Pros
There were positives of the job too. Primarily being the floor staff and the service users themselves being great to work with. It is a rewarding role, and some SU's made great progress which was a joy to witness and feel apart of. I feel, if brainkind gave more funding to GAH itself, the vast majority of the aforementioned issues would resolve themselves.
Cons
As time bore on, I was left waiting for something to happen. In the sense, there was a sheer lack of activities to keep residents occupied, despite talk of an activities co-ordinator position needing filled. The onus became increasingly placed on the support workers ourselves to keep everyone safe, entertained and productive. While in-theory this sounds typical of a support work role -and the permanent floor-staff were all very passionate and caring individuals trying their best for SUs- when staffing is so poor (and it became increasingly so throughout my time there) permanent staff were required for observations, and the challenging behaviour ward, leaving agency (who were not covered to take residents into the community and also generally lacked the therapeutic relationship permanent staff had with SU) to manage the floor.
Again, had this been a temporary arrangement it would be more understandable. However, it became a case of being permanently fixed on observation roles, with minimal resources to incentivise co-operation. While this took a toll on staff, with many leaving after becoming frustrated with their incapacity to have their skills and care harnessed or properly nurtured, the real disservice was of course to the SU's, who were quite simply extremely bored. Boredom causes behaviours that challenge too. So while there was a lack of stimulation, the flip side was behaviours got worse, so more observations for permanent staff, and therefore less engagement for SU's.
