Case Scenario #4: Professionalism in the Workplace

Scenario

Background

Jolene is a support worker in a group home for adults living with intellectual disabilities. She has been working in this role for the past six weeks. Her role is to assist the residents with the development of life skills, communication, and self-regulation, as well as supporting their goals. This is done through ensuring solid routines, teaching life skills, developing healthy relationships, and exploring interests.

Romalda works as a house manager. She oversees a number of group homes in Edmonton and each of the support workers in the group home report to her.

Jolene works in a home where three adult men reside:

Eddie, age 36, lives with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder); Jamie, age 30, lives with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder); and Will, age 23, lives with Down Syndrome. The three men get along quite well, they care about one another, and consider each other like brothers. They have disagreements at times, but they also try to help or support one another, especially if someone is struggling or is upset. They often enjoy spending time together doing various activities both at the house and out in the community. While they do have their separate interests and activities, they enjoy doing activities together such as bowling and visiting the animals at the zoo.

It is spring, and city crews have begun street and sidewalk repair. This year, the sidewalk on the west side of the street needed to be replaced on the entire block. Consequently, there is a lot of machinery and the noise is quite loud. The city crew have been working Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 pm for the past week and a half. The project is anticipated to take another three weeks to be completed.

Eddie and Will are relatively unaffected by the increase in noise level; they simply consider it a nuisance and are able to cope with it. On the other hand, loud noises have been a huge trigger and are very stressful for Jamie. When Jamie was younger, loud noises were one type of sensory issue that would trigger Jamie to display behaviours that challenge, such as hitting, kicking, and yelling. In his teenage and younger adult years, he received professional help with coping and managing his triggers using a variety of strategies. Since then, Jamie has been doing extremely well as he continues to grow and manage or cope with different levels of noise without getting overwhelmed and acting out. In the past year, he even went bowling and managed half a game without using his noise reduction headphones when the music was playing loudly. When asked about loud noises, Jamie describes it as physically hurting his brain. He manages well, especially when he knows ahead of time what to expect and when the support workers help him strategize a plan to deal with the construction noise. Given the length of time of the sidewalk construction project, this will be more challenging for Jamie to deal with. Any other sudden or unexpected loud noises will cause him distress.

In Jamie’s individual service plan, the following strategies have been identified for dealing with sensory-related issues specific to auditory sensitivities:

• Have noise-blocking headphones on hand
• Soft music playing in the background helps to distract his brain from the other noises and gives him a different focus, re-directing
• Household chores such as vacuuming and household repair using power tools must be scheduled when Jamie is away from home. In cases when this may not be possible, let Jamie know ahead of time and come up with a plan together, such as going into a different room away from the noise and wearing the noise-blocking headphones.

The following strategies as well as work site policies and procedures have been added for the duration of the construction:

• All staff and visitors must use the back-door entrance at all times except in the case of emergency. Using the front door increases the noise level.
• Incorporate additional activities in Jamie’s week to increase his time away from the noise. Currently, support workers go with Jamie to the gym on Tuesdays and to his volunteer job at the local thrift shop on Fridays.
• While at home, have most activities that he enjoys, such as doing puzzles and colouring, at the back of the house in the kitchen or in the basement where the noise is less intense.

Jolene

For the first week, the implementation of strategies worked well. During the next week and a half, different problems started to arise. Jolene would arrive late to work on occasion, but this tendency started to increase to nearly a daily basis. Her lateness would consequently affect the shift change and routines for staff and residents. Because she parked on the front street, she continued to use the front door to save time rather than having to go around the house and enter through the back. She figured that it only took a few seconds to go through the door and therefore wouldn’t affect Jamie, especially if she was fast. She also personally felt that he would just get used to the increased noise given it was a daily occurrence; after all, it was just a part of life. In addition, Jolene maintained Jamie’s regular schedule of going to the gym on Tuesdays and going to his volunteer job on Fridays. She did, however, add a 30-minute shopping excursion to Walmart, an activity that Jamie enjoys, after each of those activities to extend his time away from the house and consequently the noise.

Romalda

Upon hearing concerns from both her staff and the three men, Romalda stops by the home to have a private discussion with Jolene about the concerns. Romalda outlined the concerns, explained the impact of Jolene’s behaviour on everyone in the house, clarified expectations of her role, and checked to see if there was anything that Jolene needed in order to facilitate Jolene’s ability to do her job. After all, they are all working in someone else’s home to provide support.

Following the discussion, Romalda left the home to continue her work for the day, and Jolene resumed her shift. At the end of her shift, Jolene wrote a note for Romalda indicating her outrage at the perceived total lack of professionalism which she felt Romalda displayed during their meeting earlier that day. Once she finished writing the note, Jolene promptly posted the note on the household bulletin board for everyone to see before she left for the day… through the front door.

Case scenario by Nadine Konyk.