IAN O’BRIEN

Age – 56

Position – CDS Support Worker

Time in role – 4 years with CDS and 17 in the disability industry

What do you like most about your role and CDS? Empowering and supporting our clients. I get a real kick out of it!

Why are you working in this industry? I became very ill about 20 years ago after working in the Forestry industry and decided to make the change then. It was the best thing I ever did and I wish I had made the change sooner into the industry. I realised when I was in and out of hospital that helping people was what I wanted to do.

If you weren’t in this industry what would you be doing? Having a Captain Morgans! (Jokes)

What is the greatest myth in this industry? That each client is unapproachable. That’s simply not true. Everyone can be approached the right way and I find it refreshing being around people with disabilities as they aren’t judgemental.

If you were CEO for a day what would you change first? Just improving communications across the board which we are in the process of doing.