Sarah Lysaught, Complex Support Specialist at Open Minds, is responsible for developing positive behaviour support plans which outline the agreed way to best support a client to improve their quality of life.
Sarah Lysaught started with Open Minds in 2012 as a passionate and dedicated student completing a University placement. She quickly felt it was somewhere that she could develop her career and applied for a role as a Support Worker, and has been with Open Minds ever since.
Sarah initially completed a legal and justice degree and was headed for a legal career, but the birth of her son with a hearing impairment shifted her focus to the disability sector. “I just felt like I had developed a special skillset through caring for my son, I wanted to step into a role to help others and work with families.”
Sarah side-stepped into a PhaMs (Personal Helpers and Mentors) role within Open Minds as a Youth Specialist, working with young people aged 16 – 25. After a few years, Open Minds was awarded funding for the Choose Change Complex Case Management program, and Sarah took the plunge and successfully applied for a role as a Case Manager on this new program.
Open Minds supports numerous Clients with complex care needs and therefore created a new role to work with teams who directly support these clients – this role was a perfect fit for Sarah with the unique experience and skillset that she had gained over the years.
Sarah currently works with clients who have restrictive practice orders, and clients that have complex care requirements. As a Complex Care Specialist, Sarah is called upon by other teams to advise and help whenever required. This means that Open Minds Support Workers can utilise Sarah’s specialised skill-set to best support their clients.
Sarah collaborates with all stakeholders to develop Positive Behavior Support Plans. This outlines the agreed way of supporting the client to increase their quality of life and reduce any restrictive practices that might be in place.
Sarah says: “The best part of my job is when the strategies I’ve laid out in the plan work, and I can see the client now has more choice and independence in their life. My goal is to always try and minimize or remove any restrictive practices placed on the individual.”