Healthcare support workers positively impact people’s lives. This pathway in the NHS is a person-centred role, and it involves forming professional relationships with service users, focusing on supporting their personal and mental well-being and improving their lives.
You will support service users to live in their own homes due to the complexity of their learning disabilities and other needs. Having a set support team helps the continuity of care and the development of trust, rapport, and understanding and helps people feel settled in their own homes.
You will use a person-centred approach to offer people the support that is right for them as individuals – which sometimes means you have to make decisions that are in people’s best interests which they might not always agree with.
Support workers help with personal care such as bathing and domestic tasks, like cooking and cleaning, and support with leisure activities like shopping, travelling, and socialising.
The relationship between staff and the people you support should be therapeutic and caring, focusing on meeting the person’s needs. The aim of the relationship should be to promote autonomy, independence, choice and control. The role of the support staff should be to help people reach their potential. You will be required to establish a rapport with the people that you support, which can develop into a befriending role that helps build trust and a professional relationship to meet the needs of the people you support.
