A Day in the Life of Jessica – Support Worker

As a support worker I find this role the perfect balance of being challenging and providing a real sense of job satisfaction. Helping individuals to establish and maintain a full and active part in society is extremely rewarding. Some people stereo-type support work and care work, believing that the role is purely to provide personal care, but it is so much more than just personal care.

Having the ability to promote independence whether this being in the smallest form of just enabling someone to pick their own clothes or on a grander scale of getting out into the community, there is always room for reflection and what you take for granted in your own life, this job has taught me every personal skill there is from how to communicate effectively both written and verbal, how to cook , and how to conduct myself in professional multi-disciplinary setting which will stand myself in good stead for the future.

I didn’t get a lot of qualifications when leaving school but I now have a folder full of them, these vary from how to handle medication, how to cope with violence and aggression, how to safeguard children and adults from abuse, manual handling, fire safety and training on the different conditions that individuals may suffer from that I support.

My main role now is supporting a lady in her own home, over time I have been able to build up a great working relationship with both my client and her family, I really do feel that I am making a difference. After supporting my client to get up in the morning we prepare breakfast together I enable my client too do as much as possible for themselves, we then get ready to go out in the community where we try to do different activities every day, this could be anything from going to the local shops, attending day centres, going to a variety of different leisure activities or planned big day outings.

I never saw this as a career to begin with it was just a job, but along the way I have made some amazing friends, learnt how to work on my own and as part of a team, I’ve got myself qualified in a variety of different areas and feel I have a foot on the career ladder. I believe the skills I have acquired will stand me in good stead to move into management and even further my prospects and education. The greatest thing about all this is I gain from helping people from all different walks of life to have a better quality of life.