~ Rave sent by Delphine ~
I love my clients. If I don’t care for them then who else will? It’s the satisfaction of making them smile because they don’t have anybody else to go in and help them. If I have to do a little extra, so be it.
I have a client who has cerebral palsy. It makes me see life in a different way, I try to look at what my client is going through. Just recently she had an operation. Her cerebral palsy has her walking on crutches, so her arms are kinda like her legs and she ended up having an operation where she couldn’t even drink water, use her arms.
Now she’s on the road to recovery.
After we left the doctor’s office she kinda looked at me and she goes “I didn’t really do nothing, you had to do everything for me” so it made me feel good when she said that, she acknowledged the little things I do, she said “you don’t know how much of a help that is”.
I really appreciated that… knowing that you are helping someone, I love moments like those.
After the pandemic , people were limited to visiting others’ homes, they were scared… It’s frustrating because you know that sometimes you might be the only person in and out of the client’s household. You kinda want to do a little bit of everything so that not only is the client situated during the time that you’re there, but when you leave. If they want water, how do they get it?
I have this one client who is quadriplegic, he can only move his arm. So I feed him. I worry about how he gets water when I leave. The state doesn’t allow me to go in for breakfast lunch and dinner, it’s frustrating they know folks need this time. It’s not for leisure, it’s literally for chores. Everything takes time.
I would just want it so that each and every client had enough time for meal prep and laundry. You know you’re only there for x amount of time.
I would like to have time to talk and hear what’s going on in their lives. Sometimes they want to talk to me and I always apologize to them “oh I can’t sit here and talk..but we can talk while I do this”.
– Delphine, Caregiver for 30 years