Arlet Experienced Senior Care at Age 15
When Arlet Doggett was 15, she began making annual summer trips to Virginia, where her grandmother lived. Instead of leisurely soaking up the beautiful emerald countryside, Arlet served as one of her grandmother’s family caregivers and gained valuable experience for what has turned out to be an award-winning professional senior-care career.
“My grandmother had dementia, lost her sense of reality and eventually stopped talking,” said Arlet, referring to her grandmother’s primary progressive aphasia, a nervous system syndrome that affected her ability to communicate. Those with primary progressive aphasia have trouble expressing their thoughts and understanding or finding words. Symptoms begin gradually, often before age 65, and worsen over time.
So, it was no shock for Arlet when she later encountered patients or clients who struggled with aphasia or exhibited the behavioral challenges of dementia, including those involving Alzheimer’s disease. “I’ve been doing this kind of work for more than 30 years,” Arlet said. For the past 8½ years, Arlet has enjoyed a successful career with Home Instead® of Philadelphia. In July 2022, Home Instead General Manager Charlea Lyn Grieco announced Arlet had been honored as the franchise’s Care Professional of the Month.
When Arlet was asked if she recalls her teenage summer days in Virginia with her grandmother when she assists Home Instead clients, Arlet said, “The way for me to answer that is this: I treat my clients the same way I’d treat my mom or any other family member. I can’t help but get attached to my clients. That happens when you regularly provide care for someone. They are like your own parents. When you take care of people, they trust you. It is a personal thing. I enjoy working with seniors.”
It is clear that Arlet epitomizes Home Instead’s longtime motto, “To us, it’s personal.” She also embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.” She is someone who is exceptional at her work with any client.
Before joining Home Instead, Arlet dived into a variety of job experiences. Among those jobs, she was a registrar and scheduler at Northwestern Human Services for six years. Among her duties. Arlet interviewed clients and gathered data to help them receive mental health services and assistance with drug and alcohol abuse.
While at Mednet Healthcare System, Arlet undertook a nursing-home internship in which she administered prescribed oral medications under a doctor’s written directions and also changed bandages, checked residents’ vital signs, communicated with residents and applied preparations and treatments. In March 2014, Arlet earned an associate degree in medical billing and coding, establishing a 3.80 grade-point average at Fortis College-Centerville, an Ohio-based college.
With Home Instead, Arlet has two regular clients who live on the same floor a couple of doors apart in a care community, but they do not know each other.
One client’s dementia has reached a challenging stage, and she seldom is social. “I’ve had her as a client for only two weeks, and she doesn’t recognize me and asks me who I am. But she was accepting of my assistance from the beginning. She is repetitive with her questions and sometimes has trouble forming sentences. Since she is relatively mobile, I take her outside every other day,” Arlet said.
Arlet’s other regular client is a former teacher whose memory is “pretty good.” Arlet said: “She likes to watch Hallmark Channel movies. She loves the story lines where the guys fall in love with the girls. We enjoy those movies together. I haven’t been assisting her for all that long, so I have two relatively new regular clients. I recently had a client for about two years, but she moved. I cry every time I lose a client.”
Losing a client can be an emotional situation, but when Arlet weighs the fulfilling experiences alongside the difficult ones, she chooses her Home Instead position hands down. Positive vibes also have come in the relationships formed with clients’ family members. Referring to franchise owner Steve Levin’s office managers, Arlet said: “I enjoy working with our staff. They respect us Care Pros. They understand and care about us. Everything is not perfect, but, to me, it is excellent. I’ll be 60 this year. I definitely want to retire with Home Instead.”
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (215) 925-4610 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
