For those of us not working on the front line in aged care, it can be hard to imagine what a care worker does on a day-to-day basis. What are the challenges they face, the joys they experience and the sadnesses and frustrations that often come with the job? We asked our readers to share their experiences to provide some insight into what it really means to be an aged care worker.
In response, our readers provided answers that are as varied as they are revealing. Many expressed deep concern and genuine affection for those they care for. They spoke of the moments that bonded them, and the tears they have shed over family neglect. Others vented their frustrations about never having enough time and a lack of resources. A thread of humour runs through the responses, and a philosophical bent that helps the carers get through the dark days.
Friendship was a common theme in the stories we heard. Carers do more than just the day-to-day tasks. They often develop strong bonds with both those they care for, and for their families. Carers are often extremely dedicated to those they care for, people who can be socially isolated so that it is the carer who provides much needed company and emotional support.
As one carer shared:
“As an aged care worker, I provide support to your family member in many different ways. I will help them get up, have a shower and get dressed. I will make them breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with doing a light clean and food shopping, all within an hour.
“I do this multiple times a day.
“Other days, I will spend time making sure your family member’s house is clean and tidy.
“I work every public holiday. I give up most of my free time, just to ensure my clients are well looked after, happy and healthy.
“I’ve made days easier on the families by coming to provide a high level of care. I help them through some of their final days of life, along with supporting the family when they need it.
“Most of all though, I am not just their support worker, I’m their friend. Sometimes we, as workers, are the only social connections they get, and they desperately need our friendship.”
Another wrote that those they care for can become like family.
“Some keep us at arm’s length, but others count us as family,” she said. “We are there when they feel frustrated and angry, and we are there to laugh and joke with them as we have empathy, not pity. We love them all.”
One wonderful carer engaged her clients in a range of ways, but mainly enjoyed listening to the fascinating stories of their lives. She helped one man track down his family in Europe.
“We play games, do crosswords, listen to amazing stories. Facilities have people who do activities, but sometimes to be able to just sit one-on-one and listen to their story,” she said.
“One guy was in the war. His whole family was taken. He was taken as a worker for the Germans, and after years was freed and shipped to Australia.
“We finally tracked a sister down in Lithuania and he was able to write to her and exchanged photos. He bought Lotto every week. He just wanted to go home to die.”
For many, Christmas Day is a special time that brings carers closer to those they care for, but it can also be deeply saddening when a family neglects their elderly relative during the festive season.
“I once worked on Christmas Day,” one carer wrote. “It was the heaviest and most emotionally draining shift I’ve ever experienced. I went home in the afternoon and cried my eyes out. Some residents hadn’t ever seen their family for 10 or more years. I was broken that day.”
Another responded of her own experiences of working during the festive season.
“I used to love working Christmas day. Some don’t have family, some have family but never see them. We are their family.
“I used to wear flashing antlers on my head, anything to brighten the day up.
“I’m in the community now and it’s no different when it comes to family. Some never see them.”
Aggressive headlines and negative media coverage can be disheartening.
“It has been mentally and physically exhausting, but we keep going with a smile, even when we ourselves are hurting. We receive no thanks and we get such a bad wrap in the media.
“It is heartbreaking to be in a job when you give everything you can to everyone and the media make aged care workers out to be horrible people to the residents when we are all there doing our best.”
Lockdown, not surprisingly, is presenting serious challenges to aged care workers.
“We’ve just gone through two weeks of total lockdown! The worst two weeks ever,” one carer wrote.
Another wrote, “Their faces light up when you come, especially now with COVID-19, some haven’t been out for so long.”
Some told of harrowing experiences at work and tragic stories of neglect arising from staff shortages.
“In the last hour of a night shift I saw a co-worker standing in a doorway panicked and shaking. I went to see if she was alright to find the resident had had a fall. The amount of blood was a shock to both of us.”
This is the stark reality of life on the front line in aged care.
One carer wrote she is rushed off her feet with two carers responsible for 15 residents living with dementia. Residents are often neglected, she wrote. “Residents are left covered in faeces for days, eating sachets of jam and honey due to being hungry and ignored,” she wrote.
“That’s the way this industry is headed now, there is simply not enough staff for the complexity of resident’s care needs.”
Our readers will be well aware of the challenges of working in aged care. A philosophical leaning helps some get by.
“Some days are diamonds and some days are stone,” one carer wrote.
“I have worked in residential aged care and I understand the various challenges that come with watching a person’s mental and physical health decline,” another wrote. “But I feel privileged to be part of their journey.”
* Names have been withheld to protect the identities of the carers who shared their stories with HelloCare.
