Jennifer Moved Smoothly From Family Caregiving to Home Instead
Jennifer Clarke’s sister was 100 percent certain Jennifer would be a great Home Instead® CAREGiver. Sisters tend to be very affirming, but she had seen Jennifer compassionately and skillfully navigate the treacherous family caregiving waters for a long time. In November 2019, when Jennifer was job-hunting, her sister said, “Jennifer, why don’t you join me as a Home Instead CAREGiver? They are a good employer.”
Jennifer had plenty of résumé information for Home Instead. Jennifer, her mother, an uncle and an aunt had tag-teamed the 24/7 care for Jennifer’s grandmother until she died of cancer eight years ago. “At the end,” Jennifer recalled, “Grandma thought I was her daughter.” Much earlier, Jennifer had gotten her first glimpse of dementia care before her grandfather died in 1995.
There was more.
Before Jennifer joined Home Instead of Lorain County, in North Ridgeville, Ohio, she had helped her fiancé’s father. Wheelchair-bound, he was on dialysis twice a week for three hours at a time before he died two years ago. Sadly, the mother of Jennifer’s fiancé died a year ago. In the midst of those care situations, Jennifer also helped a neighbor.
With Home Instead, Jennifer’s dementia-care experience has been put to good use. She said, “I mostly work with dementia clients and am comfortable with the challenges.” Early in her Home Instead tenure, Jennifer assisted a dementia client and her husband for about a year before the client went to a memory-care facility.
The client, in her late 50s, had been diagnosed with early onset dementia. She had good mobility and was prone to wandering, including impromptu and stealth across-the-street trips to see a neighbor. “Her husband stayed up most of the night to keep an eye on her. He slept during the day when I was there. One of my care-plan goals was to walk her around the neighborhood, sometimes twice a day, to expend her energy. I updated the husband on what we did before I’d leave for the day,” Jennifer recalled.
“The client saw me in a positive light. Much of her diet had consisted of donuts and coffee before I got there. So, I fixed her nutritional meals. Her husband was happy because his wife’s weight was starting to come up. It was a valiant effort to keep her at home. But, in the end, the constant wandering was too much.”
With Jennifer’s current client, a retired nurse in her late 60s, Jennifer has been a major asset for the past six months. But she’s also been a big help for the client’s husband. “I encourage him to go out to take a break because he’s there in the home the entire time. He tries to help me with his wife when circumstances call for it,” Jennifer said. “He cooks meals, and her daughter does that too. She works in a hospital.”
The client is house-bound with mobility challenges, and a physical therapist comes to the home once a week. On the other days, Jennifer helps her client with the physical therapist’s recommended exercises. “She can be resistant to exercising, but it does help her. She needs assistance and can’t use a walker, so I become her ‘walker’ because she can hold onto me. Her mobility is affected by dementia, and she can get confused. On days when she’s on top of things, she is good. She calls me ‘Christa,’ which is OK because she thinks of me as a friend.”
Jennifer has exceeded expectations. The client’s family agreed with the Home Instead staff members after they said, “We have the perfect CAREGiver for you.”
Jennifer has been honored as a CAREGiver of the Month for the award-winning Home Instead franchise owned by Karin Kollar, RN, BSN. Among her many positives, the office staff pointed out Jennifer has been consistent and always shows up for her shifts. Jennifer pointed out: “I’ve never called off a shift if it was safely possible to make it. Two exceptions were snowstorm events where hardly anyone could get out.”
Praising Home Instead, she added: “Home Instead is good. You are not micro-managed. The client or her family tells me what needs to be done, and I do it. Home Instead hires people who use their good judgment and wisdom to make common-sense decisions when challenges suddenly arise. I have received good matches with clients. What’s not to like?”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (440) 353-3080 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
