Today we bring you Siobhan O’Connor, one of the four finalists in our Carer of the Year competition.
Siobhan has been working with Comfort Keepers as a home carer for two years. Previous to that, she worked as a private home carer for ten years. Siobhan has seven clients at present, seeing a couple of them each of the five days she works and seeing others twice or three times a week. She sees four clients each day.
What’s Wonderful About Home Care?
When I asked Siobhan what she enjoyed most about her work, she just sighed happily and said “I love it”. She enjoys meeting older people, feels it is a privilege to see them each day, loves seeing them relaxed and happy in their own homes. She really enjoys listening to their stories, feeling part of their day and their lives. Siobhan said that the hour she spends with them passes as fast for her as it does for the client.
She also enjoys that each day is different, it brings new stories, new experiences and new challenges. She appreciated being acknowledged for her work, that it is a wonderful feeling to be rewarded and acknowledged for the job you love doing but the real reward is the smile on her clients’ faces when she walks in the door.
I asked Siobhan what would she say to someone considering caring as a career. Kindness and empathy are a must, of course, and Siobhan also mentioned that being intuitive is extremely important. There are times, for example, when a person may not want touch, may not want their hand being held or a hand placed on their shoulder and there are times when something will have happened, something that might be very small, but it will have affected the person and they will welcome a comforting hand on their arm as they are talking. And of course, having dignity for one’s client is essential when helping them with personal care.
Siobhan had a final word for me as I finished the interview, she wished to emphasise the great support provided by the Comfort Keepers supervisors and office staff. Carers can ring the office with any question, queries or concerns are never dismissed and are also carefully considered and looked into. She enjoys the cameraderie provided by the offices and attends the coffee mornings and other outings arranged for the home carers.
We’d like to congratulate Siobhan once again on reaching the finals in our Carer of the Year competition.
Home Care Vacancies
If you would like to train and work as a home carer and you feel you have the attributes of being caring,kind, intuitive, sensitive, punctual, reliable and perhaps with previous experience of caring, do have a look at our Vacancies page.
