It is imperative to recognise that there simply isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting autistic adults. Everyone is an individual with their own unique needs and support workers need to understand how to respond accordingly to those requirements.
If you are eager to take your first steps into your support work career and have been exploring care assistant jobs in Southampton with a focus on supporting autistic adults, let’s look at why compatibility plays such a significant role in the delivery of first-class support.
Planning Support for Autistic Adults
The first step in creating any care plan is to comprehensively assess each person as an individual. This involves carefully looking at their communication, behavioural patterns, everyday support requirements, and socialisation.
This process will give appropriate levels of consideration to a service user’s strengths and abilities, as well as any fixations, obstacles, hypersensitivities, and fears. This comprehensive understanding will then be used by support workers to tailor the levels and types of support they are providing to each individual. Compatibility is key here because it is essential that the service user and support worker can communicate proactively and effectively.
Environmental Factors
In addition to ensuring that every autistic adult is surrounded by support workers they trust and can communicate with effectively, it is important to consider a variety of environmental factors that could impact a person’s needs.
Autistic adults need to feel comfortable in their environment, which may mean installing soft lighting for those with sensory requirements or anticipating challenging situations and utilising appropriate solutions before they escalate, such as installing Velcro curtains in the spaces of autistic adults who may pull on them when their anxiety heightens.
Managing Change
Many adults with autism find it difficult to adapt to changes in their daily routines. By ensuring that service users are supported by caregivers who have invested time in building trusted relationships, many potentially challenging situations can be de-escalated simply by recognising the service user’s needs at that moment.
Some adults with autism will find it hard to express their feelings, particularly when their anxiety levels are increasing. It is in these situations that the true value compatibility and trust really come into their own, as support workers will intuitively know how to adjust their style of communication to manage the feelings prompted by certain triggers.
Adjusting Support Based on Individual Needs
Some autistic adults prefer to spend time on their own and in these situations, support workers must ensure that service users don’t experience the negative effects of feeling isolated and have the opportunities to experience positive instances of social interaction. The introduction of new activities must be carefully introduced at a pace that suits each individual and support workers are excellently placed to ensure that all service users feel heard, understood and respected.
Are you Looking at Care Assistant Jobs in Southampton?
There are a variety of care assistant jobs in Southampton that will allow you to maximise your potential and positively impact your community. Support workers for autistic adults will form meaningful connections with service users to ensure that every person feels safe, supported, and able to live a fulfilled life.
