A home carer’s job
In this activity you explore what it’s like to be a home care worker and a user of home care services. You will observe visits by home care workers to four clients of the Cardiff-based agency, Somebody Cares.
Activity 2 The home carer’s job
Allow about 1 hour
Somebody Cares provided personal care, domestic help and support with the activities of daily life such as shopping. Since these videos were made, Somebody Cares was sold on to another company and then was shut down when the company reorganised
In this activity, think about the following questions.
- What does the home carer’s job involve?
- What skills does it take to do the job and manage relationships?
Task 1 Getting to know the case study
Start by familiarising yourself with the Somebody Cares case study in Video 1. Watch the whole case study right through, so that you get to know the people involved, including their different:
- care needs
- forms of support provided
- domestic situations.
Now that you have viewed the whole case study, it’s time to focus in more closely.
Task 2 Focusing in on the job of home carer
Revisit each of the four cases in the video.
As you watch each one, ask yourself the following questions:
- What work does the home carer do for the client?
- What practical skills do they need?
- How would you describe their attitude to the job?
Use the text boxes below each video to record your answers. While you are working on a case, use the menu at the bottom of the screen to pause the video. You will probably need to watch each case through more than once.
Discussion
Here are our thoughts. Again, don’t worry if they are different from yours.
Table 2
| Elvis and Kevin with Brian | Liz with Clarice | Elvis with Aerwyn | Maria with Lyn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What work do they do for the client? | Move Brian with hoist, wash and dress him, prepare breakfast | Make bed, help wash and dress, bath twice a week, shopping | Accompany Aerwyn to computer class and snooker | Accompany Lyn and help with shopping as directed |
| What practical skills do they need? | Use hoist, help Brian to feel safe as they wash him, basic cooking, health and safety knowledge | Domestic skills, social skills | Social skills, keeping Aerwyn company, supporting him without taking over | Mainly social skills |
| How would you describe their attitude to the job? | Very professional, but also friendly, see themselves as supporting June’s carer role, with defined roles and responsibilities | Ready to be flexible and friendly, but also very professional and clear about boundary between work and friendship | Ready to be flexible (e.g. abandons uniform at Aerwyn’s request), but clear about boundary between work and friendship | Maria carefully follows Lyn’s instructions, they have a cup of coffee together, but both know it is a working relationship |
OpenLearn - Social care in the community
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.