1 Section 1 - Scenario 1 Joel works in a program for young people with disabilities to help them develop their social, educational and independent living skills. Connor, a 15-year-old participant,...

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Section 1 - Scenario 1

Joel works in a program for young people with disabilities to help them develop their social, educational and independent living skills. Connor, a 15-year-old participant, engages in behaviour of concern. Joel loses his temper and just stops himself in time from slapping Connor to make him stop.

Joel feels very remorseful about his behaviour and realises he needs help to control his anger and Connor’s behaviour.

Later the same week, Joel observes a co-worker, Michael, giving chocolate to Connor to encourage him to modify his behaviour. Joel is surprised, as this goes against everything he has been told about managing behaviours of concern, and also because Connor’s parents have asked that he not be given any food containing sugar.

Michael laughs when Joel asks about this and says he does lots of things he is not supposed to do to ‘make Connor behave’, including giving him presents and small amounts of money.

Joel thinks that Michael is not helping Connor manage his behaviour and he is making it more difficult for other workers who do not offer bribes to manage Connor’s behaviour. Joel is not sure whether he should intervene in Michael’s irresponsible behaviour or just ignore the observations he has made.

01. Joel feels isolated and has started to experience anxiety when he is working with Connor and Michael. Describe two possible consequences for Joel, Connor and his employer if he does not practise self-care?

02. Michael receives a written warning from his employer about his conduct, as he is later observed by a supervisor allowing Connor to wander unsupervised next to a busy road while on a community activity. How has Michael failed to meet his responsibilities? Does he have a responsibility to change his behaviour and, if so, what changes should he make?

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Section 2 - Scenario 2

Jennifer has been providing support to a number of families who use a respite program for which she is responsible. One of her colleagues, Tim, who runs a similar program is unexpectedly away for a fortnight as he has urgent family commitments to attend to. Jennifer offers to assist Tim by running his program as well as her own, seeing it as an opportunity to develop her management skills for the future. Jennifer decides to deal with the day-to-day administrative tasks and place on hold any urgent issues and new applications to the program, because she thinks it is more appropriate for her colleague to handle these on his return to work.

After the fortnight, Jennifer decides to seek some feedback from her supervisor about how she has managed the situation. Karina, the supervisor, tells Jennifer she is very impressed that she had been so careful in respecting the boundaries between the two programs and that Jennifer had not overstepped the boundaries of her role. Karina compliments Jennifer on her ability to manage two tasks effectively and also to ensure Tim is able to step back into his own role without any difficulties.

01. During the fortnight that Jennifer is running both programs, she runs a training workshop at an inter-agency networking meeting. What are two ways Jennifer could seek and reflect on feedback from colleagues from another agency at this training session?

02. Jennifer’s supervisor asks her to reflect on her own performance during the fortnight. What approach could you use to do this?

03. Several of the participants in the training workshop provide feedback that Jennifer moved too quickly through the content and they did not always understand the information. Jennifer reflects on her workshop and decide there was a lot of content that she had tried to cover. What could Jennifer do to improve the workshop for next time?

04. What would be one legal and one ethical consideration that Jennifer would need to make before deciding how to respond when she knew Tim was going to be absent from work for a fortnight, given her own knowledge of her existing work role and job description?

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Section 3 - Scenario 3

Luke is about to participate in his first performance appraisal. He is nervous, but recognises that it is an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to improving his work skills and knowledge.

Before the appraisal, he spends time thinking of examples of how he meets each key performance indicator of his job description. He also considers areas of work that he would like to improve and writes a list of goals and strategies for achieving them.

Luke has the interview with his supervisor, Claire. During the appraisal, Luke impresses her with how well prepared he is and how he has clear goals for his personal and professional development. They discuss Luke’s future work goals and Claire makes suggestions about training and personal development opportunities that could help him achieve them.

She also acknowledges Luke’s ability to develop positive relationships with clients, especially young males who have a similar background to his own. However, she suggests that Luke undertake cultural awareness training so he can develop a better understanding of the increasing number of people who come from other cultures and have etiquette and communication protocols different from him.

01. What must Luke learn how to do after the review, and how will it benefit his work practices?

02. How does Luke show commitment to upgrading his skills and knowledge?

03. What are three options Luke could consider for building skills and knowledge related to cultural awareness?