Lori's Stories: JARC caregiver Brandie Whelan

It's not personal. If they're having a bad day, they're having a bad day. It's not necessarily personal. So how can we work past that? They need to be understanding of people's limitations, but also understand that those limitations are something they may have put on themselves and we want to stretch just a little bit, try something new. We encourage people to, whatever their ability is, take care of their home, for instance. so you may only be able to put the napkins on the table for dinner right you may not be able to wash the dishes but maybe you can take them to the sink all of those things to your ability because it's important uh i had a fella his brother got married and he he wanted to buy a present and his mom's like no no we'll include you on our card we'll do this well he had a job he had money and we went and bought a beautiful crystal bowl for him and to give to his new um sister-in-law and she was so excited by that that he had done that his family would have stopped him and they not do anything bad they were just like oh no we got that taken care of you don't have to and he was so proud of it he was able he was proud that he could do that because that's what everybody else did he wasn't sort of riding along right as a passenger he was a driver in that absolutely and and giving that to our people is very important um i have a gentleman that uh his his name is Craig and i always call him Mr. Craig and he says he said to me one day he says why Brandy why do you always call me Mr. Craig i said because you always treat me like you're a gentleman and you know he is that just the smile on his face but i don't think anybody had ever called Mr. Craig before right so now he has that now he has that right absolutely and and just listening to some of your stories um just such a difference that you've made in other people's lives how does that make you feel like I know you said it's something different every day yeah I'm proud of it I mean do I have bad days am I tired sometimes absolutely when I have the on-call phone for a week at the end of the week am I just like yeah okay I'm over it absolutely but then I get up the next morning and i know i'm going to make a difference whether it's a really small one or big one i know i'm going to make a difference and that's important i think that's important our folks are important they're an important part of our community and i'm glad that i get to to be a part of of helping them to do that um it's it's yeah it's just that's that's the part i enjoy but that's the core part though you were you were getting into joining the staff that's that's kind of the core part yeah that you obviously you have to like people you do have to like people to be able to give of your time um sometimes maybe extra time yes and and to make people feel inclusive yes included um again we we're looking for people part-time full-time you got one shift you could do our ILS people usually don't need a whole eight hours a day they may need four hours three or four days a week that might fit into your schedule that would be wonderful um you know empty nester moms who want something to do or college students that want to come and you know pick up a little bit extra and nursing students we've had a lot of lovely nursing students who come in who just want experience with patient care um and something more than just a hospital or a clinic setting um it takes everybody i mean and come on in you'll meet people that if you're brand new uh you're just out of school and you're looking for something we'll teach you how to work right we'll teach you how to cook and you might understand how to do this and you might understand 40 years absolutely did you ever think i did not think i would be here when you when you joined it what were you saying uh maybe two or maybe a little while we'll see you gotta remember that was back in the early 80s you know um i thought oh i'll get married and i'll be home mom and i did all those things but I also really enjoyed what I did and so I worked my way up from a midnight worker to a district manager and that's been lovely and I've made a lot of friends both staff and person served along the way they have changed so the work itself hasn't really changed treating people with dignity and respect hasn't changed again the the pay rate hasn't kept a lot of people in place yeah and that's not just us that's caregivers across the board well you know i'm here because it's caregiver month sure um disability month but that that if we want good caregivers we're going to have to support them in a way that they can do their best um we've brought a lot of electronics and electronic things into our field so that's a new newer thing the tech but the tech is wonderful too we have uh our notes are done online our medication administration is done that way um we have you know all sorts of things that help we have time clocks and locks that you punch and all of you know i've been here through that whole thing um and you've even been here through the advent of cell phones oh yes because when before we started i would go in for a midnight and get pulled to another house and i got an address and they turn left here turn right there it'll be dark but you know whereas now GPS i can get most anywhere um yeah it's been that part has changed but our world's changed immensely yes yes what would you tell someone in the time that we have left what's what's the main message that you want to get um both that we all sometime are going to need help and that we need to value those helpers that come, right? I watched Mr. Rogers go to the helpers. I like being one of the helpers. But we need to value those people and support them. And then for our folks, they're people like you and me. And they have the same wants and dreams and needs. And they just need a little help. I wear eyeglasses and hearing aids. Contacts. Right. Okay. And I am somebody's eyeglasses and hearing aids so that they can live in their community. And I think that's just very important that we value that as a society because all of us at some point are going to need help. Do you see that it has changed over the years that people maybe aren't as kind or aren't as... I think in general they are much more. Because of the fight that we've done, it's not unusual to see our folks out in the community. I think it's very easy, though, back to that civil rights piece, to forget that and say it's cheaper to bunch a whole bunch of people together it's uh why can't they live over there uh and i think we're we're sort of in a spot where they could go either way um and i think that's important it's important to look at our folks that live in the community now and look at how rich their lives are and support that because i think we all deserve that absolutely and and people deserve much more and you're giving it to them and helping them live their life I thank you so much for coming on.