Social Work Spotlight - Episode 131: Korin

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

In this episode I speak with Korin, who has been working in the disability space for the last 4 years, currently working in behaviour support and supporting a team of practitioners under NDIS. In this role Korin supports people from various trauma backgrounds and helps to improve their lives and educate support workers, families and other providers to enable them to live out their full potential. Korin has a passion in advocating for human rights and accessibility for all and is about to expand into providing supervision to social work students undergoing their placements.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia - https://bigbrothersbigsisters.org.au/Mindful Recovery DBT Centre - https://www.mindfulrecovery.com.au/Alex Wilson (of Mindful Recovery) featured on Social Work Spotlight - https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/fx8u6TaZvRbThe Assertive Social Worker - https://www.instagram.com/theassertivesocialworker/Chantelle Towers (The Assertive Social Worker) featured on Social Work Spotlight - https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/NSSLoyaZvRbThe Playful Psychologist - https://www.theplayfulpsychologist.com/This episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/180e0-3pyDKo_0Pv98td4MVkC3wCwG9VFHpMpSOZJsJI/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

I begin today by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eura Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I record this podcast, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have an intrinsic connection to this land and have cared for country for over 60,000 years, with their way of life having been devastated by colonisation. Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession in each episode.

I'm your host, Jasmine Lupus, and today's guest is Corin, who has been working in the disability space for the last four years, currently working in behaviour support and supporting a team of practitioners under NDIS. In this role, Corrin supports people from various trauma backgrounds and helps to improve their lives and educate support workers, families and other providers to enable them to live out their foresight. potential. Corrin has a passion in advocating for human rights and accessibility for all and is about to expand into providing supervision to social work students undergoing their placements. Thank you, Corinne, for coming on to the podcast. I'm looking forward to having to chat with you about all things social work. No problem. Thanks for inviting me. Yeah, I'd love to know firstly when you got started in social work and what drew you to the profession. So I probably had an interest

in psychology for a while. I didn't really know social work existed until much later. So I, yeah, I guess used to always watch crime shows and things like that, and they'd have forensic psychologist, and then I kind of all through high school would do subjects that I thought aligned with that sort of space. So I did, yeah, society and culture, legal studies, community and family, all that sort of stuff, hoping to lead me in this sort of direction.

And then when, yeah, I got to Year 12, did the HSE, I didn't get a ATAR, really. I just got like a mystery ATAR, so I couldn't use that. But it didn't really impact anything in the end. I ended up just going, did a diploma in counselling. And I'm sort of glad this happened because during that is when we did a case management subject and my lecture was a social worker. So that was kind of my first introduction into that space. And I just, yeah, really enjoyed that subject.

I really enjoyed what my teacher was talking about. And I got to talk to her about, like, her role as a social worker. And then, yeah, when I was deciding what degree to go into after the diploma, yeah, I just liked that social work was a lot broader. I felt like there would be a lot more job opportunities. is I liked that there was placement during the degree. So you could get that life experience in the degree. Yeah. And I always think, like, I work with a lot of psychologists now, and I'm really glad that I didn't go that route because I see how much extra pressure, they kind of do their

internship at work where I'm already done with all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, I'm very happy with the choices I made to do the social work degree. Yeah. And what were your placements while you going through. So I did one in like a youth setting. It was a school for I guess for people that didn't fit in mainstream school system. So they had all sorts of different backgrounds. People up to 20 years old were there more Aboriginal students, Indigenous student, mental health, like lots of different things. And they actually even did breakfast at the school because a lot of the children there didn't come from families where they had breakfast when they woke up and things like that. So that was my first placement. And then my second one in a disability day program. And I at first was just like doing

the normal day-to-day things. And then towards the end of the placement, I got to create and come up with group programs to run. So yeah, I really enjoyed that one. That's very cool. Did the people on placement help you with how to develop group programs? how to run them because that's a skill set all in itself. Yeah, I would say I had a supervisor there that was really good. I would say though I probably got a lot of support just from the other colleagues working there and I would just get ideas because it's quite a long time you're at placement. So I think by that point it was towards the end.

I would just like share ideas and see if that would be something that I could come up with a plan to run and that was just something. Yeah, I wanted to do to, yeah, change things up, keep it exciting for everyone. Yeah, good to be creative like that. And before even starting my degree in social work, I did some volunteer experiences. So two different places. One was sort of a community centre place. It kind of took a lot of people that may be escaping from domestic violence.

or refugees or just people that needed some assistance in different ways. So in that role, I would help make some community social groups. We had men's groups and just things that kind of brought communities together. They did offer financial counselling and then had food hampers and things like that there that helped organise. And yeah, some people with various. disabilities, maybe looking to gain employment. So that was a good experience just to get, yeah, kind of like a bit of everything in that role and also just learn people that are already working in the field and part of the local community.

And then the other one I did was a mentoring thing through schools, so with big brothers, big sisters. And when I first enrolled in that or applied for that volunteer role, They didn't want to take me on because I was so young at the time. But then I kept applying every time I saw it and then eventually had a phone call with them and then they ended up taking me on because they could just see that I was really interested in doing this. I think they usually take people that are retired or a bit older to be the mentors. I would have been, yeah, probably in my early 20s.

But yeah, that was in the school setting and more for year 10 students kind of going into their senior years and in that little bit of transition of life of if they're going to stay in school, get a trade or things like that. Yeah. And then that was a really cool experience to see how they kind of organised what student is paired with what mentor. They would do a, you went around the room kind of like speed dating and started talking to them. And yeah, then you would write down your preferences of like what three people you connect to move and that's kind of how they would pair you up with a mentor or mentee. Yeah, so having those experiences helped. Yeah, kind of build me up for like an expectation of what placement might be like

or what opportunities are out there and just help find, yeah, what my interests might be and yeah, what I like and what I don't like. So, yeah, there were really good experiences. to have. That's so amazing that you had such a significant amount of social support experience before you even got to the degree. And I'm sure that improved your confidence quite substantially than going into your first rollout. But I'm also curious how you said you applied a few times for the mentoring and how that process of applying to be a volunteer was for you. I'm just curious myself as someone who volunteers outside of work and for anyone else who might like to get into volunteering.

Like how do you start? How did you get into it? Yeah. I think I was just always really keen to be in the workforce. And I think I'm just one of those people that like to have heaps of things going. And I was only working, like I wasn't working full-time hours. I was casual. And I just wanted to do something to keep me busy. And I thought I really wanted to make sure that I would be. able to get a job when I finished my degree. So I would just, yeah, try and look up volunteering

roles. I even like prior to these sorts of like social work sort of roles, I did volunteering at like op shops and things like that. That helps me gain employment. So I think, yeah, I've just always kind of looked into volunteer roles and I would have just been Googling roles in the local community. and then I guess, yeah, you always hear how placements can lead to a job. So I was hoping, like, volunteer roles would kind of lead to a job or help me learn about what organizations are out there because I think, yeah, if you're not really looking, you don't know about them. And I don't even know, so the community center volunteer role I was talking about,

I don't even know how I really found that one because it's, they don't like post the address anywhere because it's the idea is that it looks like a house so it doesn't look like a service when people go there so I must have just been like Googling things that I was interested in and then typing in like my local area to find things and just emailing them and yeah calling and see what they had I think most people would be happy to have volunteers so yeah if you're interested in that sort of thing I'm sure there'll be something out there Nice. And what was the onboarding process like for you in terms of how did you know what to expect going into it and what sort of support did they have as you went through? So for the Big Brothers Big Sisters ones, I guess theirs was a bit more formal. I had a phone call with them and then they do a, I don't know if you call it like a group interview thing, but they have like a pre-training before you commence and it was with a group of other mentors and then

you kind of arrive on the same day and then they go through everything. I may have forgotten some things because it was so long ago now. But yeah, where the other one, I kind of had a direct person that I would report to. So they were just there to support me. And if I ever didn't feel comfortable doing something, they wouldn't make me do it. But yeah, I guess they would just encourage me to give it a go or maybe they would, yeah, be shadowing alongside me. I remember having, yeah, I would be invited in some of the.

counselling sessions or stakeholder meetings. I think I was more just shadowing at that time. But yeah, I think just being offered those opportunities was good. Yeah, I think any new job though, like even though you've had experiences, it's still completely different when you go and do your placement or get a new job. Like even starting a new job can feel overwhelming and stuff like that. So it might, yeah, still feel a bit different even though you may have had those experiences before. And I'm also surprised that the mentor pairing was so strict initially in terms of, yes, I completely understand people who are a bit older, maybe retired, have oodles of life

experience that they can bring to it. But having been a young person yourself fairly recently, you know, having gone through school and going through the same sorts of issues at around the same time, probably would have been a huge asset to the organisation. Yeah, I don't know if it was, maybe they've had like experiences where young people didn't stick around or, yeah, because I guess they want to make sure you're going to be consistent and stay there for the period that it is. But yeah, I don't know.

I kind of feel like some people do have that mindset that younger people aren't as experienced or it could be completely different now, their process. But, yeah, that was something. And that did tell me that it was due to my age that they didn't reach out the first time because I don't think I even heard anything that might be why I just kept applying. Yeah, I do find that even, I don't know, I've got coloured hair as well. So sometimes I find people are like, no, don't want to talk to you, but other people love it. So, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Bring your whole self to it. Yeah. In terms of just being genuine. And I'm glad that they eventually saw the value. And I'm really sure that that then influenced how you wanted things to go going forward. Yeah, definitely.

Because you're working in sort of not necessarily groups, but you've been working and supporting people with day programs and disability spaces. Yeah, yeah. So I'm in behaviour support now. So I do, it's kind of more one-on-one intervention, but then, yeah, also a lot of my job is like training support workers in the day program setting and the group home.

And yeah, it's kind of good having that experience of working because I've also worked in group homes, so I kind of can see both sides of them. Yeah, and it's good to be able to, when I'm doing a staff training, speak on those times. And sometimes I know the clients from working with them in those settings as well. Or like when I go out to see them in their settings, I will see some other people that I've known from all those jobs. So it's, yeah, kind of a good close-knit community in that disability space. I feel like we all cross paths, whether we leave the job, come back, or yeah, you end up seeing them eventually down the track.

And when you were considering going into social work, is disability something that you thought you'd end up in? Because it's a very sort of subset of social work. Yeah. Is that something that you anticipated? So when I was doing my degree, I just switched. I remember coming home from like a class and I would be telling my partner, about like the industry I want to go into and then he would always just like roll his eyes because

I swear like every couple months I would change my idea of what side of social work I wanted to work in. Yeah. But yeah, I did an elective in disability and my teacher had cerebral palsy and I just really loved yeah, everything she was talking about and I really enjoyed my placement as well. I found the youth setting a lot harder. I was a lot younger then. I kind of did my first placement the first opportunity you could when you did all the prerequisites.

And then my second one I did like right at the end of my degree. So I kind of feel like I shouldn't have done my first placement too soon. I feel like I should have waited towards the end just to have that background information or feel more prepared. Yeah, but I guess I also had less support in that setting, which made it harder. But yeah, I just have really enjoyed working in disability. I think, yeah, when I did that elective at uni, that is what I really wanted to focus on. I thought originally when I left, I'd kind of go into the brain and spinal cord injury side of social work, like more working in hospital space. Then, yeah, I was just applying for jobs.

I didn't even know behaviour support was a thing until I got the job. And then when I was reading the description about the job, I thought that's exactly what. what I would be interested in doing. Yeah, and I just love how I can really tailor the supports to each individual client and work on a more in-depth level with everyone. And was behavioural support difficult to get your head around or do you feel as though you were able to transition quite easily into that? What support did you need there?

I would say, it probably took three months to kind of learn what the role was and then six months to kind of understand what I'm doing and like feel a bit more confident in the role. And I kind of always, I'm a team leader in the role now and I kind of always told the new starters I get that that's normal to feel that way because it definitely took me a long time. There's so many different things and I guess you're managing every case yourself, which is good because you get the flexibility to kind of arrange your schedule how you want to have it. But then, yeah, if you've never come from a job where you had to book in clients and manage all the other little things, yeah, it can be hard to kind of work your head around when you need to do things, when reports need to be due, when you should be contacting this person and organizing stakeholder meetings and, yeah, all the things that come with that. And then I guess the other side of another big part of my role is working with restrictive practices.

So that I feel like it's so different for every single client. So you really have to look at each individual case. It's never like one person. Oh, it's not a restrictive practice for them. So it isn't for them. Like you always have to look at their diagnosis and all those sorts of things. Yes, I feel like I'm always learning in that sort of space. But yeah, I guess where I work, they offer a lot of PD and yeah, they do regular meetings.

and one-on-one meetings and things like that. So there is a lot of support at the company I work for. Yeah, as long as you're asking for it. Otherwise, yeah, I would say some other companies where they're a bit more like contract base, if you've never kind of worked in the role before, it could be quite isolating because you could be no one to ask for support with more complex cases.

But yeah, I guess that's one of the perks of working for company that has all those systems in places already. And it can be hard to know what questions to ask or what development or training to ask for. So even that is a bit of a skill. Yeah. Yeah. So they do PD once a month and they kind of pick a topic. But then, yeah, in your one-on-ones, like, yeah, that's up to you to kind of think of those things.

They've just started doing supervision. So that's good, like an official supervision, which it only started in January. So yeah, I've only done one of them so far, which is kind of just an introduction. But I am interested to see how that looks moving forward. Yeah, be a bit more tailored to your direct support needs, I guess. And is that group supervision or just individual at this point? Yeah, so group supervision. They do one-on-one meetings monthly as well.

But, yeah, I also do external supervision that I just pay for. Yeah, but the one-on-one... is sort of, I don't know if I would call that supervision. I guess it could be, but I don't really use that meeting for that. But yeah, you could always, if you wanted to have a chat about something, organise that. But I kind of like to keep work and supervision a bit separate. So that's probably why I don't use it that way.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. And what are your funding sources? Where does it come from? I'm imagining some from NDIS, but is it sort of diverse in terms of who funds the programs? Yeah, so mostly NDIS and then DCJ. We've been getting a lot more from DCJ recently.

But yeah, I would say for behaviour support, mostly NDIS. We do take private as well, but that's probably more for the psychology services at the moment. But yeah, NDIS, but all ages. I think also there's the disability for older Australians. funding as well. So yeah, anything like that they can come from. Yeah. What was the transition like for you from practitioner to team leader? Because that's a very different role while still probably having your own caseload, right? Yeah. I think at the start, it is very hard because you still have your full, you're sort of still getting rid of your caseload, like passing them on. And then you're

you've got a team. You start off with a smaller team, but we have like KPI structure where I work. So sometimes having a smaller team kind of makes it harder because your KPI is a higher, but you're still got to do, yeah, the monthly meetings. And if you have a new starter on your team, you're shadowing them to all the appointments and things like that. But I definitely prefer the team leader role just because I like that, I guess you're seeing a bit more diversity. You get to see a lot like all your team members clients as well and often your team members come to you for complex discussions so i enjoy that part of it and like problem solving yeah helping look at things from a different perspective and i i learn a lot from my team too so i think every single one of them will

have their own approaches to things use resources different ways and yeah if i ever see those things i like to share those in our group meetings we do. Yeah, because often when you're a practitioner, you're kind of, you get your shadowing when you start and then every now and then if you want it for a complex case. But then you're kind of just learning from yourself. So yeah, I feel like you don't really progress so much in a way, whereas in a team leader, you're constantly, yeah, exposed to different environments, different ways of doing things. Yeah, and I just feel like you get a lot more, opportunities to make changes in the company and things like that where you're not invited to certain meetings like that as a practitioner. So yeah, it was just a good way to restructure things,

yeah, and keep learning in my role. Yeah. And given that your company has quite a vast array of different allied health professionals, does that mean your team is made up of different professions and how does that impact the way you can support them? Yeah. So I, I, I have, I think, two people with, like, psychology backgrounds. I'm about to have someone else in my team. So there'll be two people with, like, nursing backgrounds on my team. But, yeah, mostly psychology background. I guess the nursing background, they are so good with the physical disabilities.

And I've learned a lot from seeing the things they pick up on that you might not pick up from a social work perspective or psychology perspective with, yeah, just like the medications and the toll, the side effects of the medications and how that impacts behaviours. So I've learned a lot from that side of thing, but I guess the way I teach things and the language I use would be different because they might not have that same knowledge of, yeah, the different theories and strategies and things like that. So I just have to tailor the way that I teach it. I guess it's hard for, like as we were saying before, about knowing what to ask for for training.

If they've never kind of been exposed to those sorts of things in that language, it's kind of hard for them to know what to ask for. Or maybe like I'm explaining things too complex and I just need to like learn to break it down a bit more. But yeah, it's all just having that open communication and making sure I'm asking to see if they understand what I've said makes sense or yeah. And it sounds like it's quite refreshing having, you know, while I was gently stalking you, I saw that your executive chairman is a psychologist and rehab counsellor by background. And so that really helps in terms of having someone who's not just a business person running the show. So do you feel as though in terms of the vision, the priorities, everyone's on the same page? Yeah, I would definitely say the culture at our office.

is very good. Yeah, it's nice to have people higher up in the company that understand, and it's not all about trying to make sales or, yeah, build the most. It's just really about how can we provide the best care for each person. And it's, if your manager's ever not there, there's always someone else to go to. So even if we've had, we had a change in like my direct managed jar maybe in July. And even though it was a change, still getting someone with a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience. So you don't feel like, although I was really sad to lose my manager, she just got a promotion. She's still in the office, but it's still being good to have it a new one and just see their different approaches to things.

Yeah, it's nice to have a lot of variety and people to go to that understand the system of working face to face. And can you talk a little bit about behaviour support plans and how maybe a social worker might have a different perspective or different focus as opposed to, I know a lot of them are completed or monitored at least by psychologists. How do you approach it? I guess with social work, like we're always looking at the environment as well and how that impacts. Are they happy in their environment? are the things in their routine that could be changed to have a change in their behaviour.

Sometimes I find people can fixate on what they're told the behaviour is, that they're being physically aggressive, but they're not so much looking at the function behind that. Are they trying to gain attention to communicate something? Are they trying to get access to something that they've been restricted from? Yeah, sometimes people, they kind of look at a behaviour and see, oh, they're physically aggressive, they can't go out in the community. But that could actually be what's increasing the behaviours. So it's just about finding safe ways to go about things so that, yeah, they can, everyone can be happy. Like if the clients not engaging in those behaviours, they're happier.

And I'm sure it's easier for the support workers, the family. whoever else is supporting them. So, yeah, and I think I'm just always looking at each section of the report and their life to see where we can make improvements, yeah, more from quality of life perspective rather than trying to fix something. Sometimes, yeah, it's not about fixing the behaviour, but it might be actually trying to change the perspective of other people, yeah, because that's just who. that person is, and maybe the setting that they've been provided or the choices they've been

offered isn't yet the best way of going about things. So just really educating people around that. Yeah. And I guess another thing I was thinking of just then, sometimes I get a lot of data that I look at and I can often see that support workers might collect data on things that aren't really a behaviour, but they have, for whatever reason, they feel like that's something. that needs to be recorded or reported as a behaviour. But sometimes when I'm looking at it, it could be that they're not recording properly or it could just be, yeah, that they look at it and think it's a behaviour,

but it's just them like asking to have some water or something if they've got excessive eating or something in their plan. Yeah, so I guess just having a more holistic view of everything in their life rather than just looking at it as what's being recorded. Yeah. And I imagine a plan would need to be fairly fluid. So someone might have just a temporary need for support versus ongoing. So how often would you normally review plans?

So we review them 12 monthly unless, yeah, there's been some sort of need for an amendment. But yeah, even then we would, yeah, it's usually every 12 months. But then, yeah, if there's restrictive practices that are found, later on or yeah you notice they're getting locked inside or change in medication or something like that then a new like an updated report would be written because they go to a restrictive practice panel and it all gets reviewed and the hope is to fade them out in most cases otherwise yeah reviewed annually I imagine it can be difficult though effectively it's an involuntary client right with someone who might have reduced insight into things that are frustrating

them and how they respond to it, but ultimately, you know, a social worker's job is to try to provide a least restrictive focus in the way that restrictive practices are implemented and whether that's in fact necessary. So yeah, it can be really hard when you're working with someone who perhaps has limited insight into what's going on or how behaviours might affect others. Yeah, and I often find that you do get a lot of clients that sometimes you just writing the report they don't want to engage or the other stakeholders or family members don't see a need for behaviour support and I think the title of behaviour support can be quite triggering. So yeah sometimes you get told like not to say what your role is so trying to navigate like

introducing yourself in a different way can be challenging. Sometimes you get people say oh this is your O-T here or something like that. Yeah, so that can be something to balance. But yeah, I often find, like, I have success getting in with the clients that don't really want servicing just by, yeah, focusing on building that rapport. And then once I've done that, yeah, I keep the consistency there. But the most challenging part is like getting to that stage where they will want to meet with you. But yeah, most don't really want it. I've had some clients that are court ordered to have behaviour support as well. So yeah, they previously like didn't like the last couple behaviour support practitioners. So sometimes, yeah, it just depends if you click with that person. They might

want to go with someone else and that's fine. So I think just all about giving people the choice when they might not be interested in engaging in behaviour support, just giving as much choice and control to them as possible is the best way to go about it. Yeah. Have there been times when you've not identified as a social worker because it might have been triggering, or is that sometimes more helpful? Yeah, I feel like I don't really tell people unless they're directly asking for what experience I have or things like that.

And yeah, I find people will more often ask or request someone with psychology background, which is something I can find quite frustrating because I just think a lot of people don't know what social work is. So, or they might view social work as the very old way social work was and, yeah, not understand what social works learn and what they can offer. because I find a lot of the theories are the same in both. There's not really anything I've learnt different. I guess the only difference within my role is I don't do assessments for diagnosis. But besides that, like we have psychologists in behaviour support that have chosen to stay in behaviour sport rather than going into the psychology role because they like that side of the therapy.

and I guess behaviour support often gets a lot more funding than psychology. So yeah, it's a lot more flexible role in behaviour support than what the psychology role would be in my organisation anyway. Yeah, I think there is limited uptake in terms of NDIS recognition of the different professions' ability to do specific things. I just see all the time in my networks, people posting things about NDIS are saying, only OTs can do this or only psychologists can do that. So perhaps it is just a bit of a recognition and education thing that we actually do have

quite a lot of experience to provide. Yeah. And often, if we ever request psychology supports with behaviour supports, like in our recommendations, it's like one of them gets cut. They don't think you need both often where the psychology side can be great for people with trauma or like all different reasons. So sometimes there is a need for both. Yeah, we've had an incident happen

where they took out behaviour support and just kept psychology, but sometimes you need to work together to like help get them to a point to engage in one of the services. So yeah, it can be quite frustrating when they're making changes like that. I often find as well, like a lot of my clients don't even get invited to their own

review meetings. Yeah. I had a client the other day that was talking to me about it. They've taken away her support coordinator because she lives independently now. So they view that as she's independent enough to not need help managing her plan. Where I actually think she would require more help now because she lives independently. Yeah. So that's challenging for her not to have that added person to advocate for her. Yeah, so I guess her support worker and all the other people are helping feel that role because that's been taken away from her. Yeah. You've mentioned some of the challenges of taking on this work, but what are sort of the most satisfying or rewarding aspects of it from your opinion? I guess it can be quite a slow reward in this role.

Like I know the nurses on my team, they're like in that role, you kind of, it's like, instinct gratification. So coming from like that role to this role, it can take a long time before you see like the success of your work. I guess the biggest win I've had. I had a client on DCJ. They were from a Chinese background. The parents didn't speak English. They moved to Australia. They didn't know she had any diagnoses. She was having a lot of behaviours at school. Then she was put into foster care. I did some. parent training and had a translator there. I did, yeah, was implementing things at the school to help seeing her at home as well. And she was able to, I guess maybe after a year, be able to move back in with her mum. So that was, yeah, a really good thing to see when I

first met her people thought she was nonverbal, but it wasn't, she speaks perfectly. She, yeah, is very intelligent. Yeah, she was more just choosing to shut down, going from living with her family to being put into a place where she didn't know anyone. She's not living with her sister or anything like that. She was just like hiding in her room, hiding under the blanket, not engaging, didn't go to school, to ending up, going to school, being able to socialise with others and then moving back with her mom was really great to see. But yeah, obviously that's not every day in my work, but it's nice to be a part of that or help, yeah, link people to programs that, yeah, will help fulfill their life and, yeah, show other people different approaches to doing things.

This can be quite tough work. You're dealing with, you know, a lot of different facets of people's lives and some really difficult content. Other than supervision, what other support do you need to make sure it's, like, the longevity is there for you that you can sustain this sort of really heavy work? I guess just feeling like I have the support there. Yeah, sometimes I guess like we all have our own clients and we're all like in the office at different times and I'd just yeah big on if you're going to book a meeting that it the meeting not change and it be set for that time and that be respected yeah rather than seeing like the meeting with

your team or whatever is something that can be moved because they're right there so you can move it to another time like I think it's yeah just a big respect thing that you will make that time to have a chat about whatever it is that person might want to chat about. And yeah, I think I just like to have the balance as well. I feel like if I was constantly working out at hours or feeling like I needed to work or the pressure of feeling like I needed work out of hours, I probably have too much work. I would not want to feel like I have to rush something. So yeah, I think the signs for me is that I feel like a pressure that I have to. to get something done and I have to miss out on stuff in my personal life. That would be, yeah,

sign that I need to like reach out to someone to have a chat or, yeah, rather than fixating on it because that is probably something that I can do. I like kind of wait till I'm, I'm always like pushed down that I am overworked or something. And then I'm like getting angry, but I haven't actually done anything about it, but then once I go to talk to someone, there's a way to solve it or someone can take something off me or something like that. But I guess I always put it on myself that I can't be putting that pressure on someone else. They're busy, so they don't have time to do that. So yeah, that's just something I need to be aware of myself and what those signs are and know when to reach out to talk about those things. Yeah. Have you seen many changes over time

in disability, in behaviour support, or are there changes that you'd like to see? Well, I guess at the moment that NDIS space is changing a lot. I know they've cut a lot of funding for things like equine therapy and art therapy. But yeah, I just think the first step would be just making sure the people with these plans get to go to their review meetings or people that our advocates are invited. I often see plans just get rolled over. And like they might have completely had a change in their whole life. Maybe they're living in a different place.

Their family aren't near or, yeah, they've just left school and there's all those big changes that come with that. And then the plans get rolled over. But behaviour support, OTs, speeches, I'm sure they all have to write reports yearly or whatever. It's like a requirement that can be set. And it's like if they're just rolling over the plan, then to me it feels like the reports aren't even being looked at.

So I feel like in those circumstances that funding could be better utilised other ways. And if they're trying to look at ways to cut funding, yeah, I just think there would be different ways about it because if we're writing the reports but you're not even looking at them, then surely that support would be better utilised servicing the person directly. It seems to be a resourcing thing from my perspective, and I don't know what the solution is, but the planning processes or approaches seem to be quite impersonal. And I mean, I'm only talking, I guess, from the limited experience I've had where, so I support people under workers' compensation claims where they've had a severe injury. And so instead of the insurance company looking after them, the government looks after their needs. and if I were to refer to NDIS for things that we can't fund,

usually what's happened is that the planner or the person in charge of developing in the first place will be interstate. So they'll have a phone conversation with the person to develop their initial plan. And I will insist on being there so that I can support them through that because most of them, especially if they've got a brain injury, it's going to be completely abstract and they're trying to figure it. out what this all means and who is this person. And unless they really have the context of what's going on for this person

or how they like to talk to people in the first place, they're not going to really understand what their needs are. So, yeah, I don't know if that's consistent and that's everyone's experience, but it's just, yeah, I find it really difficult to comprehend how you can develop a plan without even meeting a person. Yes, I always say that, yeah. And as well, like I guess not being invited, like if the person's deciding what the funding is, if you're there, you can ask why is this needed and then you would be able to respond. Whereas you don't have that.

If you're just looking at a little recommendation, then yeah. And I guess meeting the person, like how someone's written on paper is so different to how you meet them. Like I know I've come across reading a case and then I'm like, oh my God, sounds terrifying. And then I go there and completely fine, nothing to worry about. It's just all the most traumatic things have been put down on this piece of paper. So it just, yeah, paints a very different picture, yeah, to people's capacities or who they are. I guess it just highlights the importance of an advocate then for specific people who otherwise. Let's say you've had a workplace injury and you're being managed by the insurance company

who also don't go out and meet with the person. and they do everything external. And then somewhere, maybe it's their OT, makes a referral to NDIS for a plan. It's just all happening outside of, and that's the lack of agency, the lack of input, the lack of engagement, where someone is completely disconnected

from having any ownership over the supports that are going to affect them. So, yeah, people really need advocates and people really need people to identify what that need is and being able to respond. Yeah. Yeah. There are too many gaps.

Yeah. And I guess clients don't always know what services are out there. So, yeah, how can you ask for that if you don't know what to ask for or what's there? Or, yeah, who to go to for what? And yeah. Yeah. Would you consider, you mentioned earlier you were thinking of hospital social work or working with people with traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries,

which is the bulk of my work, which is increasingly. incredibly fascinating. Is that in your future, do you think? I've spoken about this a lot with my supervisor. I don't know. I think if I was going to do it, I think I would be wanting to move like into rural social work somewhere there. But yeah, I guess as long as my work continues to offer opportunities, I don't think I would at the moment, maybe down the future. I guess I just have been thinking about it a bit more lately because I kind of do want to do more social work sort of focus of things. I don't really want to like progress higher up in the company where I am at the moment. I like the team leader role, but I don't like some

aspects of like regional or going up any higher than that. So I was just yeah, thinking long term like could I keep doing this role? But I guess in July we're going to have a social work student come and they've asked me to be a supervisor for them. So I, yeah, I'm very excited about that and that's like keeping me going at the moment. So yeah, I will see how that goes and I think after that I will kind of know a bit more if, yeah, maybe that's something I could do long term, yeah, in full time and kind of move into that direction because I really love having a team and supporting people that way.

So I, yeah, am interested in doing that. But, yeah, if I'm always open to opportunities, so I always keep that box open and happy to chat to people about the role. Yeah, but I definitely, yeah, always have an interest in disability and my supervisor actually, my external supervisor is in that space. So I, yeah, have her to talk to about those opportunities and things like that. Has your company hosted students from other backgrounds or is this the first one? Yeah, they've done like OT placements and yeah, mainly OT I think.

But yeah, this is a first social work I know and they needed someone with the AASWs and I'm the only social worker at my office. So yeah, I am excited. It's scary but I was just trying to tell myself like if it's scary, it's probably. good that I'm not comfortable. So yeah. That's kind of exciting though that you could potentially even develop a student program. So you could have students from other backgrounds and maybe you could even have groups of students at the same time and they could have their own little group supervision.

I'm thinking way too far ahead, but it's okay to get excited about this stuff. I do the same thing. I'm like, oh, maybe this could be a full-time thing and I can take people from different like officer because you can yeah, do it online and. the person that I will have will be in Newcastle so and I'm on the Central Coast. So yeah, definitely possible to be opened up a bit more. Nice. Yeah. Are there any other projects or programs that you get to work on at the moment? No, we just like the team leaders, we kind of just create PDs for our team and do them in meetings every two weeks. But we kind of tailor that

as based on like the questions we're getting asked. Yeah, but I think, yeah, just been doing the behaviour support role and now, yeah, trying to learn more about what the supervision requirements will be for the student that I will be getting in July. That's my main focus at the moment, yeah. And every university is different in terms of their requirements and how much reporting they need to do. So just getting your head around that is enough for now.

Yeah, they've given me the biggest booklet, so I will have to make time to read that. Yeah. If people wanted to learn a bit more about the type of social work that you do, where would you direct them? Or even if you have any resources for group facilitation, because I feel like that's really useful as well. Yeah. I guess like a lot of the theory I work with is like CBT, DBT and act and things. So there is, because I'm based on the Central Coast, there's a company called Mindful Recovery and they do some really good DBT training. You might be able to do it online as well.

But they've definitely done things online around like complex PTSD and like little small one hour PDs they offer every now and then that are really useful. And yeah, and then I just follow people like. like the assertive social worker. She shares a lot of things with great resources and things like that that are useful if you're doing one-to-one intervention with people. And then, yeah, the playful psychologist, she offers like an app that offers PD monthly. Some of the things are obviously more tailored to Sykes, but yeah, a lot of her resources.

I think she has some free resources on her website that you can use, which are like worksheets, and different things like that that I also enjoy following to get some ideas and change things up if I'm getting stuck. That's really great. I wasn't aware of that last one, but I'll track them all down and put the details in the show notes that people can go off and do their own reading. Yeah, awesome. Yeah.

Is there anything else before we finish up, Corin, that you wanted to mention, whether it's about your experience or just social work in general? I just think social work is just a great area. are an industry to work in because you can go so many different routes. I feel like a social worker, you could find a job for them in any sort of role. So it's always good to hear about the other roles out there, yeah, and see the different ways. Social work play a role in people's lives and policies and things like that. So yeah, thanks for the opportunity to share. It is interesting how so many people I've spoken with got into social work, not really

100% knowing what they wanted to do. And I think that speaks to the breadth of the profession is that we do come from different backgrounds of study or different interest backgrounds and we bring all of that to the work that we do. So that diversity, I think, is key to our profession. But you had that interest very early on in justice and the legal influences on people and their opportunities. So I can see the definite link and that translation to social work. And then you've had that experience supporting young people who are disadvantaged, and then that real multidisciplinary focus in the work that you're doing now and moving more into leadership, which is a completely different skill set and really opening up the learning that you're able to absorb. So it's such

an interesting area of social work, and I'm glad that you've been able to share it. And thank you so much for your time. I've really loved chatting with you. Well, good. Thanks for the time and inviting me on. Thanks for joining me this week. If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Corin, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky, or you can email SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail.com.

I'd love to hear from you. Please also let me know if there is a particular topic you'd like discussed, or if you or another person you know would like to be featured on the show. Next episode's guest is Mel, who has been working with children, young people and families for over 15 years and has held positions in Australia and the United Kingdom, focusing primarily on supporting children and young people with complex needs. Mel has delivered specialist foster care assessments and training for a range of not-for-profit agencies

and government departments since 2009 and is now the CEO of Social Care Solutions, specialising in tailored solutions for safeguarding children in the education, child protection, health and early education sectors. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you'll notify when this next episode is available. See you next time.