{"id":4899,"date":"2022-05-10T10:55:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T10:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crossroadscarerk.org\/?p=4899"},"modified":"2023-02-02T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T09:37:01","slug":"what-does-it-take-to-be-a-care-support-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-care-support-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does it Take to be a Care Support Worker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark Dementia Action Week, Fiona Mitchell talks to one of Crossroads Care\u2019s longest serving members of staff, Gaye Goulding, about her 16 years with the charity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"‘Before I had my children 30 years ago, I worked in a bank,’ says Gaye. ‘Sometimes when my boss had time off, he\u2019d return and joke \u201cwho have you given an overdraft to this time then?\u201d I\u2019ve always been motivated by kindness.<\/p>\n

\u2018Needing flexible working hours to fit in around caring for my children, I went into care work, and it was here that I found my calling \u2013 caring for older people. I was in awe of their wisdom and strength, and became absorbed in their wonderful, varied lifetime stories.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m now the Adult Senior and Caring Caf\u00e9 Lead \u2014 a friendly meeting place for Carers and those living with dementia. My role at the Caf\u00e9 involves planning and overseeing everything \u2013 setting up the room and arranging entertainment such as quizzes. I might be making sure a musician has all that she needs to give a great performance or, as the resident flower arranger, I\u2019ll be setting out blooms for everyone to turn into arrangements which they\u2019ll ultimately take home. I\u2019m fortunate to have a great team of staff and volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve had a long career in the caring profession, but the longest job I\u2019ve had by far is for Crossroads Care. I get real satisfaction from what I do, knowing the difference we make to people\u2019s lives. The team are like family, and we strive to provide high-quality services that meet local need.<\/p>\n

\u2018A typical day in the life of a Care Support Worker is varied. No two people have the same care needs, so you might be sitting and reminiscing with a person living with dementia, or making lunch and putting a wash on. We also assist with personal care needs. Giving someone dignity and privacy is such an important part of our role.<\/p>\n

\u2018Care work centres around building human connections and making a difference. Nursing didn\u2019t appeal to me as I wanted more family contact. At Crossroads, we look after the whole family, not just with older people but also children and young people with health and social care conditions.<\/p>\n

\u2018The most important quality a Care Support Worker needs is patience, to step back and look at what\u2019s happening for the Carer and the person they care for. To give them time and a listening ear is so valuable and rewarding.\u2019<\/p>\n

To find out more about becoming a Care Support Worker with Crossroads Care, visit: https:\/\/www.crossroadscarerk.org\/join-us\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark Dementia Action Week, Fiona Mitchell talks to one of Crossroads Care\u2019s longest serving members of staff, Gaye Goulding, about her 16 years with the charity. ‘Before I had my children 30 years ago, I worked in a bank,’ says Gaye. ‘Sometimes when my boss had time off, he\u2019d return and joke \u201cwho have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88901,"featured_media":5315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossroadscarerk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}