Harry, one of our support workers from Montgomery House, tells us about his experience working for Northern Healthcare since he joined in early 2020.
“Hello, my name is Harry, I’m 25 years old and I am a Support Worker from Montgomery House, Radcliffe. I first started working with Northern Healthcare in April 2020. I was coming into a bit of unknown territory having previously only worked with people who live with a mental health diagnosis when coaching an adult’s football team.
I started at Helena’s House, Huyton as a Support Worker. On my first day I was asked what I would like from this job to which the answer was as many qualifications as possible, to gain as much experience as possible in different roles and to eventually move up the ladder.
A short while after starting, a Team Leader role became available, which I went for and thankfully I was successful. The change from Support Worker to Team Leader was not easy, but it was definitely worth doing. It was massively beneficial working alongside an experienced Team Leader who was always there if I needed to ask anything. There are also many people who you can go to for support, whether it is someone from the same unit (Service Manager, fellow Team Leaders or Support Workers – there is always someone to help), or you can contact Head Office and you will get an answer.
Around September time an Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) position became available at Montgomery House. So, I went for this position as I felt like I needed to improve on the practical side of things. I got this role and started near enough straight away. The Occupational Therapists (OTs) were a big help for me when first starting as an OTA.
I thought the change in houses was beneficial for me too, it supplied me with more challenges and learning opportunities. The different residents, with different diagnoses, can sometimes be challenging especially if there is someone with a diagnosis I have not been involved with before. This is the reason I think it’s massively beneficial to go to other services when you get chance, you get to meet all different residents and you also see the ways in which other services operate. This experience can give you ways to improve your own service, or you can give advice to the unit you are covering for and share ideas to make things work more productively.
In January, business changes meant that I was offered a Support Worker role again. This didn’t bother me too much as being a Support Worker didn’t mean I couldn’t carry on using the skills and experience from my OTA role. You have roles as a Support Worker, but this does not mean you cannot do other things on top of this, some examples of things can be organising trips for your residents, organising groups such as walking group, gym group or swimming group. Simple activities like quizzes can get all residents engaging with each other. Throughout lockdown we hosted many quizzes on Teams with fellow services, which allowed residents to get involved with other residents from other services who they may not have met otherwise – this was very nice to see.
I personally think this company is very good at staff progression, and I would advise anybody to go for any job role available if they want to improve and gain experience in all areas. If you do not get the job, at least you have the experience of the interview, and this can allow you to understand what to expect next time.”
Interested in learning more about careers at Northern Healthcare? Find out more or see our current vacancies.
Photo by Rusty Watson on Unsplash.
