"I thought Lily's (*) legs were feeling a little cold so I got her some trousers...."
It was a simple line in the daily notes section of our client folder, kept at Lily's house. We each write what has happened during our visit in the daily notes section and there is a column for anything which requires attention or we want the next carer on shift to be particularly aware of or action.
The same carer had written a few weeks earlier: "I've arranged for some of Lily's skirts to be altered to button up the front to make dressing and undressing easier."
I smiled as I gathered together Lily's clothes for the day - including a pair of trousers from the selection we now had for her. My colleague had thought about Lily's needs and how we could make life a little more comfortable for her and had acted on it. The same with having Lily's skirts altered. Due to her deteriorating condition, most of Lily's care when it comes to dressing and undressing is now undertaken on her bed by having her skirts made so they button up the front they were a lot easier to put on and necessitated very little moving Lily around in order to dress her. It was thoughtful and very caring of my colleague to not only notice the issues we were facing but to find such a fantastic solution. She had gone above and beyond her role in her duty of care to Lily.
Lily's personal care and dressing requires two carers. I was on a double up visit with my colleague mentioned above and as we were washing Lily she was holding my hand, Lily looked at my colleague at the other side of the bed and said: "You're wonderful, you are. Tell her she's wonderful, Sharon. You are all wonderful, every single one of you. You take such good care of me."
It was totally out of the blue and unexpected. Lily had a twinkle in her eye as she said it. Moments like this are very rewarding. These are the moments that keep us going when sometimes the going gets a little tough and demands on us and our time are high.
Domiciliary care and care givers are often in the news at the moment and receive an lot of negative press. Often with good reason but there are companies, such as ours, who go the extra mile to ensure we, where possible, exceed our client's expectations. I am relatively new to home care giving and researched carefully several different companies in the area before deciding which one I would like to try to gain employment with. I thought about my own parents and what I would like and look for in a care giving company should I have the need to employ one. I chose carefully a company who I thought would enable me to give the care I would want for my own loved ones.
I'm happy to say that I chose well. The lady at the helm of our company is passionate about the standard and level of care we offer and the staff she employs are all hand picked by her: people on which she can entrust her reputation. In short I'm learning from the very best available people in home care. What it means in reality is ladies like Lily are looked after by us all as if they were a much loved part of our own family and that feels good - not only for them but for us too.
(*) Lily'a name has been changed in order to protect her identity and privacy.
