Disability Support Worker

**Make a meaningful impact in your local community**
Melba Support Services is seeking passionate and reliable **Part Time Disability Support Worker** to join our team in **Traralgon Victoria**. If you’re committed to empowering people with disabilities to live independent and fulfilling lives, we’d love to hear from you.

**Working at Melba Support Services (Melba)**
- We support people with disability to live the life they want.
- We have a Zero Tolerance approach to violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
- Every member of the Melba community is committed to The Melba Way Charter, our vision, purpose and values.
- Melba aims to create welcoming and respectful workplaces that promote inclusive and collaborative working relationships.

**About Us**:
For over 50 years Melba Support Services has been providing services to people with disability that focus on supporting people to dream big, embrace life and do what they choose and value. Melba is firmly grounded in upholding human rights and recognizes that part of living a happy, healthy life is being independent and being able to do the things that bring us joy. Melba won the 2023 National Disability Award for Excellence in Service Quality.

**What is the Melba Way?**

Melba's approach is built on a human rights values-based framework. Our purpose is to open up a world of opportunities for people to live a fabulous life. The Melba Way' is how we go about doing this.

Each person is individual and unique.

The Melba Way honours and sustains this by creating, maintaining, and refining individualised person-led service, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day.

We do this one person at a time.

**Position Purpose**

To offer necessary assistance and support to individuals with disabilities, enabling them to live the life they want.

**What you’ll be doing (Key accountabilities)**
- Engage with the person supported to understand their unique needs and preferences, supporting them in a safe way that is directed by them and that upholds their human rights.
- Continually communicate with the individual in a way that is meaningful to them, including supporting a person’s use of alternative and augmentative communication systems when required.
- Implement support plans tailored to individuals' needs, preferences, and interests, and report issues/concerns when they become apparent.
- Utilise Person Centred Active Support to enable each person to successfully participate in everyday activities that are meaningful to them and of their choosing, including assisting individuals with various daily living activities, such as morning routines and evening preparations, personal care/hygiene maintenance, and household tasks such as shopping, cleaning, cooking, and laundry.
- Implement Person Centred Active Support to assist individuals to develop and maintain social relationships by supporting attendance and participation in social events, recreational interests, work and/or education endeavours, and appointments of their choice.
- Respect and advocate for personal choice and autonomy.
- Administer medication and provide health supports (within scope of practice and training), as needed.
- Where required and in agreement with each person, proactively and collaboratively engage and liaise with each person’s natural support network and other service providers to ensure continuity of supports for the person.
- Actively participate in learning, reflective practice, staff meetings and supervision opportunities, to continually develop your professional knowledge and skills as a disability support practitioner.

**Your Background (Skills and attributes)**
- Certificate IV in Disability (desirable, not mandatory).
- Demonstrated experience in or a willingness to learn the skills required to provide personal care support to people in all areas of their lives.
- Demonstrated experience working with BOC/BOP (desirable, not mandatory).
- A genuine commitment to the inclusion of people in their local communities.
- Ability to network with a large range of people including members of the community.
- Strong communication skills (language and literacy) with a demonstrated ability to maintain accurate and legible records.
- Ability to take on responsibility and accountability to drive positive change.
- Willingness to collaborate and build positive relationships to achieve common goals.
- Can bounce back from setbacks to navigate challenges.
- Bring a flexible, positive, and self-motivated mindset to your interactions every day.
- Commitment to, and preferably experience in, working effectively with people who have complex communication and support needs.

**Requirements**:
**Qualifications and Experience**:

- Certificate IV in Disability (desirable but not mandatory).
- Experience or willingness to learn personal care support skills across all areas of life.
- Genuine commitment to promoting inclusion and community participation for people with disabilities.
- Strong networking