Meet our team: Louise, Home Care Worker at St Louis Home Care
“It felt like a beautiful opportunity to be able to express caring, kindness and compassion.”
Why did you choose to work in home care?
“I needed to re-enter the workforce and I knew this was an industry that actively employed older people. My mother is over 90 and I thought that the skills I would gain both from undertaking the courses and working in the industry would be extremely beneficial to helping me care for my mother, both now and in the future. I also liked that the hours would be flexible and that I could work around my mother’s appointments and my own interests.
This industry revolves around caring for people and having respect for the lives of others. It felt like a beautiful opportunity to be able to express caring, kindness and compassion.”
How did you get your qualifications?
“I can highly recommend TAFE SA Victor Harbor Campus for those considering study in the area of Individual Support. I was actually quite nervous about the whole ‘return to study’ as my last formal education had been many years prior. However, once the study units commenced, I found the whole experience excellent.
The teaching staff at TAFE were just amazing, really lovely people and thoroughly dedicated to inspiring their students to understand the concepts and knowledge they were trying to impart, and passionate about the care of the elderly within the community. There are online study components, online assessments and practical assessments, which are both on campus and with a care organisation, for most units. I recently completed all necessary components for my Certificate III in Individual Support - Home and Community Care, and I am now working to complete my Certificate III in Individual Support - Aged Care.
Returning to study was a really lovely journey for me in 2020. I chose to undertake the course part time and spread my study units throughout the year. I met many wonderful people who were also studying, and the staff at TAFE Victor Harbor were very kind of heart, encouraging and highly proficient. We were all on campus for our units pre-COVID and then study move to an online platform for the most part, so it was quite an interesting journey.
I felt extremely grateful to be able to do a training placement with St Louis Home Care where I had ‘buddy’ shifts with other care workers, both in homes within the community and with St Louis On Sea, and from there I was offered employment with St Louis, which I happily accepted. Everyone without exception that I have had the pleasure to speak or work with at St Louis Home Care has been friendly, caring and supportive. I had no hesitation in accepting employment as I was very impressed with the commitment and caring that I had seen demonstrated by St Louis staff during my initial introduction to the company.”
What is rewarding about working at St Louis and in the aged care industry?
“I am very new to the actual Aged Care Industry as I have come from an office administration background rather than a nursing background. From the learning that I undertook last year, and from my experiences with St Louis thus far, I can see that you have the opportunity to infuse thoughtfulness and caring into all of your tasks and actions, and that what you do for those you are caring for, and how you choose to do it, impacts so greatly on the lives of others.
You really have the opportunity to make someone’s day a great deal brighter, and to bring positivity and joy into the lives of another person. This is just by helping them with a task that perhaps was very easy for them to do themselves at one point in their lives, but now presents a challenge to them.”
How has your career varied in aged care?
“I am very fortunate to be working both in Home and Community Care, and at St Louis On Sea, so I am both meeting people within their home environment and helping to provide various in-home services, from personal care, transport, meal preparation, social support and others, to providing support for respite at St Louis On Sea.”
How does a home care role vary – what happens in normal day?
“Initially it felt a little overwhelming, as everything is new, from using Google Maps to locate the homes; reading the support plans for the individual concerned; remembering to use the phone App for registering your start and finish times for each visit; working constructively within the time frame of each visit; remembering to write in the blue St Louis Home Care folder at the end of your service; and getting a sense of the person you are helping - how they like things done and how you can best help them.
After a very short time however, the magic starts to happen as you develop rapport with your client, and you do your best to help and to make their day a little brighter. So far I have assisted people with transportation, shopping, personal care, ironing, cleaning, meal preparation, medication prompts and social support, and I have found it all very rewarding. The variation in the tasks definitely keeps the work interesting.”
Interested in a career as a care worker? Call St Louis Home Care today
Contact us to find out more about a career in aged care. Call St Louis Home Care in Adelaide on 8332 0950 and St Louis Home Care in Victor Harbor on 8552 1481 to find out about current positions available and to talk to us about a career in home care.
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