Only job I care for is helping others’
ARE YOU A PEOPLE PERSON? HAVING COMPASSION AND GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS COULD BE YOUR KEY TO A REWARDING CAREER IN ADULT SOCIAL CARE
If you’d like to feel you’re doing a job that makes a difference, then a career in adult social care could be for you. It’s rewarding work where no two days are the same.
One moment you could be helping an elderly person with their medication, the next you could be simply sharing a cup of tea and a biscuit with them and cheering them up with a chat if they feel lonely or down.
It’s also often easy to transfer your current skills into social care work. Take, Maisie, 20, who worked in customer services when she left school, and her people skills with customers helped her look after vulnerable pensioners when she made the switch to social care.
FLEXIBILITY
“In my customer services job I took orders over the phone and I noticed people I talked to were lonely,” says Maisie. “I always wanted to help them, just like my mum – a care worker who loved her job.”
Maisie felt she’d love that job too, so trained as a care worker on a four-day course, where she learnt, for example, how to move people unable to do so themselves. She now works with people over 60, and loves the flexibility of the job, as well as knowing she makes a difference.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s what I love to do. I work in the community, doing home care for people who are trying to remain independent for as long as they can. We give them extra help with all the things they need support with.”
Maisie admits her job isn’t the easiest in the world – but the emotional rewards are worth it. And it’s a secure role with the chance to progress and develop her career. “It’s super-rewarding and people are really grateful for all the things you do,” she says.
“Wherever I go, I always think about the people I look after. It’s much more than just a job. You get a one-to-one with someone. You build up a rapport, trust and a relationship.
“A typical day does vary a lot. For some people, it’s just checking in on them because they don’t see anyone in the day, so you make sure they’re okay, that they’ve got their medication and have a cup of tea and a chat. You could be assisting them getting up, dressed and out of bed. We do breakfasts too. You don’t realise that as you get older you need help with daily tasks and that’s what I’m there to do.
“It’s not a job where you come home and think: ‘Right, that’s done.’ You come home and you say to yourself: ‘I wonder how so and so is getting on.’
“I support a lady who’s over 100 and she’s an amazing person to talk to. You always learn from older people. It’s fascinating – they’re so much wiser than we are.”
Maisie puts herself in other people’s shoes to think about how they’d like to be treated. “I’d want my grandma and grandad to be treated nicely so in my job
I do things to the best of my abilities. Even if it’s just making a sandwich or a cup of tea, it’s always 100 per cent,” she says. “Always be kind, compassionate – and always bring a smile.
I think about how I’d want my grandma and grandad to be treated, so I always give 100 per cent to the elderly people I look after CARE WORKER MAISIE
UNDERSTANDING
“If you’re just thinking about going into social care, definitely do it! You need certain qualities, like understanding different people, but if, for example, you work in retail and you’re good with your customers you can take those skills to your social care job. Go for it – you won’t look back.”