Helping our Friends and Neighbors

It always is strange when you first walk in to someone’s home because you’re the one who will be washing their face or their back, or giving them a total shower.  You don’t expect to be doing that with someone you’ve been friends with for a long time, but it feels natural for me to be helping out the people I know, and even the ones I don’t know.  I know that if I’m helping, I’m making his or her life that much easier.  Of course I’d do that for my friends.

Around my fourth week into this job, my agency called and asked me if I wanted to take on a new gentleman.  The minute they told me his name, I thought, “Oh my goodness, I used to work with him in the shoe shop.  If he wants me to come, I’ll come.”  He was really surprised that I was in this field of work after all these years.  So I went, and we had a nice chitchat reminiscing old shoe shop stories.  Along the way there have been quite a few clients that I already knew before I started taking care of them.  Many times, people would much rather have someone they know than someone they don’t know  If they know the person that’s coming in, they’re more trusting. Although the workers are supposed to be trustworthy when they are hired for this job, sometimes you just don’t know. 

Respect and Caring

I’ve been in the business now for a total of six years.  I think what’s most important to me is that I care about the people- about how they are feeling.  I usually spend my first day with a client just getting acquainted. Instead of walking in and taking over, I sit down with them for five or ten minutes.  I tell them who I am so that they’ll know that I’m from the company. I always wear my badge for the first day, and sometimes the second and third times, but I don’t wear it steady.  Some people are kind of nervous when someone is in there wearing a badge. 

Some people go right in and try to take over the whole house.  Many of them, like us,  have things that they are very possessive of, and they want them kept right there beside their chair.  They don’t want it in the kitchen where it really belongs, even if that makes more sense to me.  I don’t treat my clients like I can do things better than them.  If they want to do something for themselves, I stand there and I let them do it.  When I first started, I found out that I was hindering them more than I was helping them because I was doing everything for them.  Even though I thought I was helping, I discovered that I was taking their mobility and their sense of pride away from them. 

I don’t want to make them complacent.  I want them to feel like they’re involved in their care and they’re involved in their housework, so I’ll leave some of the dusting for them to do.  They’re excited because they really don’t feel like doing those things when they’re alone, but when we do them together, it’s nice.  We chat and laugh and before they know it, we’re done.  I believe that if you’re going to be in a person’s home, you’ve got to take time to talk to them and enjoy their company.  More often than not, you can learn things that you wouldn’t believe, if you just take the time to listen.