To any parent who is beginning to receive in-home support services for a disabled child I would say this. First, think about what the person who will be providing help to your child will be doing and think about how you want it to be done.
An agency who sends staff to your home is not likely to give you any guidance about working with staff for your child. Realize that the way things were done at the last place this person worked may not be the same way that you want things done in your home. Some people want to receive lots of detailed guidance from you and some want to be left to use their own judgment. Whether or not the person is a good fit for you and your child depends on the match between how much input you want to have and how much the staff person is comfortable taking.
If you are very involved and like to micro-manage your child's care then you won't work well with someone who doesn't like too much input from a parent. If you are just getting started and don't really feel comfortable telling someone how to do their job, then you won't work well with someone who wants to be told how to do everything.
The reality is that if you don't know what you want and how you want it from support staff, you are not likely to get it. The more that you can think things through and put your expectations in writing, the more clear your expectations will be to anyone who is supporting your child.
Think also about what kind of feedback you want from support staff. If all of your communication is verbal, then you are likely to think of questions after your staff have left and may be out of reach. If you can anticipate your most likely questions, then provide a written form where staff can answer those questions before they leave.
These are things that I learned between the time I began to receive help in 1997 and now. Many of my written guidelines for support staff came about because of things that went wrong. My Daily Report form is the result of questions that I inevitably had for staff after they had already left. Written guidelines regarding transportation of my daughter were developed about 6 months after staff began driving my daughter in our family vehicle. Then I had to think about things like what I would want them to do if there was a mechanical problem and they broke down or were in an accident. After finding the tank on empty in the driveway in the winter, I had to educate staff about maintaining fuel at no less than a half tank to avoid the danger of running out fuel while driving V, and the danger of freezing condensation in the fuel line.
It is time consuming to interview and train someone to come to your home and work with your child, and clear communication and expectations from the beginning minimize the chance of misunderstanding and disappointment later that may require an inconvenient transition to someone new for you and your child.
An agency who sends staff to your home is not likely to give you any guidance about working with staff for your child. Realize that the way things were done at the last place this person worked may not be the same way that you want things done in your home. Some people want to receive lots of detailed guidance from you and some want to be left to use their own judgment. Whether or not the person is a good fit for you and your child depends on the match between how much input you want to have and how much the staff person is comfortable taking.
If you are very involved and like to micro-manage your child's care then you won't work well with someone who doesn't like too much input from a parent. If you are just getting started and don't really feel comfortable telling someone how to do their job, then you won't work well with someone who wants to be told how to do everything.
The reality is that if you don't know what you want and how you want it from support staff, you are not likely to get it. The more that you can think things through and put your expectations in writing, the more clear your expectations will be to anyone who is supporting your child.
Think also about what kind of feedback you want from support staff. If all of your communication is verbal, then you are likely to think of questions after your staff have left and may be out of reach. If you can anticipate your most likely questions, then provide a written form where staff can answer those questions before they leave.
These are things that I learned between the time I began to receive help in 1997 and now. Many of my written guidelines for support staff came about because of things that went wrong. My Daily Report form is the result of questions that I inevitably had for staff after they had already left. Written guidelines regarding transportation of my daughter were developed about 6 months after staff began driving my daughter in our family vehicle. Then I had to think about things like what I would want them to do if there was a mechanical problem and they broke down or were in an accident. After finding the tank on empty in the driveway in the winter, I had to educate staff about maintaining fuel at no less than a half tank to avoid the danger of running out fuel while driving V, and the danger of freezing condensation in the fuel line.
It is time consuming to interview and train someone to come to your home and work with your child, and clear communication and expectations from the beginning minimize the chance of misunderstanding and disappointment later that may require an inconvenient transition to someone new for you and your child.
