What is a Home Carer?
A home carer is a person who provides all-encompassing care at home to an individual, tailored to their personal needs and desires. Devoted home carers use a proactive strategy to empower individuals needing support to show their strengths and become the best versions of themselves.
Home care assistants aid with all the daily caring duties of the people we support for varying lengths of time. From personal care and emotional support to domestic duties like cleaning and running errands, the job of a home care assistant is to provide safety and well-being and foster self-reliance at the same time.
Working and caring for people needing support is one of the most meaningful and fulfilling careers someone can have. Each day a carer spends helping another person is a tiny step towards a big change for the better.
Role of a Home Carer
The primary role of a home care assistant is to create a balance between providing professional support and preserving a sense of independence for the people we support. The level of assistance a person requires depends on their current cognitive and physical functioning and care plan.
A committed home care assistant provides a person-centred and humanised approach to every individual they support. Regardless of their needs, a home care worker is expected to deliver integrated care that promotes the mental and physical welfare of the individuals, their family, friends and caregivers.
A home care assistant will first get to know the person in the most caring and respectful manner. They create and build lasting relationships with the people we support. The main role of a home carer involves support and assistance beyond basic needs in the daily living of the individual we support. People who work in the home care sector are highly trained in giving people mental and emotional support by encouraging them to focus on their skills rather than weaknesses.
Home Carer Duties
The home carer’s duties include a number of tasks that are carefully designed within the individual’s care plan. The implementation of the assistance package is typically done in stages, adjusted to the person’s unique needs and requirements.
The essential tasks of a home care worker include:
- Personal care
- Meal preparation
- Household duties
- Running errands
- Washing clothes
- Daily tasks
- Physical support
- Companionship
As well as the above list, our carers can support you with issues such as depression and anxiety. Whether you need someone to comfort you at night to ease any anxiety, or someone to talk to during a time when a mental health problem is affecting you more than usual, our carers will be able to help.
Home Carer Responsibilities
The essential responsibility of a home carer’s job is to provide safety and overall well-being at the home of the people we support. Home carers may work day and night shifts or provide round-the-clock live-in care depending on the needs of the individual. The key responsibilities of live-in carers include the following:
- Going to people's homes and adjusting their care plans according to the doctors' and family's instructions
- Administering medication prescribed by physicians
- Monitoring a person's progress and well-being
- Measuring blood pressure and performing glucose, urine or stool analysis
- Assistance with personal hygiene, meal preparation, cleaning and household tasks
- Schedule and follow medical appointments and social care
- Cooperate with physicians, therapists and pharmacists to adapt and update the care plans regularly
- Assisting individuals in need to finding job opportunities to show their skills
- Identify people's strengths to add value to society and the community
- Stay aligned with the family's concerns of the people we support
- Show empathy and compassion to the family and caregivers of the persons in need
- Assistance with household duties but also promote independence, especially if people can do things on their own
- Ongoing training and attending lectures following the latest innovations in healthcare
- Observe the recovery of the service user and compile reports for the physician and the family
Home Carer Required Skills and Qualifications
Working as a home care assistant requires a certain level of medical knowledge, empathy and consistency. However, compassion and humanity are the most important skills every support worker should own. Many home carers have stepped into the career journey without previous experience but with a driving desire to help, impact and make someone happy.
The key skills every home carer should possess include the following:
- Communication
- Listening skills
- Empathy and compassion
- Organisational skills
- Adaptability
- Attention to detail
- Mental and physical stability
- Time management skills
- Planning and multitasking skills
- Patience
- Quick thinking
- Analytical skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Positive and vibrant personality
Working as a home support assistant requires specific medical knowledge, but there is no formal education requirement, as most training is provided on the job. With that said, candidates with certain qualifications are preferred. These are some of the licences and certificates that will help you excel as a home carer:
- 5 GCSEs, grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including maths and English
- Level 2 Diploma in Health and Social Care
- Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care
- First Aid certificate
What Conditions Can Home Carers Help With?
The home carer job embraces a large and complex field of physical and mental journeys of people in need, including:
How to Become a Home Carer with Leaf Complex Care?
At Leaf Complex Care, we pursue humanised relationships and a personal touch in everything we do. We pride ourselves on maintaining a person-centred and ongoing commitment to our employees and the people we support.
We are recognised as a Best Place for Well-being and a Great Place to Work® based on collective and all-encompassing feedback. We glorify, respect and honour our employees, as they are the centre of our company culture. Our goal is to maintain the work-life harmony, financial safety and mental well-being of our clinicians and support workers.
We provide human-centred and compassionate tailored care to people with autism, learning difficulties and disabilities, acquired brain injury and mental health. Our teams of highly trained professionals offer support to people in residential care, home care or help with discharge from hospitals to a successful and fulfilled integration into the community.
At Leaf Complex Care, we provide free training and a Spectrum. Life programme with 24/7 unlimited access to mental well-being supports. If you want a rewarding and meaningful career where your efforts will make someone smile every day, you are at the right place. All you need to do is contact us and apply, and you may be just three steps away from your dream career.
