subject: A Real Caregiver's Perspective: How To Be an Outstanding Caregiver to Senior Citizens [print this page] A Real Caregiver's Perspective: How To Be an Outstanding Caregiver to Senior Citizens
Hello,
My name is Selena Brown and I am a caregiver for CarenetLA. I believe that in order to become a good caregiver, you must first understand how to love yourself. Now I say 'understand' because you can do lots of superficial things for others, but in order to leave your mark on someone's life, you must come with a love and passion for yourself, first and foremost.Then that love and passion spills over onto your senior citizen.
I have been given the opportunity to work with a number of senior citizens and I might add that they have all enriched my life in more than one way. If I am, personally, trying to understand an aspect of my life that has been clouded by uncertainty, my senior clients say just the right words to remove the fog without me ever saying a word. This goes to show that when you are tapped into yourself and what's going on, you are then able to feel, see, recognize the needs of your senior.
Many times I get senior clients who would like for me to come back and work with them repeatedly and that is because I isolate my time and the moments that we share. I give my senior clients the time that they need with me and all other things that are happening in my life is placed on the back burner. It is their time now and they deserve to have my full attention. I understand that all the senior citizens that I am called to work with by Carenetla, are different. Some may be having a bad day because of an illness, disease, or just some family hiccup, but that's when I become sensitive to those situations and balance what I say and do to accommodate those moments in time. There is something inside you that turns on and off, a skill that is not taught, but rather expressed. When you are on, then your senior, who has lived in this life for many years can tap into it. I have been told that I have an old soul and maybe that's so, but when I give of myself truthfully and step down off my box and onto their level, I feel and play out their story in my mind, body, and spirit. Then that is what creates an endless relationship worth revisiting.
So...I am no guru on how to be an outstanding caregiver to your senior citizens, but just an active voice, living in the moment with each of my senior clients. I relive their lives, their stories, their romances, their heartaches, and their rediscovery, to ultimately become a better human-being.
We live on connections, whether the connections between two individuals are joined by age similarities or not. If we love and understand ourselves, then we become transparent and allow them (senior clients) the opportunity to have the last word in the moment.
