I love my job!

Since starting my current job in May it has well and truly opened my eyes to so many things. I've always had a 'caring nature' and I guess I always knew that i'd eventually work in care. Even now I can't believe that I even got the job, I was so so nervous and had zero experience with caring for elderly people. Thankfully they must have seen that I had potential of some sort and I truly am forever grateful that i've been given this opportunity. 

I currently work for a large American based care company that provided elderly people with an outstanding level of care. It's seen as the best that money can buy and lets just say that it's far from cheap, the building itself is so impressive, even now I look around and think just how lovely it is. 

I started working upstairs with people who required minimal assistance and although I thought it was lovely, it wasn't quite right for me. After five weeks I was asked if I wanted to try working downstairs on 'Reminiscence', a secure unit for elderly people suffering with dementia and other mental health issues . I reluctantly agreed and admittedly was so scared and anxious to be there, I'd never had any experience with mental health and even the thought of it scared the life out of me. 

My first day downstairs was a blur of challenging personal care, strong characters and a somewhat fear of never knowing what someone was going to say to me. That was the day that I completely fell in love with the place. I knew within an hour of being down there that I was there for good and that I was only going to love the place even more. 

Skip seven months and I still love it as much as ever. I'm extremely lucky to work with such an amazing bunch of people and people that I know for a fact will be friends for life. I've met some of my best friends there and as a whole we're more of a family than friends (that includes my lovely residents!) I try and convince myself sometimes that I'm not totally in love with the place, but I am, I really am. I've developed such an amazing understanding of dementia and have experienced first hand not only what it does to sufferers of the illness but to their families that still desperately cling on to the person that they used to be. It's such a cruel disease and it's heartbreaking to witness someone forget every aspect of the life that they once used to know and love. It's hard not to get incredibly attached to some residents and you can't help but feel like you have lots of lovely adopted grandmothers and grandad's. It is such a rewarding job and I feel so blessed to become a part of the their lives, a life in which you are such a big part of, due to them not being able to remember their once most precious of family members. Even though i'm hoping to go to University to study nursing this year, I will forever be truly grateful and honoured to have been given the opportunity to become a part of my residents lives and to have met such amazing friends along the way! 

Lucy 

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