“We’re doing everything that we can to make sure the individuals we work with live healthy, happy lives, even during this pandemic.
I work with adults with diverse abilities to help them live an everyday life. Normally, this involves doing anything that helps them access the community: swimming, bowling, working, volunteering, and getting their voices heard.
For individuals who are more dependent, I help them bath and feed themselves, do laundry, and grocery shopping.
We find ways to communicate with every single individual we work with. We also find ways to teach the community how to communicate with our clients. It’s a really rewarding career.
When the pandemic started, we had to shut down our Day Program because it would be difficult to keep everyone safe.
So, our clients have been in their homes with their families or their home-shares, and their routines have been disrupted, but we’re still committed to them. We’ve been doing things like drive-by’s to check in on them, and dropping off goody bags.
One of the biggest sources of support for me right now is the team that I work with. This pandemic has brought on a lot of anxieties for us because we all have family members at home who depend on us.
As a team, we normally work quite closely together. So, it’s been daunting to think about the kind of risk we might be exposing our family members to. But we’ve learned to adapt and figure out ways to work with one another in a safe way.
It’s been challenging, but our team has really come through with working to figure it out. We lean on each other quite a bit to support one another.
I’ve also gotten a lot of hope by seeing how much people will help each other and stand up for one another during this pandemic. When this is over, I hope we get back to a ‘new normal’, where we are better at looking after one another.”
- Roxy, Community Support Worker, part of the health care team