If you or a member of your family is elderly, living with dementia or Alzheimer’s and needing a little more help around the house with everyday tasks, you may have started to look at the options available to you and ways in which your needs can be best supported.
You may have decided that a care home or nursing home isn’t for you and that you would rather remain in the comfort of your own home and have a professional, qualified carer come to visit you, at a time that suits you, on a regular basis. When interviewing and meeting potential carers, companies such as Guardian Carers work hard to match you with a suitable professional. Once they have found a few matches, they set up face to face interviews and meetings with a member of their team, the potential carer and yourself.
The ideal qualities of a carer are personality traits which will ensure that the care they provide for you is suitable.
Compassion
Above all, it is an absolute must that a carer is compassionate, caring and kind (and a sunny disposition helps!) Showing concern for people around them and being sympathetic towards your needs helps them to provide the best care, making you comfortable in your own home. In addition, being empathetic helps a carer to better understand your needs in being able to understand and interpret your feelings and requests.
Listening
In many situations, this is simply as a result of being a good listener which, in turn, is helped by an ability to put people at ease, make them feel socially comfortable and make conversation in order to get to know someone better. Much of the work of a carer, alongside the practical aspects of the job, involves providing much-needed company to clients who may be unable to get out as much as they used to.
Multi-Tasking
An ability to multi task is a must - working whilst chatting to the client, juggling household chores and making the best use of the time available to you in order to get your client's work done in an accurate and timely manner.
Other Key Traits
Other traits exhibited by the best carers include good time keeping and a generally professional attitude in their approach to their work whilst being able to think on their feet in case of an emergency or something untoward happening.
Being generally thoughtful and considerate to others means that clients feel cared for and an open personality ensures that they feel comfortable in their own home. It is important to remember that if you are having someone in to care for you in your own home you want to continue to feel entirely comfortable in your own environment. The client has, essentially, invited someone into their life and thus a sense of comfort and familiarity is absolutely essential.