Imagine working with a team that make life-changing events happen every day!
Your role would help individuals of varying ages, and varying abilities mobilise into a community otherwise inaccessible to them.
You would assess and provide the tools to enable them to access their home environment that may be just out of reach.
You ultimately provide an individual and their loved ones a way to live life to its fullest.
Welcome to our team. This is what we do, we care, to empower you.
Meet our Equipment Specialist for Complex Rehab, Ben Szudrich
What is your role? What does that mean to you?
I am an Equipment Specialist for Complex Rehabilitation. It means that I identify and assess complex needs of clients and help guide them towards the right solutions.
What does Complex Rehab have the potential to do for clients with disabilities?
The key for us is that no day or week is ever the same, it is to a certain degree, an undefined role. We could be doing a variety of assessments and interventions for example, looking at a way to help someone managing pressure injury that may have caused them to be bedridden or we could be providing mobility equipment to get them out into the community.
As a rep you get to see first hand the impact our equipment has on every user’s life, tell us what does Aidacare’s Complex Rehab team do best?
We frequently encounter clients with extensive and complex needs. We manage these needs with a combination of our detailed client assessment process, access to a broad range of equipment. We then liaise with the clients therapist to arm the individual with the most appropriate equipment solution. As a result we then see someone who can access the community, we’ve empowered their independence and the subsequent positive impact that this has on their life is incredible.
If you could switch your job with anyone else within Aidacare, whose job would you want?
I have the dream job, absolutely no need to change it.
What inspirational advice do you have for prospective reps starting in Complex Rehab?
For their development, I think reflective learning is key, talk to yourself and your colleagues after every job, discuss what you could do better and show a desire to learn from your mistakes. Ask yourself how you can make your scripting better. I believe in continual professional development. I discuss my clients with Steve regardless of my experience, not to validate my decision but to see if there is a different way of approaching something and bounce ideas off of each other.
What are 3 statements to describe Aidacare?
We’re thorough in our approach to gaining solutions. We show empathy. We strive for attention to detail. We work towards meeting the goals of users and therapists, okay there’s four.
What do you like most about Aidacare?
I really enjoy working with my direct manager Steve Barrett, he’s incredibly supportive as a manager and he provides me with every tool that I need in order to do my job well.
What has been your favourite project at Aidacare?
Working with the family of an 11 year old girl who had been in a manual tilt and space chair all her life, she was told she’d never be able to drive a wheelchair. However, with perseverance, effort and our expansive knowledge we created the right chair for her and we were able to get her driving. Meeting the challenge and overcoming that hurdle was pretty noteworthy.
I get a lot of job satisfaction when scripting a rigid frame wheelchair for a complex client. It’s extremely challenging to get it just right, there is absolutely no room for error and with that comes great challenge and optimal reward when the client’s goals are achieved.
How do you work with therapists in your role? How do you develop trust in your relationships?
The key is communication, we all have separate skill sets. A good starting point to achieve exceptional outcomes is communicating about clients when there’s not enough info about the client. Following up after trials with any info that you’re not clear about at the time of scripting. Ask the questions and listen.
