DeeDee Strout’s Story

Helping Friends and Neighbors: DeeDee Strout’s Story

DeeDee Strout has been working in home care for six years.  DeeDee is no stranger to hard work, having spent years running a hay farm with her husband and son as well as holding down various jobs. Sensible and straightforward, it is perhaps her quiet demeanor and self-determination that allows her to see that a sense of usefulness and independence is essential for her clients to maintain their dignity.  In her job as a caregiver her goal is to “help not hinder” people, which she takes very seriously. She also holds a membership with Maine Personal Assistance Services Association (PASA), which she sees as an opportunity to make her voice heard by those at the legislative level.  This voice, she feels, is vital for others to know about the challenges that both the clients and workers face, and overcome, every day. 

The Decision to Care

“Through my whole life it seems that I was always helping somebody: my grandmothers, my grandfather, my cousins.  One of my earliest memories is of my grandparents’ landlady.  She had one leg removed, so she was just sitting all the time in one chair.  My grandfather went down and he took her chair, put a platform under it, put some casters on it, then brought it back upstairs to her and said, “Here, have a wheelchair so you can move around a little bit.”  She loved it. That was back before any Medicare or Medicaid came into play.  I remember going downstairs to help her every time I was over to my grandparents because she was a neighbor and a friend, and that’s just what you do with your neighbors. 

When I ended up later in life as a displaced worker from a shoe shop and found myself at a local job fair speaking with a woman representing the agency I work for now, I wondered if personal care work was something I could do. I remembered the feelings I had when I helped others so I decided to give being a PCA a try. After working three years, I found myself feeling burnt out. After too many weekends and nights, I decided to give it up. Eventually, one of my clients called me and said “When’re you coming back, DeeDee?  When’re you coming back?”  Over and over, I told them I wasn’t coming back.  They would say, “Well, we need you.”  I talked to them off and on for about a month, and it was nice to know they cared.  Finally, I called the company and asked to go back to work.  They were thrilled to hear from me. Despite the fact that my clients had been assigned to new PCA’s already, my company called each of them and I was able to be reassigned to them, allowing me to start with a full load of clients again.