Who Makes a Good Personal Care Assistant?
- Being on time.
- Dependable; being on time consistently.
- Helpful; willing to do things rather than acting burdened by their requests.
- Honest; someone you can trust.
- Clean and neat; keeping things picked up and sanitary.
- Take direction; not argumentative thinking your way (attendant) is the only way.
- Communicative; easy to talk to.
- Direct; discuss openly and honestly about how you feel.
- Patient; doesn’t get bothered if things take longer than usual.
- Don’t be encouraged by your consumer to participate in sexual activities.
- Don’t be encouraged by your consumer to participate in drugs or alcohol.
- Don’t be conducting business transactions with your employer (such as loaning money, etc.).
- Don’t plot to make your consumer your boyfriend or girlfriend.
- Keep all information pertaining to your employer’s personal life confidential.
- Do not discuss your employer outside your job.
- Do not treat the person with the disability like a child (for example, just because you may have to feed them and pull their pants up does not give you the right to treat them with any less respect than you would any other employer).
- Always let the consumer know when their medical supplies are getting low such as underpads, suppositories, and any other items that are used regularly.
- Alert the consumer to the status of other needed items such as groceries, paper supplies for the computer, dish soap, laundry soap, etc.
Respect this as you would any other employment. Your consumer is your boss. You are working in their home. Let me give you an example of this. If you were employed for Kmart, would you bring your friends to work with you? Would you freely give out their number to have your friends call you? Would you bring your kids to work with you? Would you freely help yourself to the food aisle and get something to eat and drink? No! I don’t imagine you would. This job is to be treated with the same respect as that of any other employment. Say this to yourself three times: “This is the place of my employment. My consumer is my boss. I will respect it as such.”
Attendants are critical people in the day-to-day activities that give an individual with a disability the freedom to live life to the fullest. Try to provide a structure that can enhance communication between you and your consumer. Find some common interests. This will be important especially if you spend a lot of time together. Encourage the very best from each other. A good attendant should anticipate some of the consumer’s needs so he/she doesn’t have to work really hard to be telling what they need next. (Communication is more challenging with a consumer who has a speech impairment.) Watch your tone, your attitude, and respect them as your employer. Remember, to get respect you have to give respect. Encourage your consumer to sit down with you weekly or bi-weekly to evaluate your progress as his/her employee.
You can develop a great working relationship with your employer; a relationship in which you can have fun and be comfortable. Once that is established, the relationship between consumer and attendant can be one of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences in this unique work.