Healthcare support workers are non-health professionals or support staff:
- who follow policy and procedures
- work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team to meet the needs of the service user
- and work under direction and delegation of a registered health professional
The healthcare support worker must be appropriately trained, supervised, and assessed as competent to perform the role safely. The healthcare support worker must have the knowledge, skills and understanding to carry out the duties of caring and compassionately.
Each support worker brings different strengths to their role, values, beliefs, practical knowledge, and skills. But some key qualities make support workers more effective amongst who they are working or caring with.
Qualities of a Good Support Worker
The following is a list of qualities we'd encourage a community support worker to cultivate in their daily interactions.
Reflect on your own capabilities in these areas:
- Kind
- Ethical
- Communicative
- Dedication
- Trustworthy and honest
- Empathetic
- Patient
- Professional
- Reliable
- Consistent and able to follow through
- Setting up expectations and meeting them
- Positive attitude
- Respect for different needs, values, beliefs and culture
- Commitment to increasing independence and capability in others
Support workers help people with health problems or disabilities to carry out daily tasks and be as independent as possible. They support and work collaboratively with health professionals to care for people in private homes, hospitals, group homes or rest homes.
You might also hear the term kaiāwhina being used to describe non-regulated roles in the health and disability sector. The term does not replace the specific title roles, and could also include hospital orderlies and allied health roles such as allied health assistants and dental assistants.
Alternative titles for a Support Worker may include:
- Health Care Assistant
- Disability Support Worker
- Mental Health Support Worker
- Primary Care Assistant
- Whānau Support Worker
- Home Support Worker
- Home Care Assistant
As a support worker you will work within the professional boundaries of your role, this will be set out in your job description. Your role includes providing support to service users to ensure their health and wellbeing needs are met.
Support workers should aim to maintain, improve, or restore a person’s independence and/or interdependence by using the person’s existing strengths, support persons and appropriate resources.
A large part of a support worker's role is to help people be as independent as possible. To understand how to support independence, we need to look at it in relation to interdependence and dependence and what these mean to people’s lives.
What is independence?
Independence is when someone needs no support for everyday living.
For example, a person can support themselves in the activities required for daily living.
What is interdependence?
Interdependence is when someone gets support from others to help with daily tasks.
For example, some health problems or disability interfere with daily living, making some tasks painful or more difficult. Family members or support workers can help with cooking, house cleaning, personal care, etc.
What is dependence?
Dependence is when an individual requires assistance from others to meet their daily living needs.
In cases of extensive care needs, it may be necessary for the person to receive appropriate support in a skilled residential care facility or at home. For instance, a service user recently discharged after experiencing a stroke resulting in paralysis of certain body parts may require specialised care and assistance to ensure their wellbeing and rehabilitation.
The majority of individuals desire autonomy and control over their lives. As situations evolve, they want to maintain control and independence for as long as possible.
In New Zealand, support workers assist and support people with disabilities, older age groups, and those with mental health issues. So, to ensure this can happen effectively, the services and organisations offered are now more flexible and responsive to meet the changing needs and wishes of people needing support.
The specific responsibilities of a support worker, as referenced from careers.govt.nz, may vary depending on the client's needs. Some common duties and responsibilities may include:
- providing personal care
- assisting with mobility and transferring clients from one place to another
- helping clients with daily activities, such as meal preparation, household tasks, and medication management
- providing emotional support and companionship to clients
- ensuring the safety and well-being of clients at all times
- keeping accurate records of client progress and communicating any concerns or issues to the appropriate parties
- maintaining a clean and safe living environment for clients
- adhering to all health and safety guidelines, policies and procedures, as well as the code of rights
Code of Rights
When working as a support worker, you need to be aware of the person's rights you are caring for.
In New Zealand, the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights outlines ten rights protecting individuals receiving health and disability services. These rights are:
- Right to be treated with respect
- Right to freedom from discrimination, coercion, and harassment
- Right to dignity and independence
- Right to services of an appropriate standard
- Right to effective communication
- Right to be fully informed
- Right to make an informed choice and give informed consent
- The right to support
- Rights in respect of teaching or research
- The right to complain
These rights are legally enforceable and aim to ensure that individuals receive safe, respectful, and high-quality healthcare services in New Zealand.
The health reform plan has a number of potential benefits for patients and the health system as a whole, it also presents several challenges for support workers.
Identifying challenges
The following comedy skits are created by Dr Will Flanary, an opthalmologist based in the United States. His comedy skits touch on the everyday dilemma health professionals and the multidisciplinary teams are facing. In these particular skits, you will find him exploring the issues of practicing in the rural farming community. Although we're fourteen hours' flight away from the US, you will find some similar challenges faced in New Zealand as well.
Watch: Rural Medicine Goes to Therapy (2:43 Minutes) and Opthalmology Visits Rural Medicine (2:23 Minutes)
Watch the following skits, and when you are done watching, complete the sentences by dragging the words into the correct boxes. There are two skits to review, so click the next button to go to the next video.
Responding to challenges
The challenges identified in the Te Pae Tata report have a significant impact on the role of support workers in the healthcare sector. These challenges can affect support workers in various ways. Turn the card to flip between the challenges and possible responses a support worker could do. There are five challenges addressed, so make sure to click the bottom right icon to go through all five of them.
You may experience triggers or emotional distress while working with clients as a community support worker. You need to have a support system in place to address these challenges. Here are some individuals or resources that community support workers can turn to for support:
- Supervisor or Manager
- Colleagues and Peer Support Groups
- Professional Counseling
- Clinical Supervision
- Professional Associations and Networks
You will also have access to regular meetings with a qualified supervisor who specializes in the community support field. Supervisors provide support, guidance, and reflective discussions to help workers manage their emotional well-being and enhance their professional practice.
There are also websites and free helplines, such as this one - Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor.
Self-care and personal support
In addition to having access to qualified supervisors and trained counsellors, you can develop skills to identify your self-care practices as well as your personal support.
As you complete the learning materials and activities in this module, here are a few questions to get you thinking:
- What can you do when you encounter a difficult topic?
- What strategies can you apply to distance yourself or put things into perspective?
- Who are the one or two people you would be comfortable talking to?
Record your responses privately using the following documentation tool. Click the questions on the left tab, record your responses and click 'Create Document' on the last tab when you are ready to export it.
