The Stewart Centre @ EIT provides rehabilitation services to 77 people who have experienced trauma or brain injuries.
Recently two staff members, Sherilyn Rawlings and Pete McLachlan, attended the brain injury course ‘Whatever It Takes’ at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
The training was funded through Te Pou’s Workforce Development grant and covered general information about brain injury, rehabilitation models and approaches, risks and issues and support circles and groups.
Pete is a rehabilitation coach and the training was relevant to all aspects of his everyday work with people who have brain injuries. He said the course has helped build self-confidence and understanding, which in turn has helped him project confidence and competence when working with his clients.
The course content was very insightful and educational, and has enabled me to develop the practical and theoretical skills to carry out my working role more effectively. As a support person in the brain injury/rehabilitation field it was inspirational and encouraging to be instructed by professionals who are highly regarded in their field. I appreciate the chance to increase my professional development and I will continue to apply the principles of the ‘Whatever It Takes’ model to my daily work.”
Pete thinks the course has improved his career opportunities and improved his ability to contribute to the quality of work at the Stewart Centre @ EIT. He’s already applied many of the new skills he learned in the course, particularly strategies for dealing with challenging behaviours and person-centred rehabilitation. Pete said his desire to learn has been ignited and he’s interested in more training to further improve his work practice.
Pete’s colleague Sherilyn is a living skills coach. The training helped her develop a deeper understanding of the impact brain injury has on people and their families. She has more confidence in her role and has learned to communicate with clients in a more beneficial way. As a consequence, her success rate for helping clients achieve their personal goals has also increased.
I found the classroom discussion about brain injury and how this impacts on behaviour as well as personality changes interesting and informative. Through these discussions I came to realise that … there are sound reasons for challenging behaviour. Also it can be hard for clients to cope with the changes and to understand what has happened to them.”
Sherilyn would like to undertake more training on challenging behaviour and supporting families who live with brain injury.
One area of rehabilitation that I would like to explore more is termed ‘scripting’. This is a programmed way of interacting with a client that substantially increases the chances of appropriate behaviour. Through looking and studying this concept I am able to relate with clients on a more supportive level which hopefully increases rehabilitation.”
Lee Pepping, service manager at the Stewart Centre @ EIT, said the grant funding for staff training is much appreciated, as neither Sherilyn nor Pete had received any ‘off site’ training since they started working in the field of brain injury rehabilitation.
This training has introduced them to critical thinking, such as questioning current practice, and they have both gained more understanding about research methods which will be helpful in their future work. As a result, they are now able to put proven strategies and techniques into practice which are valuable when working with people with brain injuries,” Lee said.
She added that the training has not only had benefits for the individuals who attended; because of the knowledge they have gained and shared the entire organisation has benefitted.
