I’ll talk with them and their families about what their needs are and what they want from the service. We’ll recruit or roster, select our available staff who we think would be appropriate to meet that person’s needs. We’d work out what time they need support, what they want to have happening during that time and we’d train the staff to do that and then we’d provide an ongoing support to the staff and to the family and the client to make sure that they are getting what they want out of the service.

We are an acquired brain injury services which means that we service specifically for people with an acquired brain injury. Many other attendant care services work with people with all manner of disabilities whether it is aged care dementia, intellectual disability, spinal cord injury, that sort of thing. We feel that people with a brain injury have their own specific set of needs and challenges facing them and that they benefit best from having staff who are experienced working specifically with them.

     Damian, Service Coordination Manager

Starting attendant care. . . I think there is a lot of apprehension, a lot of excitement. Often the excitement is soon overshadowed by reality and then things generally… Things are very-very positive the first couple of weeks generally and it’s great to be home and everything is great and then clients and their families realise that this is a lot harder, it’s very intrusive having attendant care coming to your home. So, they have to deal with that. Plus they are having to deal with “My son or My daughter or My spouse doesn’t have the same role that they used to have in this family”. So, there is coming to terms with all those kinds of emotions as well. So, it’s a very emotional time. It’s a very trying time.

      Justine, Service Coordination Manager