Chloe Owen is a Central Arrernte woman from Mparntwe, Alice Springs. She has worked as Social Support Coordinator from Purple House’s Panuku office in Darwin for over two years and says “I absolutely love it”.
Chloe gave us a run down of her role and some highlights of her time at Purple House.
“As Social Support Coordinator, a lot of coordinating goes on in the morning. We usually do a team huddle about 9am where we go through our day, what jobs are on, patient appointments, etc.
We also go through the inpatient list, so anyone that’s in hospital we can go up and check in on them depending on staff availability. We try go up and make some damper and go see them and check if everything’s alright. Then allocating jobs out to the staff, making sure they know what they’ve got all the support they need to get the job done right way.
I get out in the field a lot too. I don’t like sitting behind my computer. I like to be in the action, just supporting the patients and the staff in town here I guess.
A big part of our role is when the patients can’t be on Country. The social support team, what we strive to do is help navigate them in town because it’s quite daunting and scary. Also providing a safe space for them to come and hang out with us during the day any time they want.
We pull out activities – so we’ve got beading and bingo and art stuff. We’ve got the TV, we do movie days, we’ve done Bush Balm cook ups. Our team also do cook ups in the office, we do single serve meals that we restock our freezer so it’s not just boring toast and toasties.
We also try to do a social support activity once a month where we get sometimes region based groups or whoever wants to come join in. We’ve done fishing, movies, leather workshops. We do it all and we always put it out to the patients and ask them what they want to do.
We do a lot of transport, health appointments, help them navigate banking, shopping, food security. We’ve got a relationship with the Food Bank here so that each of our patients get a free hamper on their first visit which is really cool. I guess helping the patients navigate town and then get them home on Country when we can.
A highlight for me personally, I like being with the patients. It’s quite heartbreaking for them being away from family and home and they can feel quite lost when they’re in town but seeing the joy and the sense of place when they’re at Purple House, they’re not so alone.
The relationships that I’m forming with these mob and watching my team aswell, the relationships that they’re forming, I think it’s really special. Just being someone that people can trust when they’re here, because I’ve never been in a workplace where I’ve felt this supported. I’m trusted. Sometimes I feel like I’m trusted too much, which I feel is a privilege.
I’ve never been in a workplace where I’ve felt this supported. I’m trusted.
I’ve got so much guidance and so many role models around me showing me the right way. I really try not to come in with an approach of telling people what to do. I like to be guided.
I love that Purple House is community driven. We listen to the patients. They tell us what they want and we just make it happen for them. I think that’s such a special model that we have. I feel very privileged to be part of this team and I thank Purple House for probably finding my forever place. I can see the vision and I think it’s already being practiced so well. It’s a very, very special place to work.
And to be honest, I don’t feel like I work. I come to work and I enjoy every single day and I really live by that.
If you enjoy what you do, you don’t work a single day in your life and I really feel like that here.
Come join us! Best decision you’ll ever make!”