mmg.com.au

While many people working in disability services tend to be older, a group of young people is bucking the trend at Echuca’s Murray Human Services.

MHS has eight young people aged between 18 and 20 working for it.

The organisation’s services manager Keryn Gill said the young staff, combined with the longer serving staff, was a ‘‘good mix’’.

Ms Gill had nothing but praise for the staff.

‘‘Part of the positives for young people coming through is their vivacious, energetic reaction to people we support,’’ she said.

‘‘They have a natural ability to communicate with people we support and they have masses of energy.

‘‘They’re very keen young people.’’

Ms Gill said young people also brought ‘‘a new way of thinking’’ to the way things were done.

‘‘They have no pre-conceived ideas,’’ she said.

‘‘They have new eyes and... new ideas. That spins off into everybody else.’’

Ms Gill said in the past, a lot of disability services staff had been made up of parents of young children wanting a part-time job.

She is pleased now that more young people are actively looking for a career in disability services.

‘‘They’re coming in with the idea that ‘this is what I want to do’,’’ she said.

‘‘It is a field where people have to be responsible for other people and they do that well.’’

Ms Gill said young people moving into the disability field would also be of benefit in the future.

‘‘For the future, younger staff will be a benefit to our organisation,’’ she said.

She praised the existing more mature staff for their work with their younger fellow employees in teaching them the ropes.

‘‘They work with other staff as mentors and do work on their own as well,’’ she said of the younger staff.