Berry farm ends desperate search for work

People with special needs can struggle to find a job, but 23-year-old Tyler Watson is now part of the team at Fairfield Berries near Wakefield and loving it.

It has been a long time coming for Tyler who has been desperate to be working like others in the community and doing something useful.

The eldest in a family of nine children has Prader-Willi Syndrome which is a rare genetic disorder resulting in a number of physical, mental and behavioural problems.

His mother Jacqui says she had been looking a job for Tyler since he left school, but few employers were willing to take him on and she acknowledges the employment laws do not make it easy for them to navigate.

Employers have to consider health and safety, plus employment needs to be flexible. Some days Tyler does not want to go to work and some days he takes time out on the berry garden to sit in the hayshed.

On the berry garden, he is a volunteer much of the week and gets paid for one day and Jacqui says it is thanks to his employers Patrick and Elise Cotter being willing to be flexible and relaxed about how and when he works.

It is the couple’s second berry season on the 10ha property where they grow boysenberries, raspberries and strawberries, with a shop that sells fruit ice creams and local gifts.

Jacqui says Tyler is loving his work, having a boss and earning his own money.

He began just helping out on the berry garden last year because his sisters were working there.

He proved to be a diligent worker and the job has just grown from there.

“He was weeding a circle around the plants and went through a whole 3ha block,” Patrick says. “He would go four to six hours weeding.”

Jacqui says that is very typical of many people with special needs who are very goal focused when given a task.

It morphed into lawn mowing and other jobs around the berry garden and now he goes most days of the week and Jacqui says it has been a life saver for both Tyler and herself.

“Having a special needs person at home can be quite a pressurised thing. I would be medicated up to the eyeballs if he was still at home all the time. So, it’s just as important for me to have somewhere for him to go. And he is just loving having a purpose.”

In his last year of school, Jacqui says Tyler became increasingly anxious because he had nothing to look forward to when he finished and his behaviour deteriorated.

She says many people with special needs will go to a day programme, but that does not suit them all, and it is a lot of driving for parents to deliver them and pick them up.

“For us, having somewhere for Tyler to go and feel important and productive, and keep him physically fit is priceless. If he was at home, it would be one battle after another.”

At Fairfield Berries, Patrick says Tyler does many of the jobs that would not otherwise get done and while sometimes he works at pace, he also has time out and that is fine.

“Sometimes he will be just staring into space, but it doesn’t matter here.”

Jacqui would like to see more employers consider people with special needs on their team, even if it is just a few hours a week.

She knows of a young woman with special needs further south who goes to an aged-care rest home each day to deliver morning and afternoon tea to residents.

“It makes them feel part of the community and doing something worthwhile. Even a couple of hours a week can give someone that sense of ‘wow’. They love to feel part of something and if there is a little bit of pay they are tickled pink.”