Meet Sean Digney, who joined Advocare’s care finder program in October 2024. He shares how his role as a care finder each day varies and always presents an opportunity to learn something from every client he works alongside.
Before transitioning into the aged care space, Sean spent more than five years working in the homelessness sector, supporting people through complex and often highly vulnerable circumstances. This experience certainly has come in handy as a care finder and continues to shape how he approaches his role with the care finder team.
“There’s a lot of transferable skills,” Sean says. “Building rapport, advocating alongside people, and navigating complex systems to find them support or life-changing options are all central to the work, no matter the setting.”
Having wanted to work more closely with older people for some time, his move into aged care was a natural next step. Sean was drawn to Advocare’s reputation and purpose within the sector.
“I’d always heard really positive things about Advocare,” he says. “And since being here, I can absolutely see why.”
“There’s so much knowledge and experience within the organisation, and there’s always someone you can turn to for support which really makes a difference when you’re doing challenging work.”
Changing up the days
The thing Sean loves about his work is that no two days are the same. As a member of the care finder team, much of his work takes place out in the community, meeting people where they feel most comfortable. “I love the flexibility of the role,” he explains. “Being out on the road, meeting clients in their own homes or chosen spaces.”
He describes how inviting a service into one’s home can feel daunting, particularly for people who have had difficult experiences with systems or institutions in the past. “For someone to let you into their home, they have to trust you,” he says, “And sometimes their strengths aren’t so obvious until you do a bit of digging and you get to know them a bit more, like about their background, and then they start opening up to you. Trust has to be earned. It’s about listening, building rapport, and going at the person’s pace.”
One of Sean’s most memorable experiences at Advocare was supporting a woman who was living in her car and facing significant financial and emotional challenges. Over time, and with his support rather than doing it for her, she was able to secure stable housing, rebuild family relationships and regain a sense of independence.
“The most rewarding part was seeing what she achieved herself,” he reflects. “I worked alongside her, but she did the hard work. She built the confidence, used her own strength, and got herself to a place where she didn’t need me anymore. I’d made myself redundant, but that’s exactly the outcome you want.”
Elevating older people’s value
For Sean, working with older people has reinforced for him how much strength, wisdom and resilience often goes unnoticed. “Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they’re less capable,” he says. “They’ve lived full lives, they have experience, and they deserve to have their choices respected.”
If he could change one thing to make the world better for older people, it would be how society views ageing. “Age doesn’t change who a person is,” he says. “We need to move away from assumptions and patronising, ageist attitudes, and focus instead on dignity, rights and choice.”
On a final note, Sean offered another suggestion close to our hearts at Advocare and our aged care advocacy colleagues around the country. “I would like to see no wait lists for aged care, no out-of-pocket expenses, and a bed when it’s needed in every residential aged care facility.”
