Veronica recalls the year she served as a family caregiver.
“My mother-in-law had a stroke, and my in-laws needed someone to sit with her during the day. I did that, and I also took her to doctor appointments,” said Veronica, who noted she had not previously worked in professional senior care.
Veronica added: “Later, after I had quit a job in customer service, I was looking for work. I answered a Home Instead® ad that I had seen on Indeed.com. I applied with Home Instead and received a call from Service Manager Julia Basaldua, and I came in for an interview.”
As Veronica headed into her second year of service with Home Instead, Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Chloe Carter announced Veronica had been honored as CAREGiver of the Quarter for the second quarter. The Home Instead franchise, owned by Cara Delgado, serves north and northwest Houston, including Cypress, Jersey Village, Highlands, Hockley, Humble, Katy, Kingwood, Spring, Tomball and Waller. In addition to her big empathetic heart, Veronica’s focus on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving helped her achieve CAREGiver of the Quarter status.
In addition to her strong companionship skills, Veronica provides safety assurance, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and transportation and errands. Veronica and other CAREGivers offer personal assistance with eating, grooming, dressing, bathing, incontinence care, dementia support, cognitive impairment, hospice support and mobility. By expertly doing so, CAREGivers not only assist their clients, but help their families eliminate worry, reduce stress and re-establish personal freedom.
“What I like most about my job as a Home Instead CAREGiver is being able to go in and give the client something they need, like a conversation and a hot meal,” Veronica said. “Cooking gives me pleasure, and I really enjoy doing that for clients who cannot do it for themselves.”
Veronica also has introduced new technology, supplied by her Home Instead franchise, to clients in an effort to further enhance their lives. An integrated care device, also known as a GrandPad, is a tablet designed for seniors. The technological innovation comes with features for connecting clients with their loved ones – but without the complicated features of other tablets. The large buttons and intuitive interface make the device a simple tablet for seniors who want to start video chatting and share memories with family and friends. The tablet comes with essential apps seniors can use to connect with others or pass the time with games and customized music.
Veronica said: “Once the GrandPads were given out, some clients really didn’t take to them too much. But after showing a client that she can watch movies on it, just like on her TV, she was more open to using it.”
The devices are an added plus for clients at the franchise, where Veronica loves being a part of the CAREGiver team. Cara’s innovative Houston-area franchise is a member of a highly successful network founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Paul and Lori Hogan. The Home Instead network is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 80 million hours of care annually throughout the U.S. and 13 other countries.
Veronica is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers, and she has helped add to those numbers because of her strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose. It isn’t hard to see Veronica lives the Home Instead® principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (281) 440-5160 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
