While Helping Her Clients, Amy Also Comforts, Advises Family Members
While CAREGiver of the Month Amy Linville skillfully and compassionately helps her award-winning Home Instead® franchise’s clients, she also lends an empathetic ear to her clients’ family members. If they need advice, Amy is willing to share her wisdom because she knows the challenging road many family members face. “I saw what my mother went through with dementia, and I know what to expect. I am all for making it easier for everyone,” Amy said.
Amy recalled speaking one day with a client’s daughter about her father’s dementia. “Sometimes people don’t realize how dementia affects their loved ones, especially if they are not with them every day. For instance, on the extreme end of my mother’s dementia behavior, she might slap at me if I took her to the bathroom. It was just one of those things she did out of frustration, and you had to be aware that it might happen. I had to put my mother in a memory care unit for seven days to get her meds regulated. When we got her, she was so wonderful,” Amy said.
“I told the client’s daughter we need to keep our eyes on many things, including her dad’s behaviors, safety for both of her parents and medication administration. We can’t be afraid to consult the client’s doctors and medical professionals,” Amy said.
Amy has served as a CAREGiver for Home Instead of Mount Airy, owned by Van and Ann Lankford, since October 2020, and Amy was honored as the franchise’s CAREGiver of the Month for March. Amy is a highly experienced senior-care specialist who took CNA classes in 2004 and worked for a home-care company for four years before her service was interrupted by a series of family-caregiving episodes that involved lengthy and challenging situations.
Amy never shied from any of her family-caregiving challenges, and each situation helped her build on her senior-care knowledge, wisdom and skills because she worked hand-in-hand with her senior loved ones’ medical professionals and managed many serious conditions.
“My mother-in-law suffered a massive stroke, and I quit my job and stayed with her for more than a year, in 2010. She had a rough go of it and passed away. It was the Lord’s blessing because she was suffering from a number of challenges, including several painful maladies,” Amy said. “I remember when my mother’s condition worsened. She had Alzheimer’s, and I didn’t know how bad her cognition had gotten. I spent 18 months with Mom before she died in August 2019. We were able to keep her at home most of the time. It was really difficult and included 24/7 family care. For instance, my oldest daughter, 31, stayed with her at night.”
Among Amy’s caregiving observations:
- “Dementia is humiliating for the people who have it. There can be moments of clarity when they feel embarrassed by something. A CAREGiver always reassures and low-keys or minimizes the difficult moments. You must have ample amounts of grace.”
- “There is nothing a client can say that will offend me. And, if he or she says something that goes against logic or otherwise is totally wrong, I go with it. Just as with any person who suffers from dementia, I don’t argue. Go with the flow.”
- “Refocusing is a key. Changing the subject as artfully as possible to move away from a stressful situation or angst is big. Sometimes you can hit ‘reset’ by walking away for a short time if you’re sure it’s a safe situation for the client if you do so.”
- “Let the client show you how to do something and by doing so, build his or her self-worth. One client believes he is teaching me about billiards, and I truly didn’t know anything about it. If it’s something big to him, it’s big to me. He plays for about 30 minutes before he stops.”
- “At night, sometimes a dementia client sleeps, and sometimes he or she doesn’t. One client maybe sleeps a whole three hours and then he is back up and on the move. Often, there’s no consistent pattern, so a CAREGiver has to be on her toes.”
- “Earn the confidence of your client’s family members. After my client’s wife saw I could handle every situation with her husband, she wanted me to spend more time with them. Finally, she let me do everything involved with her husband’s care. She needs respite time, simply getting sleep. I try to keep the client from his wife while she is napping.”
Referring to Home Instead, Amy said: “I love the atmosphere. The office staff members are friendly and polite. It feels like the easiest-going, most congenial place I’ve worked. When something comes up with a client, I call the office. There is no beating around the bush with their straight-up answers. Home Instead is flexible. It’s pretty simple – I like this work,” Amy said.
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (336) 789-4472 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
