The novel coronavirus has put the vital role played by Britain’s care workers in the spotlight like never before, and also changed the nature of the job they do.
The Thursday night Clap for the National Health Service turned into Clap for our Carers as the public began to acknowledge and appreciate the key role care workers play in the lives of thousands of families all across the country.
Extra Hands has been supplying award-winning care across East Anglia for more than 25 years. Its Heacham office has been rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, and in addition to a wide range of tailored user services, was the first service provider in Norfolk to offer a wellbeing check service. The current situation has seen the role of its carers take in more duties than ever before.
Recently, three staff members – Anne Brady, Caroline Simpson and Doreen Taylor – each clocked up their 15 year anniversary with the company. A lot has changed in that time, but rarely can it have changed quite so much and so fast as this year.
“We do a lot more extra jobs now rather than just personal care,” said Anne, 64, who worked in a tax office and a book company before finding her vocation in the care sector. “I’ve taken people out for social trips, shopping, things like that. Providing care isn’t just about personal care, we’re there to give them a sense of wellbeing and to feel included and involved in society a lot more.”
When she is not attending to clients at work, grandmother Anne also takes care of her own elderly mother. She said that as well as changing the nature of her job, the current situation had also changed people’s perceptions of it, for the better.
“The role of the care work is a bit more out there now than it used to be,” she said. “People realise the variety of jobs we have to do in the profession.”
Doreen also took a winding road to her job in the care sector, having worked as a chef at the University of East Anglia before having to retire on health grounds.
She said the job had changed, and demand for services had grown, but the way staff are trained at Extra Hands meant they could take it in their stride.
“There’s definitely more call for our services now, and it does make me laugh how many of them say ‘I don’t want to go in a home, it’s full of old people’”, she joked.
“There are more things that we have to do for the service users now, and I think people are starting to realise how much the job entails. But what makes it easier here is the way we’re trained. It’s a good company to be part of. I don’t just feel valued by the people I go out to visit, I feel valued by the people I work for as well. I don’t think I’d have stayed so long with another company as I have stayed here.”
Caroline, 62, has been a service organiser for the last five years, having previously spent 10 years as a care visitor. This means she has had even more chance to see how the demands of the job has changed, but also, crucially, what has remained the same.
“It’s still all geared around the clients, though, and allowing them to stay in their homes as much as possible,” she said. “It’s not all out of one box any more, they don’t all receive the same care, it’s very personal to teach care user.
“Demands really vary, but whatever they need, Extra Hands can deliver it, even if it’s just calling us to have a chat because they’re lonely. If that’s the type of care they want, that’s the care we will provide.”
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