What Qualities do you Need to be a Carer?

Have you ever thought about becoming a carer? It’s an incredibly rewarding job with lots of variation. If you’ve got any of these qualities, then caring could be the perfect role for you.

Do you have what it takes to be a carer?

Carers work with a wide range of people with needs. Whether it’s with younger people with learning difficulties or the elderly, there are a host of qualities required to be a carer. If you’re considering becoming a carer, this list will help you understand the qualities and skills you will need to help others and make a difference in their lives every day.

Patience

People who are in need of care generally can’t do things for themselves. They can take a long time to complete tasks, such as washing hands, drinking or eating.  Rushing them, or becoming impatient can make them upset and potentially disturbed.  

Patience is indeed a virtue when it comes to caring. You will need to work at their pace, not in a rush, to help them every day to feel comfortable. That’s why we never rush our visits, at Right at Home, Stockport & Didsbury. Our minimum of an hour is precisely so that our carers can take their time with clients and practice patience.

Supportive and Encouraging

As a carer, your role will be to support people, to enable them to live from day to day. You need to be an encouraging and supportive person. Sometimes this needs to be gentle support. Other times, you might need to be a little bit more firm. 

Whatever their needs, you need to be the kind of person who enjoys actively helping and encouraging someone where they need it.

Understanding

Real understanding comes from listening and being willing to learn. Being able to understand the issues facing your clients is essential for being a good carer. Once you can understand the world from their perspective, you can do what you can to help.

By always being willing to learn, listen and understand, you can find the best ways to meet your clients’ needs.

Sensitive Nature

Sometimes the person you are caring for can’t communicate well how they are feeling. They may not be able to communicate at all. The horror stories of carers treating clients badly come about when the carer doesn’t bother to try and understand their client. When a carer is sensitive to the needs of others it’s much easier to understand what needs to be done.

Carers are often challenged with clients who desperately want to talk about their experience and who want to be able to communicate, but can’t. Being sensitive allows you to be able to listen in lots of different ways.

Responsible and Respectful

The vulnerable people in your care depend on you, their carer, to help them to live their daily lives. As a carer it’s important that you are a responsible person, who is respectful to their needs. By treating clients and the other team members with respect, you can foster the best working relationships and deliver the best care as well.

Dependable

The people we care for at Right at Home Stockport & Didsbury, need to know that someone is coming to help them every day. It’s vitally important that you are dependable. That you can be there on time when they need you. And that other team member can depend on you too. Being a carer is more than just a part-time job, it’s vital to the daily lives of people and makes all the difference to them.

Professional

It can be easy for a person’s issues to take over. It’s important as a caring professional to keep a healthy balance between work and relaxation.

Carers will often aim to keep some distance between themselves and their clients by taking the time to relax after work. A professional approach can also help you to build good working relationships with your team members.

Good Communication Skills

Interpersonal and communication skills are essential for a care worker. Being a carer is a sociable career. You need to be able to relate to clients and co-workers on a daily basis. If you don’t like people and prefer not to talk, or listen to others, caring might not be the best role for you.

Flexibility

People have needs and needs change. Carers need to be able to work with a certain degree of flexibility. This allows you to tailor your approach to each client and also to evolve your care as your client’s needs evolve as well.

Concern for Others

There are a host of qualities required to be a carer. But the most important quality of all is the need to be a compassionate person who is naturally caring. 

If you are drawn to work in a caring role due to genuine concern for the welfare of others then this could be exactly what you are looking for. Clients are able to tell if someone is interested in them or not. For this reason, only people with genuine concern should apply to work in the care industry. When there is genuine concern, individuals can work on other qualities in order to excel in a caring role.

If you’d like more information on becoming a carer for Right at Home, Stockport & Didsbury, contact us today.