Intensive Support Worker

**Intensive Support Worker**

**Reports To**:Team Leader of the home in which they are assigned

**Position Summary**: As a member of a professional working team, the Child Care Therapist shall provide for the daily care and supervision of Bayfield's youth, through the use of various relationship building, parenting, mentoring, teaching, conflict resolution and crisis management skills.

**Relationships with Youth**:
1. Attempt to form meaningful relationship with youth through the sharing of activities, discussions of feelings and thoughts and by caring for the youth’s daily needs.

2. Talk, listen and respond positively in order to ensure mutual understanding.

3. Explain and teach age-appropriate ethical and social values, rules and manners.

4. Speak at the youth's level of understanding to help ensure a mutual understanding.

5. Be flexible in approach.

**Daily Care**:
1. Support children in their daily routines:

- Help establish and maintain consistent, age-appropriate daily routines
- Interact with youth to ensure participation in programming
- Monitor and guide the youth 's nutritional intake and amount of rest
- Prepare simple meals, following nutritional guidelines and recipes
- Monitor, educate and assist in youth in completion of their personal hygiene
- Teach and assist youth on how to take care of their physical living environment and how to share
- the living environment with others
- Teach the youth life skills required for transition into adulthood

2. Maintain an adequate level of cleanliness and orderliness in the home.

3. Encourage youth to engage in physical activity such as sporting games.

4. Monitor the youth’s progress in school and assist them with daily homework.

5. Follow set TV times, only allowing viewing of age-appropriate programs.

6. Provide transportation for recreational activities, medical appointments and other appointments as necessary and assigned.

7. Observe and assess the youth's state of health on a continuous basis.

8. Refer youth to the Medical Coordinator / Medical Professional when necessary.

10. Dispense non-prescription drugs as required. Dispense all other drugs according to the physician and Bayfield Pharmacology protocol.

11. Care for and comfort the youth when sick.

12. Help youth cope with any emotional stress (in a confidential setting).

13. Accompany youth to medical appointments and comfort them when emotional stress arises during medical appointments.

14. Maintain and ensure a safe environment for each youth.

15. Instruct youth in safety procedures.

16. Recognize safety hazards/physically dangerous situations and remove youth when necessary.

17. Report facility structural hazards to Maintenance Department.

18. Keep all utensils locked up and accounted for after each meal.

19. Complete regular room checks once the youth has gone to bed.

20. Plan, organize and supervise daily living activities, recreational and other program activities with a group of youth in a manner consistent with their ages, individual needs, abilities and in relation to each youth's goal oriented plan of care.

21. Respond appropriately to the youth who has an immediate need, while at the same time, keeping the rest of the youth on track and focused.

**Behaviour Management**:
1. Help set and employ age-appropriate rules and limits around daily routines (degree of leniency of the limits will vary according to the youth's individual needs).

2. Refer to the youth’s behaviour and not the youth’s personality or character when praising, correcting and/or setting limits.

3. Instruct the youth on how to monitor his/her own behaviour. Provide on-the-spot guidance to assist the youth in building self-awareness by recognizing signs of oncoming negative behaviour and in developing skills in controlling such behaviour.

4. Utilize UMAB techniques when dealing with a difficult-to-manage, aggressive youth, in order to deescalate the situation.

5. Anticipate and prevent overt behaviour and situations that might encourage negative emotional and/or aggressive behavioral outbursts.

6. Monitor and recognize signs of self harming behaviour, and prevent situations that provide the youth with the opportunity for such behaviours.

7. Review the youth’s Treatment Plan / Individual Crisis Management Plan (ICMP) regularly, noting progress, regression or lack of change and provide input to make necessary adjustments to the method of care utilized while working with that youth.

8. Assist youth in helping each other by providing guidance regarding negative behaviour and supporting the efforts to develop the skills to cope with them.

9. Recognize and influence, as necessary, individual and group behaviour and the physical appearance of the youth when these conflict with community standards and norms.

10. Document any unusual behaviour as observed.

**Recording and Administrative Duties**:
1. Observe, record and present data on youth.

2. Prepare Client Progress Notes, Daily O