Archive for category: Staff

Today we are fortunate enough to hear from some of the unsung heroes of the Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust, a group from our incredible team of support workers!

We spoke with Gabriela, Kieran, Keeley, Maninderjeet, Lamia, and Hafsa, about their roles as support workers, what they enjoy about working at LFBIT, and what motivates them to succeed.

 

What do you do as a support worker?

Gabriela: Each resident has their own routine here. Some of them have been here for quite a long time, and others are quite new, a couple of weeks or months. We will go through their routine with them, e.g. in the morning shift we help them prepare for the start of their day, help them get up, have their showers and have breakfast. So, we help with things that may be simple for some people, but for those who have certain disabilities, it can be quite a challenge.

Kieran: We have a pretty even mix of responsibilities, like healthcare workers – maintaining the residents’ physical health, working with the nurses, and supporting them with their care and daily activities. We also provide support for things that families would traditionally do, like taking clients out to go shopping; if they are running out of a clothing item; we help them make phone calls; we help book appointments; we take them to and often participate in entertainment. We often go off-site for activities as well, some clients play sports, and we go with them. It is about enabling them to maintain their physical and mental wellbeing.

Keeley: We work with a variety of individuals, and help to enable them to participate in meaningful activities in their community. We help with daily personal care, and plan goals around specific aspects of their lives and wellbeing, all to help them achieve maximum independence. When we come to work, it’s our job to adjust to their way of life, rather than bringing our own.

Maninderjeet: We are here to help the residents. I like to make their world beautiful. That can be in any way, just in their daily routines, to go out and about and help in any way possible.

Hafsa: Our main purpose is to be an advocate for the residents who live here, being the extension between them, their everyday life, their families, and other allied health professionals. This is especially important for those who can’t speak up for themselves. Also, some residents see us more than they see their own family, they see us on a weekly or daily basis. So just being that kind of emotional support for them, if they want to vent, we are there, as well as our overall care for them.

Lamia: I feel the whole team are our family, and we do care for them, and support them emotionally, and physically – their wants, their needs, everything. Even their day-to-day life, and relationships with their family who they can’t contact themselves, it’s a bond between us that holds us together.

 

What do you enjoy about working at LFBIT?

Maninderjeet: I enjoy working here. I get a sense of satisfaction when I help the residents, I feel like I’m helping my grandparents or my parents – this is the most important thing. And the staff here are really good, they’re cooperative and work well together. And our team leader, Greenville, helps us with everything. He is the best!

Keeley: I love hanging out with the residents. I love making new connections with them. I’m just able to engage with them on a daily basis and knowing how they just trust me a lot is really nice.

Kieran: Working with the clients is what I enjoy most. It feels like helping a family member. We build strong relationships with a lot of the clients on an individual basis. Some of our clients have real wicked senses of humour, and they’re great to have a laugh with. Being able to do a job where you’re actually making a tangible and immediate difference in someone’s wellbeing is really nice.

I also quite like the diversity of what we get to do. I have ADHD, I get way too bored doing the same thing over and over again. So, having a wide range of different tasks that change daily is enjoyable for me. Also, being in the LGBTQIA+ community, I am transgender and my last workplace was not always respectful of that. So, coming here on my first day the team leader at the time immediately said, “No, any hate will not be tolerated. That’s not going to be a regular thing.” We’ve got so much diversity and so many queer people, neurodivergent people, and people from different countries, that it really makes for quite a supportive environment. You don’t feel ostracized for any little differences that you have.

Gabriella: What brings me joy is helping the residents with their daily care and life and helping them achieve their goals.

Hafsa: I think for me I do like the environment. It is quite cozy and homey. Each room is individualized to what the resident likes. Everybody comes down and has dinner together. They do activities together. So, it’s not an isolated place, it very much brings this togetherness. And that is what draws me to it.

Lamia: For me, the inclusiveness of this place is really attractive to me. I admire the culture of diversity. Also, we work well as a team, it is very collaborative. And the residents are each other’s friends and family – they have their dinner, lunch and everything together. The other great thing is the team leaders; they support us a lot – we feel safe and secure, and the environment is really home-like for me.

What motivates you to succeed?

Kieran: Simple answer, the first thing that comes to mind is the clients. The fact that our work has an immediate difference in someone’s quality of life is very motivating. Our primary goal isn’t to sit at a desk and make someone richer. It’s going out, meeting and helping people who are in vulnerable positions. And we get to make their day a little bit better, to keep them healthier, safer and happier. That’s something that we get to do every day, which is really cool.

Keeley: What motivates me is my desire to help these residents, and have a laugh with them. Working here, it’s made me now want to get into registered nursing. So, I have started my pre-health, and then I’ll roll into registered nursing. There’s lots of opportunity to grow here. Being able to watch everyone, and work with nurses and physiotherapists, is all very interesting. You can find what you want to do through this role.

Gabriella: When I started I was really motivated because my background back home was in nursing. So, moving here, I needed to understand what it is like in New Zealand which was quite a challenge. But, I was open to entering this challenge, gaining new skills and improving my English. That’s what’s kept me motivated, as well as helping the clients achieve quality of life.

Maninderjeet: I’m from a different country, English is not my first language, and my communication skills have improved a lot. My previous job was as a machine operator. So this job is quite different and has increased my interest in healthcare. So, just like Keeley, I’m hoping to get into nursing after another one or two years. Having this goal helps me to bring more confidence to do the job.

Lamia: From my childhood, I wanted to devote myself to the healthcare system. The way we were brought up in our family was that we cared for each other. So, I always wanted to become a healthcare professional. Now I’m here, I care for the residents, but they also care for us. If we see them, they will ask us when our shifts are, they are hoping to see us. They motivate us in our work life.

Hafsa: For me, I come from a psychology background. As I was studying, I wanted some kind of work experience under my belt so that when I finish my degree, I already have brain injury experience under my belt. As well as this, there are some themes that I think you can take away from your workplace and apply to your everyday life – these are things like the humbleness you learn when working in a place like this, the constant compassion, and learning active listening as well. So, there are characteristics that can better you as a human being. I genuinely feel like working in this environment will build your patience, your humbleness, your compassion, and those initial characteristics will make you succeed, even after you leave the workplace.

A huge thank you to everyone on the team for sharing their work and experiences. And a huge thank you to everyone who works tirelessly behind the scenes to make life better for our residents.

Grenville Matijevich, team leader of everyone here, shared his thoughts with us on his team.

“At LFBIT, we are privileged to have a diverse range of support workers. In our current society, we have become more diverse – Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust is in a fortunate position to reflect this change. This will only enhance the level of care our clients receive. Our support workers are our strength. Maintaining their wellbeing should be a high priority. I would like to thank each of you for the dedication and commitment that you bring to the table. When we all work together, we support each other, it makes the job way easier. And for me, that’s success.”

It takes no small team to keep our residential home in Ilam Road running, all of whom are essential to maintaining a high quality of life for our residents. One of the crucial teams is our Household Services team, and today we’d love to celebrate Cheryl Smith, who leads our wonderful team of Cleaners, General Hand, and Laundry Assistants!

Cheryl’s pathway to becoming a Team Leader is highly admirable. After leaving school, and not finding herself in the right mindset for work, Cheryl spent a few years unsure of her path. She then got into cleaning and spent fifteen years in hotel-based cleaning.

“The hotel was a very toxic environment to work in, there was a lot of unhappiness,” says Cheryl. “I was quite depressed working there. So, I left, I had enough of it. I was unemployed for six weeks and tried to apply for work, and then I applied at LFBIT.”

Cheryl got the job. At the time the team was much smaller, with one other full-time cleaner and another who worked weekends. In the few years since Cheryl joined, the team and her own responsibilities have grown rapidly. Cheryl grew in her role, gaining her level two certificates. She was also appointed team leader, meaning she now takes one day a week for admin, rather than slotting admin around working for the residents.

“It was really nice when I got offered to be a team leader. To have some of that dedicated time to do the stuff I was struggling to find the time for. It was nice to be recognised, to be told what I do is important, it made me feel validated because I’ve got that allocated time.”

As a team leader, Cheryl works closely with the team, understanding their needs and knowing fully what needs to be done for the benefit of the residents. Cheryl has even been able to hire a casual worker to join the team so that their standards can be maintained to high levels.

“A lot of our other staff have got kids and other commitments, and I was like, we’re kind of falling here. I talked with Sarah (Household Services Manager), and she was supportive of the idea. We hired someone and she has worked out awesome, picking up so many hours. It is her first work in New Zealand too, which makes you feel quite humbled – that you can just change people’s lives outside of the residents here too.”

After not finding much support or room to grow in her previous work, Cheryl has appreciated the chance to grow in her career.

“I didn’t care about education when I was at school. Now it’s nice to have Sarah supporting and pushing me in the right direction. I probably wouldn’t necessarily go for it, but she’s encouraging and says, ‘Do it, you can do it.’ To work for a company also that provides training at their own cost, getting educated on the job and I’m not even paying for it myself, it is just awesome.”

“Cheryl is one in a hundred,” says Sarah Barham, Household Services Manager. “Right from the get-go you never have to explain to Cheryl what our values are, she always treats everybody with respect. It would not be unusual to hear her going out of her way to speak to clients, or push a wheelchair – because she is there, she will help you out. She lives and breathes our values, and because she is like that, all of our team follow suit. They see her and know that is how we operate.”

“I’m just really proud to have Sarah as a manager. And the team under me are all awesome. It takes a whole team to run this place, we work well together. I’m excited to see what the future holds for everyone and all the growth that’s to come.”

A massive shout-out to Cheryl and the team for their incredible work. Cheryl brings so much to the table, and her work and dedication to the residents can not be understated. Thank you so much for your incredible work!

Today we would love to celebrate the work of Lizzie Mckay, one of our brilliant physiotherapists. As you will see, her work extends above and beyond what you may imagine the role of “physiotherapist” entails.

Lizzie has been with the Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust since January 2022 and works across many areas in the organisation. Beginning working in our rehab team with Training for Independence clients, she has since also moved into working simultaneously with our assessment team on specialised client equipment. “Equipment” could be a handcycle, a power add-on to a wheelchair, a sit ski, or could even be as simple as walking poles. She also has started working within our wheelchair and seating team and is also studying towards her level one accreditation.

For Lizzie, day-to-day work as a physiotherapist is never the same. There may be work in the office; writing reports and enquiring about equipment with suppliers, and supervising peers in different teams. But the majority of Lizzie’s work is done out and about.

“It could vary from being on Mount Hutt for the day skiing with a client; to getting a client into open water swimming, being at the beach or supporting them into the hydro pool; or getting them into the Port Hills, helping them to do some hiking; or even trials for equipment, at Bottle Lake or the Waimakariri River for hand cycles or; we could be working at the client’s house, on the pavement, or indoors with powered wheels; I could be at Ilam Road doing orthotic gait trials.” “It’s very, very varied!”

For the most part, Lizzie is on the road exploring new areas for her clients to expand into Sometimes this can be as far as the West Coast, where she will go for two days and see a group of clients, before making the drive back.

“The services over there are quite limited because of their population size. Our specialist service is integral to the recovery and rehab of the people who live there.”

Lizzie always knew she wanted to work with people in healthcare. Growing up, she spent time with family members who had Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. After attending a physiotherapy seminar, and in watching the care of family, she immediately knew it was something she wanted to do herself.

“Being able to support other families who are going through lots of change is really quite special. I strive to empower them so that they feel a little control during a sometimes-powerless period. I really appreciate that I get to facilitate their journeys and hopefully make it feel less daunting and scary.”

The many paths that physiotherapy can take were also a big motivating factor for Lizzie. While living in the UK, Lizzie found herself working with spinal injuries and in critical care, and now in NZ, she has found herself specialising in neuro and adaptive sports. It is a career that is open to exploring something new!

“I feel very fortunate that I found a vocation that keeps me engaged, and is something I am really proud of. I’ve been able to enable access for others and promote inclusivity in the outdoors and sport. It’s a honour.”

One huge highlight of her work is seeing her clients thrive in a space that they didn’t know they could experience or explore.

“I remember once at Mount Hutt, there was all this commotion behind me, and I turned around and saw one of our clients skiing with his friends. It was so cool to see him in that realm, with people being like, ‘Whoa, like, what’s that?’ Other people were talking to him, engaging with him. It’s pretty amazing, because we’d spent three months teaching his dad and his friends how to do it with Adpative Snow Sports Canterbury, and then actually to see them putting it all to use was awesome.”

“Helping other people to be able to access this whole realm that they didn’t know that they could be in – it is so cool watching more people flourish in it.”

There are a few things that Lizzie enjoys about working at LFBIT. The first is flexibility. There is a wide range of cases to work with, and there is the opportunity to focus on what you are interested in, and to direct your learning. Adaptive sports is one main area where Lizzie has excelled in. Starting by volunteering with ParaFed, Lizzie’s connections in the space have grown, giving her a platform to learn and bring this knowledge back to LFBIT. She now works as a classifier for New Zealand wheelchair rugby. With so many staff bringing new knowledge, Lizzie really appreciates the work of our Interdisciplinary team.

“The team, honestly, it’s just a resource of specialty and knowledge. Anything complex and wonderful, there’s always somebody that you can chat things through with, and always somebody that’s willing to support or learn with you.”

Among all her work across so many spaces, Lizzie has also been a part of the team that developed a new respiratory service.

If someone were to have an accidental related respiratory issue there is no immediate community respiratory team. Lizzie and the team saw a need and developed the Respiratory Service to do just that. As a team they have developed a client database for respiratory needs and created pathways with GPs and ACC, so they can refer clients to our services. They assess those with respiratory needs and provide appropriate equipment to keep them in the community. They have created resources, client packs and respiratory training for clients, carers and whānau.

“This is a great opportunity to reflect on what I get to do every day and to express my gratitude to those that have helped shape my learning and development. Thank you to Mark McIntosh, Kathy Dwyer, Nicole Vercoe and Sophie Heath, appreciate your knowledge and skill endlessly but also thanks to my trusting clients!’.

We’d love to thank Lizzie for her work!

Today we would love to celebrate Tommy, one of the wonderful team members at Can Do Catering.

Can Do Catering provides paid employment for a number of residents and clients of Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust, for whom mainstream employment is not an option due to their care needs. Tommy began his work with Can Do Catering eight years ago, and he has loved his time there!

Tommy works in the essential business of delivery. Alongside his co-worker Jane, Tommy is the face of delivery at Can Do Catering. If you have ever been lucky enough to have an event catered by Can Do, you likely will have met Tommy!

A regular week will often involve coming to work on a Monday and Wednesday, although this can change depending on what days a delivery is needed. Tommy has worked on different functions, from business catering to weddings. The deliveries take Jane and Tommy all over Christchurch and beyond.

Tommy thoroughly enjoys being involved in the community and says he is looking forward to the further expansion of Can Do Catering!

Thank you Tommy for all of your hard work! It is always such a joy to have a chat during the delivery of what is always an incredible bite to eat from Can Do Catering!