Hello there steemit!
You can read part 1 here : PART 1
In this episode, i will focus on the actual work and will illustrate the workflow.
Our clients are severly and mutlitply disabled, which means on top of a mental disability, there are others that play into it. Mostly that goes with in combination with physical deficites aswell.
My shift usually begins at 7:00 AM and lasts 8 and a half hours.
We start off trinking some coffee and elaborate what happenend in yesterdays shift and throughout the night.
We then proceed to shower our clients and dress them. We make sure that everyone does his dutys on their own if they can, to make sure people will atleast maintain their abilities.
That is probably the most stressful part of the shift, but mostly not an issue.
Although we recently got a new inhabitant, which tends to smeer his feces on his body and the entire room at night. This is kind of a burden to deal with everyday and we are still looking for ways to disrupt this behaviour.
Therefore we rotate who has to deal with him.
Because of his inability to understand what he is spoken to, this is a tough job. Also it is questionable if he understands we are not really happy about his nightly activites, so i attempted to clean the room with him together, in hopes he does not like cleaning ;)
We then proceed with the breakfast. Again, we want everybody to eat and drink on their own. Some people need assistance, some just need to be cheered for emptying their cup.
Finishing breakfast we accompany some of our people to the Bus, that picks them up and drives them to their workingplace. Companys like Playboy outsource some of the work to facilities where handicapped people work.
Mainly because that is cheap labour and also gets federal subventions. It really is a two faced coin. People are able to feel proud of the work they do, but they kind of get robbed. It is obvious that this facilites could not be sustained just with the workforce of the employed people, still they get a mere 265€ a month. That money is budgeted by the caretakers mostly aswell.
Some others, who are unable to work productively , stay inside the house . They are sent to a place where they can play games and just have fun. This is somehow more appealing to me, then being sent to work. Although the clients opinions differ here. To each their own.
Our elderly clients are going to a different spot on the complex. They kind of do the same things there, but more emphasis is put on taking care of the hygienical aspects.
I stay on my housing group and do stuff with the people we got left. I always try to make them help me doing the kitchen, the laundry or anything else. Not because I am lazy, but to enable them to achieve things, which is essential for the human well-being. It is also required to send some people to the the toilet, as they do not feel the urge to go as "normal" people do.
Then comes the lunch. We get the food in warmed up containers and have to prepare it. Since some people have difficulties chewing and swallowing, it is neccessary to pass the food through a sieve. Some people need support, some others do not. Some are able to clean the table afterwards and put the dishes in the dishwasher.
As it is kind of noisy all the time, we of course respect the need of some privacy. We give everyone the chance to rest or take a nap at their dorms if they wish to. For all the people that can not express their needs, you just have to try and elaborate what seems more fitting to them. Some people enjoy to sit together and watch TV in the living room aswell.
This is when we have some free time. We use that to discuss individual needs and problems of our clients whilst having a cigarette and a can of coffee ( this is social work afterall ;) )
That is the time when the people are coming back from their work and we prepare some coffee for them.
HERE IS THE SCANDAL :
We got a bag of high quality coffee for the employes and one for the clients. I tried once to down a cup of that but i could not stomache it. That really tastes like.... hm.... i dont really have a comparison, but trust me it tastes horrendous.
About that time my shift ends and i leave.
To make sure i can maintain my professionality i try to not tink and talk about my work. (making an exception for you guys ;) )
That is really important as i learned in my 3 years working in this field. I have se same seen some people burnout and therefore try not to do the same mistakes.
I will continue this series if there is some interest. Yet iam unsure about upcoming topics.
Please drop a comment what would interest you speciffically.