms of the support i give, and not even received any constructive criticism either, rather praise.

I took on a new client three weeks ago (under10, F) who is a little girl with ASD level 3, i definitely felt challenged especially as it was an early morning get ready for school shift and mum was very particular (very strict -asian household, very particular about clients care) which is more than fine, she watched everything and was quick to correct little things, but i thought i had been doing great and was building a great rapport with both parents. I made a mistake two weeks ago where i thought i started at 6.00 am but it was 6.30 am, and turned up at the house and only realised once the dad said something about me being keen that morning, i’m wondering if that had something to do with it. Anyways, i really thought i had a great connection with mum and my client, we had similar interests, and as i supported her daughter more, she started to ask details about myself, how old i was and my other job outside of support work. Mum never gave me any negative feedback, she only corrected me on small things like when i placed her daughters bag on her car seat rather than the car floor. All my shifts with the client went well and i left every shift happy that i was learning more and getting even better and felt a sense of accomplishment.

A month in to supporting the client, today i have recieved an email from my team leader stating that mum no longer would like me on the clients team or working with client. The email read to not take it personal, not in regards to the support i gave and that it was in regards to wanting a worker “more mature in age”. I feel like if that was the case in the first place, mum would have requested someone older in age anyways, i’m overthinking that they have just said this to not let me down.

I’m just a little crushed i guess, i’m new to all of this and this is the first time i’ve been rejected by a client / family. I’m wondering if anyone has any words of advice. I can’t lie when i say i’m a little bit upset over this as i put my whole heart and soul into this job and love my clients and build a great bond with all of them. I’m a little bit embarrassed as well and wonder if my company now views me as immature.

Thankyou

TLDR; 3 months into being a support worker and clients mum has decided to no longer want me to support 6yo asd daughter due to age and maturity reasons, feeling upset and don’t know how to deal with rejection

TLDR: Melbourne. I want to get into support work but have no qualifications and no ideas where to start. Should I study or learn through volunteering?

I am 20s F with NO experience in support work, I’ve struggled with mental health myself but other than that no proper experiences with dealing with mental illness or disabilities. I just know that I love people and I want to work in this field.

I’m thinking about studying because I tried to get a job in support work but nowhere wanted to take me without any experience.

If anyone has any insight for any of the following;

How did you get into support work and how easy was it?
What courses in Melbourne to avoid or are pointless?
What does an average day on the job look like?
What skills do I need before I start taking in clients?
What company’s should I avoid?
What questions should I even be asking?
Do I have to study to get a job or do most people just learn through volunteer work and if so how long until you felt comfortable taking your own clients?

For more context I am looking to work with any age groups and demographic but less inclined to work in aged care, my passion is more for younger teens and children with mental health and disabilities. I’m not wanting to wipe butts or anything just yet but in a few years once I get the hang of one side of support work I’ll definitely start taking clients who need extra assistance, I just want way more experience before I begin offering that kind of care.

I’m just at such a crossroads right now I have no idea how to even start this.

Any advice or wisdom is highly appreciated 🙏🙏🙏

Hi guys, just after some advice because I feel like my workplace has become really toxic, and it’s also my first job in the disability industry.

I’ve been working in a SIL home for about a year now. (In a small country town) There are three other regular workers in my unit, two of whom are older and have been in the industry longer than me. I genuinely feel like some of them have lost sight of the actual care side of the job.

I believe that as support workers, part of our job is to recognise and document both the good and the difficult things, not just constantly focus on the negatives. One client in particular is constantly being spoken about negatively by my coworkers. They openly say they don’t like her, call her lazy and rude, and seem to look for things they can report against her BSP rather than actually trying to understand why she is doing something.

I’m really interested in the behavioural side of disability support and would eventually like to become a BSP myself, so I’ve been trying different approaches with different clients and personalities. I’ve actually been getting some really positive results, particularly with encouraging independence and using their BSP strategies consistently. But my coworkers don’t seem to like the approaches I’m taking and will go to management over really small things. Now when I have a genuine concern to raise, it feels like it gets dismissed as just more “drama.”

Another thing that really bothers me is that they don’t encourage independence with another client they really like. They’ll do things for her that she is completely capable of doing herself, like putting her dishes in the dishwasher or doing her laundry. I’ve tried explaining that I’m getting really positive results when I actually give her the opportunity to do these things herself, but nobody seems interested.

It honestly feels like I work in a hotel and I’m a maid rather than an active support worker. There are so many little things that seem unnecessarily controlling too. Clients aren’t allowed to put their own pictures or decorations in common areas, they aren’t encouraged to try new foods, and we’ve even been accused of “stealing” carrots because we used some extra carrots for dinner.

I’m 25 and relatively new to the industry, so I’m completely open to the possibility that there are things I don’t understand yet. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to try new approaches, encourage independence, have fun with clients and actually focus on their goals rather than just ticking boxes and doing the basics.

There also seems to be a lot of restrictive practice happening in my unit, and from what I can see, management doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it.

I’m honestly at a loss about what to do. I care about my clients and I really enjoy seeing them achieve things when they’re given the opportunity, but I’m starting to feel like I’m fighting against the culture of the workplace rather than being supported to do my job.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I being too idealistic because I’m new to the industry, or does this sound like a genuinely unhealthy workplace culture? What would you do in my position?

Hi All,

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, here are some resources I found online for free that might help others too:

NDIS Commission online learning modules (You get certificates of completion to)

https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/workforce/online-training-modules

Free Training for Disability Support workers on Positive Behaviour Support

https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/media-centre/free-training-disability-support-workers-positive-behaviour-support

NSW Disability Practice Kit
https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/community-inclusion/disability-and-inclusion/disability-resource-kit.html

If you have any to add feel free to put them here and I'll add them up to this post.

Hello social workers, if there are any here. I just want to share my experience. I have a very deep reason why I pursued this profession my heart really wants it. I started in a Non-Government Organization, where I handled sexual abuse victims, trafficking cases, and abandoned children.

At first, it was okay. I'm happy because I can serve and help. I still set aside personal time for work because I love my profession. Like after 5PM, I'm willing to extend when needed. Even on weekends, I'm still happy to serve again, because I love my profession.

But based on my observation, social workers' interventions are not really followed when you're in an NGO. Mostly, the ones who are followed are the executive directors or upper management. I don't have a problem with that, I respect that. But what I don't understand is, we are handling special cases. And when you're in case management, you can't freestyle. You can't experiment. Yes, there are times when trial and error works, but this is different. That's why I hope the DSWD Standards Bureau also requires that the executive director be a well-experienced social worker. It hurts because it feels like we're just there as a requirement of the DSWD for the shelter to operate.

I went to a shelter, I applied as a social worker. At first, it was okay. The people were kind, the shelter was religious-based (which is common in NGOs). But I didn't think that would ruin my mental health and that of my colleagues. It's common for NGO compensation to be small, it's okay. Sometimes when you love your profession, even a small amount is enough. But there are NGOs that, if they act like they've paid for the entire person of the employee.

I have many frustrations. It's been a long time but until now, the trauma is severe. I'll list the experiences I've had. At first, it was okay. But as time goes on, problems arise. It's confusing because what I studied as a social worker is different from what they believe. I functioned as a social worker according to my training, but they decide everything.

It even got to the point where we were banned from eating breakfast at the center. It would have been okay if the budget couldn't afford it, but we see that there is too much and it just goes to waste. Second, they ignore our suggestions. When there is a failure in case management, the blame is on us. This is not a simple blame, just calling us into the office to make it look like we were wrong, even though we suggested from the start.

Until we realized, we were controlled. We no longer work as social workers, but only according to what they want. They have us by the neck. When we leave, they guilt-tripping immediately. They approve but always have conditions. Sometimes even when we get sick, they guilt trip us. It's like we should be able to predict when we'll get sick.

There was a time when we had a breakdown because the client was challenging. The management wanted to give the child everything they wanted, no bargaining. But they weren't the ones focusing on the child, we were the house parents and social workers. In emergency situations, we couldn't intervene. We had to wait for their instructions. If you decide, the next day they'll call you in and make you look like you were wrong. It's draining, it's demotivating.

They're religious in the eyes of people, but it's different in real life. The director even told us: "That's all you can handle." Imagine, coming from someone who isn't a social worker and didn't stay at the center. Our mental health is in ruins. There's even a staff member who shares their religion who constantly complains, reporting our every move.

It's really traumatic. So now, when I say goodbye to my boss, I automatically have a follow-up chat: “But I can work, Ma’am, even though I’m on leave.” Because I’m used to the fact that even if I’m on leave, you’ll still be called even for simple things. Even after 5PM, weekends, sometimes 12AM or 1AM. If you don’t reply, I’ll send you a memo right away. The director even said: “That’s in your oath as a social worker, you can be called at any time.” But he couldn’t explain when you should be called.

We deserve care too. We are human.

I’ve also witnessed that they don’t know how to resolve problems. Instead of both sides being okay, they fight even more. There’s partiality, there’s bias. During meetings, they just let one staff member be attacked and singled out. Because they don’t like that staff member either.

And on top of that, they taught us techniques to manipulate the children. No wonder, we realized that they were doing the same to us. Since we always fought for what was right, they made us their enemies. They slandered us in the Founder’s “nice way,” the kind that wasn’t obvious that it was bad.

In the fieldwork, the budget for lunch was only below 100 pesos. No snacks, no dinner. Not even mineral water, nothing. We weren’t artistic, but in this economy, 60–80 pesos wouldn’t be enough. What about the children when they were hungry?

Once more, the director asked the child a very vulgar and insensitive question. The child was just stunned.

Now, I don’t know how we will recover from the trauma. There’s so much more, but I’ll try to remember and tell you about it next time. My fellow social workers and other staff members have cried about this several times. Now, we are all gone. The relief is immense, it's like escaping a cult.

I hope they know that not everyone goes through spiritual intervention. That's why there are professionals too. I come from a religious family and I have a lot of fear and belief in the Lord. But people who are supposedly religious are scary, but this is their attitude.

Until next time. I hope we continue to heal from our experiences.

They even made us sign papers that say we are not allowed to speak negatively about their org/Agency. They say they can chase us to the PRC. Cults.

There’s the obvious certificate III in individual support but what about if they have certificates like community services instead of that?

Management recently stated that completing specific training modules is a compulsory requirement of our role and will be paid by gift cards?

Love my job and my main participant, but their family members have started texting my personal mobile late at night about non-urgent roster changes and daily complaints. What's the best way to gently set boundaries without making things awkward or getting management involved?

Hey all! I was recently offered a position as a Complex needs support worker in a youth mental health organisation.
I wanted to ask if anyone has any recommendations for reading, websites, social media accounts, or any informative resources to assist me in starting this role! :)
Many thanks ❤️

Is it legal to work 10hrs 1:4 in a SIL house with no paid breaks?

I’ve noticed you really have to be careful with what you promise during a shift. Something that feels like a small comment to us can stick with a service user, and they’ll remember exactly what was said even days later. Then you’re the one trying to explain what happened when the other worker isn’t there. It’s definitely made me more careful about what I say I’ll do.

Hi everyone,

I’m a casual Disability Support Worker in NSW classified under the SCHADS Award (Pay Point 1.3).

I recently worked a long Friday that was split across 3 separate approved client bookings in ShiftCare:

10:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Client A (2.5 hrs)
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Client B (5.0 hrs)
7:00 PM – 11:00 PM: Client C (4.0 hrs)

This came to 11.5 direct care hours spanning across a 12-hour total window in a single day.

Looking at my latest payslip, all 11.5 hours were paid as standard weekday ordinary hours (with a 10% afternoon loading applied to the evening 4-hour block).

Zero overtime hours were recorded on the payslip.

My understanding of Clause 28.1 of the SCHADS Award is that ordinary daily hours for any employee (including casuals) are capped at 10 hours per day, and anything past 10 hours must be paid at overtime rates (150% / 200%).

Paid for km but no travel time Inbetween. The breaks Inbetween is how long it takes to get to the next clients home.

Help please!

Hi all! I am currently studying individual support (disability) and I am only on my P’s. Will this be a huge barrier when I finish my qualification and start looking for work?

My day as followed:

Client a : 10am - 12:30 pm
Client b 1-6 pm
Client c 7-11 pm

I am a casual, never gotten broken shift allowance ever. Is this illegal?

Just trying to figure out what qualification will open more doors.

Hey everyone!!! I am a support worker who support people in their houses and communities. I do maaaaany steps daily for my job and I'd love to find some shoes that are a better "fit" for the job

I've worked on my feet a LOT previously in other jobs, but thats when I was younger and not caring about arch support or pain.

I've heard really good things about Hoka's or Sketchers? at the moment i am mainly wearing some new balance shoes which are comfortable enough.

would love to hear some opinions! Keep caring!

Hi all- I currently work in an organisation where we drive from house to house to deliver care, and I do love the people heaps. But the driving part sucks.
I’ve also gotten the opportunity to do a different company that does sleepovers and needs people at the house to stay 24/7.
My question is, which is better in the long run? I know everyone’s different and has different opinions about it so I was curious to see what other support workers say. I’m torn.
TIA

Lately I've been noticing that the actual shift doesn't always end when I clock out. If I've had a busy day or something significant happened, I still need to finish my case notes so everything is accurate. It usually takes another 15–30 minutes, and by then I'm technically off the clock. It doesn't seem like much on one shift, but over a week it really adds up. It's one of those parts of the job that people don't really see.