Career Change Leads Shelia To Home Instead, Cornerstone Award
Shelia Graves jumped into professional caregiving with both feet after deciding to make a major career change. Shelia was working as a factory machine operator while striving toward her college degree. It was a fruitful journey that led to the transition into the health-care field, including senior care.
“I found Home Instead® of Jackson after I finished my Associate of Science degree in Health and Human Services. I wanted a job where I could help in the community while building a career in health care. Home Instead is the perfect work home to get me started,” said Shelia, who joined the award-winning Tennessee franchise owned by Bryson and Linda McQuiston on Feb. 2, 2022.
Shelia provides safety assurance, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and transportation and errands. She offers personal assistance with eating, grooming, dressing, bathing, incontinence care, cognitive impairment, hospice support and mobility. By expertly doing so, Shelia and her fellow Care Professionals not only assist their clients, but help their families eliminate worry, reduce stress and re-establish personal freedom.
In September 2022, Client and Care Professional Experience Manager Brooke Childers announced Shelia had been honored as one of the two Care Pro Cornerstone Award winners for the Home Instead franchise during the quarter. How did that happen in seven months’ time? Perhaps Shelia’s clients could immediately feel her compassion and empathy. Those are two of the characteristics that are evaluated when a Care Pro is considered for a Care Pro Cornerstone Award. Of course, there are others.
- Has the Care Pro gone above and beyond the call of duty?
- Does the Care Pro possess the skills and wisdom to be successful?
- Is the Care Pro exceptional at her work with any client?
- Does the Care Pro focus on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving? In other words, does the Care Pro work at getting better?
For Brooke, the answers were yes. When Brooke revealed Shelia had been honored as one of the Care Pro Cornerstone Award winners, Brooke indicated Shelia displays Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
Those qualities also were evident when Shelia served as a family caregiver during a critical juncture in her teenage years, “When I was 17, I helped my mother care for my bedridden grandmother after she suffered from several strokes and received a pacemaker,” Shelia said.
Shelia sees the positives in working for Home Instead as she begins her new career. “I love that the work environment is filled with patient and kind people. Home Instead takes the time needed to listen to its employees before the office staff members place judgment on challenging situations that arise,” Shelia said. “Putting a smile on a client’s face on the days that they feel they have nothing to smile for is always my favorite story.”
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (731) 984-7062 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
