Working in social care enables you to positively change someone’s life, whether it’s helping families, the elderly or individuals going through some of the most difficult circumstances. It provides you with a rewarding and fulfilling career where you can make a real difference in people’s lives.
Support workers are a vital part of providing person centred care to vulnerable people and are able to radically improve their quality of life. Support workers can assist individuals in their own homes or in specialist care settings to help promote independent living and provide the practical help they need as well as emotional support. There are an enormous range of service users that support workers provide help to, including people with learning difficulties, people with physical disabilities, and the vulnerable elderly – which includes companion care and caring for people with dementia.
Learn more about the roles and terminology that you may encounter whilst working in the healthcare sector. Take a look at our glossary of healthcare terms here:
A Support Worker’s roles and responsibilities are varied – they play a key role in empowering individuals to
manage their health, wellbeing and daily living needs. On a day-to-day basis the job typically includes:
Supporting individuals to fulfil their aspirations, helping service users to live as independently as possible,
in accordance with their particular
skills and abilities
Supporting service users with their personal hygiene including
washing and dressing
Helping to administer basic care and ensuring that standards of
hygiene are adhered to
Monitoring the health of individuals, which can include checking their
temperature, pulse and weight on a regular basis
Dealing appropriately with challenging behaviour in line with Care Plans at all times and working proactively
to prevent and de-escalate such behaviour wherever possible
To carry out a range of household duties, in accordance with the needs of the individuals including cooking,
cleaning, laundry, and other domestic duties as required
Accompany and supporting service users in attending routine and specialist health appointments, such as doctors,
dentist and other visits as required
Accompanying service users to engage in recreational activities including
shopping, engaging in hobbies
or social activities
Being aware of the personal needs and requirements of your service users, communicating successfully, not only with your service user but with
their family, friends and other
healthcare professionals
Delivering support in a manner which is sensitive to the service user’s culture, disability, race, age, sexuality, marital
or civil partnership status, transgender status or religion/belief
The duties of support workers can vary depending on the individual care needs and the care setting. Support workers are also expected to assist in improving the quality of a service user’s life, and this means helping them with tasks both inside and outside of the home.
Beyond this, support workers often find themselves working with other professionals involved in a service user’s care, such as their therapists, nurses and doctors.
All kinds of people may have a need for a support worker at some point in their lives. Some support workers help children with disabilities, others focus on adults. Some support work is short term, for example, in helping someone who has been in an abusive situation or is recovering from injury or illness. Individuals may have a number of complex needs which can include but aren’t limited to: