Hey, I’m Keith!
Hi there, my name is Keith. I’m 41 years old and I live with my wife Janine and my two step-daughters. I’ve been in their lives since they were very young, which was an experience given how young I was when I came into their lives! I love tinkering around with cars, being handy around the house and building things. I’m a very social person and love chatting with people and going on holidays.
I’ve done lots of different jobs in my career and worked hard to get myself set up financially, but as I got older I found that I wanted to start working in a way that helped other people using my skills and my life experience. Like others in his team, Ethan was one of the first people I worked with in disability.
I mainly support Ethan with his physical therapies and exercises. I spend four days a week with him either swimming, doing stretching exercises and other physical movement activities. I was nervous to start in the new role, but I was well trained by Ethan’s exercise physiologist. I really enjoy this part of my job, seeing progress and improvements in his strength or flexibility, and working with Ethan based on how his body is moving or how he is feeling that day.
I also help Maureen and Ethan around the house with gardening or maintenance, and I’ve been very lucky to take Ethan on respite breaks, or joining them on trips to the beach and getting him out in the beach wheelchair. These are the best times, seeing Ethan so happy and trying new experiences
Working with Ethan is awesome. He’s a character with lots of quirky sayings, or ways that he gets words or phrases mixed up is always good for a laugh. Ethan relies a lot on the people that work with him for his physical needs, it’s a pretty vulnerable position to be in, and I feel like we’ve built up a lot of trust over time. Even though he still sometimes calls out in panic “Keith!!!!” for absolutely no reason at all!
