If you’re a people person or someone who loves helping out and making life better for other people, then perhaps there’s no more rewarding job than being a support worker.
At Chorus, support workers are the backbone of everything we do. They’re the smiling faces customers see every day and the very people who help us live up to our promise to help customers – whether they’re an older person, someone living with a disability or someone in mental health recovery – live as fully and independently as possible.
Gelinda Kock, Chorus Manager of In Home Services, described that support workers might provide assistance within a customer’s home (e.g. domestic assistance or personal care) or support them to access the community (e.g. going to the shops).
“But they’re also supporting [Chorus] customers to make a contribution in their own communities, to have a sense of purpose in their lives,” she said.
Join our incredible team of amazing support workers across Perth
Chorus is currently recruiting support workers across the Perth metropolitan area, so we can expand and grow the support programs we offer.
The ideal support worker brings the right values to the job. “It’s someone who is adaptable to situations and change,” Gelinda said. “It’s someone who doesn’t create dependence on their services but walks alongside people and encourages and motivates them to be an active participant in their own lives.”
Support worker roles are paid and part-time, with guaranteed minimum hours per week. Support workers have to be flexible, willing to step in when needed, and able to be part of a team — even though much of the work is performed independently.
“A support worker’s roster can be quite full,” she said. “We try to keep the support workers really local, so when they’re driving from customer to customer, we try to keep those journeys to a maximum of 15 minutes.”
“But the day can change quite quickly, based on customer needs or support workers being sick, and so on.”
Being a support worker is a rewarding career
Most support workers have completed some kind of appropriate study — for example, a Certificate III in Individual Support. It is ideal if those applying also have experience in a relevant work environment or have extensive lived experience, particularly around personal care.
Being a support worker can be an immensely fulfilling job.
“It’s definitely rewarding in the sense that you’re actually helping someone to live in their own home, to have a life that is going to be better than it perhaps might have otherwise been,” Gelinda said. “You’re making a contribution, a real difference.
And you get to know some amazing people.”
For more information on becoming a support worker, or to apply for a position, visit our Work With Us page.
