Someone posed the question to Home Instead® CAREGiver of the Month Lisa Palmer: When did you begin caregiving? Cue the pregnant pause: Lisa thought for a moment or two, and her mind wandered back to her teenage years. “I started caregiving as a teen. That’s when I helped care for my great-grandma,” Lisa said.
That caregiving episode in Lisa’s life wasn’t buried and forgotten. Something about assisting the elderly had touched Lisa’s heart forever. “At 29 years of age,” Lisa recalled, “I was working for individuals as a private-duty caregiver and have been doing that off and on for about 20 years.”
Last fall, Lisa moved from California to Victoria, Texas. On Sept. 2, 2021, she joined the award-winning Home Instead franchise owned by Pietro Jordao and Dillon Rice. “My daughter Kendra worked at Home Instead and helped me apply. That’s how I started here, and now I have a regular client for whom I care, someone I like very much.”
Saying, “I really don’t have much of a story to tell,” Lisa lets her actions do the speaking. Recruiting and Retention Coordinator Maegan Coldewey noticed quickly. Among the considerations for achieving CAREGiver of the Month status, an employee has shown he or she has gone above and beyond the call of duty, Maegan said.
Empathy and compassion are taken into account for the award, as well as skill and wisdom for dealing with challenging situations. Lisa embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.” Lisa is someone who is exceptional at her work with any client. Focusing on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving also helped Lisa achieve the CAREGiver of the Month award.
In addition to her strong companionship skills, Lisa provides safety assurance, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and transportation and errands. Lisa offers personal assistance with eating, grooming, dressing, bathing, incontinence care, cognitive impairment, hospice support and mobility. By expertly doing so, Lisa and her fellow CAREGivers not only assist their clients, but help their families eliminate worry, reduce stress and re-establish personal freedom.
To build on their knowledge and experience, Lisa and other Victoria CAREGivers are offered the opportunity to increase their dementia-care skills by taking part in the Home Instead network’s one-of-a-kind training protocol. Home Instead’s Person-Centered Care Training for Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias is recognized by the Alzheimer’s Association® for incorporating the evidence-based dementia-care practice recommendations in these topic areas: Alzheimer’s and dementia, person-centered care, assessment and care planning, activities of daily living, and behaviors and communication.
Lisa loves being a part of her CAREGiver team, a member of a highly successful network founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Home Instead network is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for older adults, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide care throughout the United States and 13 other countries.
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (361) 433-0330 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
