TEN QUALITIES FOR A CARER:

I was allotted a variety of clients through Home Care. Most were quite aged and relatively well off financially. They lived in one story neat brick and tile cottages or two story homes with scores of steps and patios and pretty views of the river. All of my clients were women. Some were surly and finicky, some were lonely and spoke incessantly and made cakes,scones and cups of tea, a couple were on the scary side, staring constantly at the midday television serials and muttering angrily to themselves.

It was also around that time that the Redfern Report was issued and myriads of mentally ill people were allowed out of hospitals to go live at home and self-medicate. Everywhere carers worked in pairs for personal safety reasons but I knew not what the hubbub was, I just kept on happily cleaning for money.

During this stage I slowly began to develop two strong hands, however it took six hard years of running a guesthouse to achieve full strength. I now realize that during these years of self learning and little training to do the physical skills necessary for cleaning a house properly, at least to the client's satisfaction and years of waiting on a multitude of differing types of people with a multitude of differing needs, that to actually start to developas a carer, a caring attitude is the most important single attribute one should have.

One of my frequent visitors to our guesthouse in the ninety's once told me that the reason our food was so good was simply because it was made with "love". I didn't have the heart to tell her that I really didn't make it, the chef did and he was somewhat of a cold fish. However, I did serve it with love. Not only that I served it with a smile and an actual interest in how they enjoyed it, if they enjoyed it and a query as to how it could be better served. Furthermore when this couple came to stay on weekends, which was often, they were given their own special room that they called "our room", were attended to courteously and with respect. We really cared for this couple, we liked them and they became friends.

Of course there was always the couple from hell that we didn't really like and didn't become our friends. Still we cared for them with courtesy and respect and a smile...well, more like a grimace actually!

The point is when you take on caring you must have two strong hands, these are the basis of caring. You must actually "care" for the client's wellbeing. All the training and courses in the world will not make a great carer if care is missing from the equation. This is one reason why most mothers of disabled children or spouses make such wonderful carers. Their level of caring is sky high. Just because your client is a relative stranger should not make the level of care any less than it would for your child.

 Along with these two strong hands come the ten strong fingers. These fingers represent pertinent attributes that produce successful caring carers. The ten fingers are:

• Reliability and loyalty

• Humour and open-mindedness

• Intelligence and commonsense

• Sociability and communicability

• Integrity and sense of privacy

• Empathy and compassion

• Humility and graciousness

• Flexibility and adaptability

• Prowess - courage

• Prowess - ability

From the book "Strong Hands, Gentle Heart" by Toni Cary
Available through www.aspirepublishing.com.au