A day in the Life of a Right at Home CareGiver

Right at Home Derby provides individualised homecare by allocating locally recruited CareGivers to support people live independent lives. Amongst Right at Home's Making it Real priorities is a commitment to allow people to have choice and control and enable councils to access their local community. A CareGivers knowledge of the locality and what it has to offer helps with these aims and allows clients to get involved and enjoy their community as quickly as possible.

The mornings are always the busiest as we help clients with their morning care routines. The good news is I don't have any short 15 minute calls to do so I can spend some of the time on the personalised care of my clients whilst avoiding most of the traffic. I know most people take a while to wake up and get moving in the morning, for this reason being able to spend at least an hour with them makes a massive difference.

After a couple of morning calls I will then go to see some of my regular clients. These could be longer calls as we help to support them in achieving the outcomes that are important to them.

Typical activities of a Right at Home CareGiver include :

• Helping Ben with his voluntary work at the stables. Helping him to understand teamwork, rules and regulations as well as gain his stableyard qualifications. This will help to get him into paid work in the future.
• Lunch with Megan at Singing for the Brain. This is run at my local church I introduced Megan to help her connect with other people in the area It is recognised that music is a great proactive tool for helping with memory and she loves attending the group.
• The right nutrition is another factor that can help proactively to delay future ailments and conditions. Using my nutrition training I help Gino with his diet planning and then support him to make his own meal at night. This takes a little longer than a microwave meal but the sense of achievement he gains from doing his own meal is worth the extra time.
• Clara is in a residential home and doesn't get much external stimulation. A couple of times per week I take her out into the community where she used to live. We often bump into some of her old friends who she has lost contact with. She likes to invite them round to her "hotel" for afternoon tea.
• Maria's family live away and can't always get home to see Mum. To help, we organise for Maria to take the train to where her family live in Edinburgh and London. The train tickets are pre-bought and I take her to the station where we have developed a good relationship with the conductors. They let me onto the station and train to make sure that she is safely seated in the right place (they tell me they check on her during the trip which is nice). The family are informed of her coach/seat number and meet her at the other end. I know when I pick her up that she has really enjoyed spending time with her family.

As I live in the community in which I work, I am always on the look-out for new services that will help the people I support. I filter the information back to the office and it is discussed with the customer during one of their regular person centred reviews.

I get the flexibility to work the hours that fit in with my kid's school and activities but more importantly the satisfaction of knowing that I am making a difference every day. It makes me happy when I see one of my clients out and about on their own without needing my help and support anymore.