First Carer In…First Impressions and Setting the Standard

Our lives are constantly evolving and with this progression come changes to our mental and physical capacities. We think we can but we can’t and looking for help is a daunting emotional rollercoaster that is often steeped in subconscious trauma of shame and despair. Transitioning and accepting the decline is difficult for everyone and even though enlisting the help of a carer should be an advantageous move it is more than often met with resistance and anger. 

As a carer being introduced for the first time, our role is crucial in paving the way forward for an enjoyable, and equitable undertaking. 

Basic training prepares us for what is expected physically and experience in the industry opens up options to be creative and organized when putting together a care package – a thoughtful combination of services designed to meet a person’s assessed needs as part of a care plan.

These may include but are not limited to help with cleaning and shopping, sourcing disability equipment and home adaptations, assistance with personal care and cooking, researching community and support groups in the area, PA services and general housekeeping. 

It certainly pays to have in-depth knowledge of how systems work but at the same time ease into the situation without being self-absorbed and prone to grandiosity.

Helping our clients adapt to the change is on us. There are many nuances to meaningful connection but what sets a conscious carer apart from her peers is the humility of her own evolutionary process. 

Care work is all too often about the commands, the controls and the directives because we feel comfortable in ‘the knowing.’ But really the precious jewel of being with a client is to understand that they have much to teach us…

Even though our focus is on doing they indirectly show us how to slow down and embrace the wisdom of being.  We are reminded that both elements are beneficial in our care work –

the doing and the being,  the behaviour and the awareness behind it, and the action and the insight behind it – this is where consciousness arises… 

Our clients won’t necessarily recall the specific actions or the words exchanged in generous conversations but they will remember if they were listened to, included, seen, and made to feel worthy.

Unburdened by how things will turn out, a conscious carer releases any goal-laden expectations and engages wholeheartedly with her client by entering into a genuine present-moment interaction that may influence the decision to include an outside carer into the mix of a vulnerable family unit.