I’m John Beveridge. I’ve been working as a caregiver for more than 9 years. I’ll be sharing with you a few of my stories.
A caregiver or carer is an unpaid or paid member of a person’s social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Care giving is a career to address impairments related to old age, disability, a disease, or a mental disorder.
Essential Skills of a Caregiver
- compassion
- communication
- observation
- interpersonal skills
- time management
- organisation
- cleanliness
- patience
- flexibility
- initiative
Why caregivers need a break sometimes?
Performance and motivation decrease when you engage in doing the same tasks for too long without breaks. Caregivers need to take breaks to rest and recover. During this time of rest, caregivers will gain a fresh perspective and develop better ways of caring for their patients.
As a Caregiver: My Challenging and Most Rewarding Experiences
My book “The Twilight Years” relates many of my adventures as a Caregiver. The most challenging was when I was looking after a man with Vascular Dementia and he took off and caught a tram to the city – with me in hot pursuit. Neither of us bought tickets His wife had gone to the Museum so he decided to follow. Thankfully it all ended ok. He couldn’t find her so we came home again.
The most rewarding occurred was when I was looking after a severely disabled man. We were out and on the way home and he said he wanted to buy a new wallet. It was too late so I said we could do it another time. A month later we were at a shopping centre and I remembered it (he had forgotten) When I raised the matter and we went and bought it he was so grateful and overwhelmed that he had tears in his eyes. It was a small thing to me but a very important thing for him and I was so pleased that I could help him. His reaction left a lump in my throat.
Care giving both rewarding, and challenging. It’s an important role in our society that deserves to be given more attention and recognition.
Caregiver at Home Instead Senior Care: Published author: Copywriter & creative.
