Keep Able Reablement Podcasts
Keep Able is your go to authority on Wellness and Reablement. Our various podcasts cover discussions on real world issues and examples from people in the at home aged care support sector, specifically for CHSP providers.
Keep Able Reablement Podcasts
Involving clients in their care - Tanya Caputo P2
Support worker – from domestic and personal care to social support services and why having a reablement focus meets so many needs of the client.
Part 2 also mentions using the 5 Reablement Strategies from Keep Able.
Discover more reablement resources at keepable.com.au
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Reablement Podcast, where Keep Able are talking to a range of people who have experience with using reablement in their everyday work. We discuss how it all comes together and why it works. I'm Alison Vella from Keepable. My guest for this episode is Tanya Caputo from Factus Care. Tanya is a care service employee with three years' experience leading their social groups and also working across some other service types as well. Welcome Tanya and thanks for joining us again.
SPEAKER_00:Hi Alison, thank you so much for having me. It's so lovely to chat with you today. I'm really looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so if you can firstly tell us a little bit about your role as a support worker with Baptist Care. Sure.
SPEAKER_00:So Alison, I am a support worker with Baptist Care. As you said, I've been with our organisation for three years. I love what I do. I really do. I love visiting clients. So basically, our role is to support our aging population in their homes and in our social group settings here in the central west.
SPEAKER_01:Great. So what sort of area? So central west of New South Wales, isn't it? How far afield do you travel?
SPEAKER_00:So we do travel quite quite some distance. So we stretch right out through Bathurst, Lithgow, Cowrah, Dubbo, right out through Mudgy, Warren, Caniemble, Parks, Orange, which is where I'm situated, and I left that till last. Oh goodness.
SPEAKER_01:What are the CHSP services that you deliver?
SPEAKER_00:So we deliver domestic assistance services with CHSP, personal support, transports. So we often will take clients out and transport them to their appointments. Social support, so CHSP social support that's individual as well as in our group setting.
SPEAKER_01:What are your strategies for using reablement with your clients? What do you find works really well?
SPEAKER_00:I find my my greatest strategy with reablement and working with clients, Alison, is involving them, keeping them involved and in charge of the journey. And I think it's our it's the greatest way to for the greatest overall outcome for the client.
SPEAKER_01:Fabulous. That sounds like a great way to approach it, which is good. So could you please give us an example of a reablement opportunity you had with a client through your social group activities?
SPEAKER_00:I can, Alison, yes, and I've got quite a few, but one that does really stand out to me. We had a client that was referred to us some time ago by our allied health team. He came onto our organisation with a short-term restorative care. He lives alone in a share room, in a share home. So obviously it's a share home, but he lives alone, he chose not to leave his room. He had withdrew from the community completely and was experiencing some mental health issues. So on my first time meeting him, I went to his residence and had a conversation with him. At that time, he chose not to leave the room, and I respected that and I understood that. I think that's really important that we do. And we had a conversation, and I was encouraging the social group outings at that time based around his interests. And I think that it was important to focus on his interests and goals, to find his interests and motivators, to exit his safe space of his room, to encourage social group participation, as the Allied Health team had had said that extremely vital for him, which we completely understood that. He expressed to me at that time that he had an interest in photography and journaling. So through that conversation, we worked that out. I asked him at that time, would you like to help me with this newsletter that we're doing? And that just opened him up. It was amazing just to see that like light bulb, just and he went, Oh, oh, can I do that? And I said, Absolutely. It's not just can you do that? We would love you to do that. He was really eager to give that a try. At that time, we we set out a date that he would join us for the first social group outing. Unfortunately, that first time he cancelled, and and that was that was okay. That was that was completely okay. I went and had a visit with him and had another chat, and and he expressed to me that he felt overwhelmed, anxiety had overcome him on that morning, and that he just wasn't feeling that he could have done that. I acknowledged that he felt that way and reassured him that it's completely okay if he needed to cancel, which I think it's very, very important that he understood that.
SPEAKER_01:Looking at the steps of the process, too, is important, isn't it? So first step was getting him to even consider, you know, joining something and exiting that safe space. So he had considered it. So that sort of is like step one.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's right. Yes, and he had, that's right, Alison. So we at that time he said, Well, give it another try. And I said, That's great, let's do that. But we modified it. So, how we did that was he expressed to me that he was concerned to go on the outing because it was in the bus. And I thought, okay, so how can we modify this to get him to join us, but take away that possible anxiety point that he's having around the bus. And I said, That's okay. I said, How about we pick you up in the smaller vehicle and would you like to join us for a craft day? He said, Oh, okay, that sounds wonderful. I would like to try that. And on that first day, Alison, he came in the smaller vehicle and he came along to the craft day. So our craft days are a little bit smaller group and a really great to introduce. It's an introduction to the setting. And he was able to meet some people and it sort of alleviated that pressure of the bus. So just having that small change allowed him to take that step out of that safe space. So it just took him out of that safe space enough just to get him out and to be around with other people. From there, Alison, it was two weeks of that we modified it to come to Craft Group. And now we cannot keep him out of group. He takes his camera with him everywhere on every outing. He takes photos, he's part of our newsletter. He's now taking himself out of the or out of his space and joining the others in the share room for dinner time. So far to date, he hasn't had any further medical interventions, which is brilliant. And we actually had some feedback from our allied team just recently, and it was actually really heartwarming. This person has made a complete 360. He's just he's going great, he really is. He's made a lot of connections with others. So friendships, he has that purpose. He comes and he and he does the photography, he helps me with the newsletter, and he's got such a sense of humour. I mean, our newsletters are just great.
SPEAKER_01:I love that you tried different ways to approach it then as well, not just, oh, he doesn't want to come. Um, open up a different idea, a different avenue. That was fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:And it is, Alison. And I mean, it's even down to when I first met him, he didn't like to wear shoes. And because he hadn't been out of his room for so long, there wasn't a need to wear shoes. So that was another element that we had to sort of cross and jump. And we went through all these different shoes in his room to find which one he felt didn't feel like he had shoes on, but he had shoes on. So he could participate. And he wears those shoes, and he's actually wearing slippers now. So I mean, this is yeah, it's just great.
SPEAKER_01:But how important, yeah, you took the time sort of like to get to know him, whether, you know, going back into a little bit of his his life story and then realizing, oh, that gave a twinkle in the eye. So maybe we can talk a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_00:And it is, and I think that as well, Alison, when you it's building that rapport and trust as well. He he felt comfortable to to talk about his past and to open up about this is where I didn't feel comfortable. How can we cross that? And and as support workers, that's where then we go, okay, what can we do? How can we modify this?
SPEAKER_01:And how important is it too that sort of it it can be an ongoing process? Sort of reablement is not always just uh this is the goal, yep, within such a time frame it's been achieved. You've worked out steps for him, and he's had lots of steps along that journey by the sounds of it, and continues to thrive. Yes, that's right. Yes. Oh, that is a great example of using reablement and social services. Uh, thanks for sharing that because we know social interactions are so good for somebody's well-being. Like it can work for their physical health as well as their mental health.
SPEAKER_00:It that's it is, it's very true. I mean, you know, going to a cafe with friends, even that. We have a little saying here at Baptist Care about that social group is better than broccoli. Yeah. I love that. And it's that you can sit and eat a plate of broccoli on your own in your own home, or you can go out and have a hamburger with friends. And the person that eats the hamburger with friends will be overall better in health-wise and well-being. And I love it. I'm actually getting it put up on our wall in our social group activity room.
SPEAKER_01:Um, do you face barriers sometimes when you can see the opportunity to use reablement, but there might be some resistance at first?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, we do, we do, Alison. And I think that that is, it can be a challenge, and I think that it does happen quite a lot. Understanding that visiting someone that may have had a lot of care, either by family, friends, services, and then when you come in with that reablement focus, they may be used to not doing that. That motivation may not be there because it's always been done. And you have to be understanding to that. There are some challenges. And I think that how I support someone that may have resistance is by continuing to try. So, as support workers, it's never too late to continue to try with someone. If I go in and see someone and I ask, would you like to help me fold the washing today? And they say, No, no, I'll I'm just going to read my book here. Respecting that choice, but it's okay to respond in, of course, you can read your book, but please feel free if you do want to help me, I would love you to join me. It's encouraging that, and continuing to try is the best way to overcome that resistance. Because one day they may very well just say, Yes, I'll help you fold the washing. Continue to try as a support worker.
SPEAKER_01:Great tips there. I love that. Thank you. Is there anything particular from the Keep Able website that you found really helpful in your role?
SPEAKER_00:There is, Alison, yes. I found the five reablement strategies really helpful. They actually really stood out to me. I love how they presented and it was really easy to read, but the content itself was extremely helpful. So, you know, the build capacity, then there was the adapt the environment to modify the task, assistive technology, and then provide information. And I can say that I have used each of those strategies in my practice when supporting someone in their home and in the social group setting as well. I think that number one, the build capacity, Alison, is extremely helpful to care workers to know when we need to refer because we are obviously the eyes and the ears in the industry. We see we see these people daily. We need to know when to refer. So that that strategy there is really, really helpful.
SPEAKER_01:You've shared such wonderful insights and helpful information on how you use resources, etc. We'd like to encourage anybody to head to our website to look at our resources on keepable.com.au. Thank you so much for being here.
