I live in a rural area

I live in a rural area

There are some unique benefits and challenges in rural areas.

There are typically less services available in rural areas.

At the same time the local community is often more supportive than in urban areas – because they know you.  You are one of them.

Sometimes this can lead to embarrassing situations.  You meet the person who helped you with showering in the morning later in the day when you are doing your shopping.

You meet one of your friends – and they already know what’s been happening for you – the grapevine has been working over time.

 

 

 

 

Attendant care in rural areas

Getting staff

Unfortunately for participants out in the rural areas it’s often quite difficult to get care staff.

And if the participant has a large program, if they need 12 or more hours a day of attendant care services it can be quite challenging to recruit that number of staff.

Because it’s an entry level position there are lots of women and when there are school holidays in the country there may be two-week period with nobody, they have no care because everyone is taking school holidays off. There is just a much smaller pool of people unfortunately and if one person leaves on is sick they might not have any coverage which is a huge problem and not something that can be solved simply.

Privacy

I think lots of participants that live in small towns are concerned about their privacy.

Certainly from previous jobs that I’ve had in working in the industry care agencies are quite concerned to keep things private but in small town how easy is that?

I have had some clients that have refused to have anybody from their actual town.

And similarly with cultural people from small specific communities have insisted on not having any care workers that know them, or know their families, or know their relatives.

So, I think people are quite concerned about their privacy.

And care agencies do their best to make sure that that is closely guarded.

Lifetime Care Coordinator