Katherine First Helped Aunt, Later Wanted to Assist Others
Katherine Smith has heard the question many times: When did you decide to enter professional senior care?
Like many Home Instead® CAREGivers, Katherine began as a family caregiver and found that she loved using her compassion to help others. Katherine’s first taste of senior care was a baptism of fire – she wasn’t just sitting with a senior loved one to pass away the day while working on jigsaw puzzles. Katherine answered the call to help an 80-year-old aunt who was in the last few months of her life.
“That was five years ago,” Katherine recalled, “when my family needed a caregiver for my aunt. I said, ‘Yes.’ ” It was a life-changing endeavor that Katherine will never forget, one that required her to learn nuanced techniques during a hospice situation.
“That’s when I received a lot of my skills as a caregiver,” Katherine explained. “It was then when I realized how much I loved caring for people.”
After her aunt’s passing, Katherine took the next step to elevate her status to professional caregiving by earning state certification to assist people of any age. “I decided to go for my Personal Care Assistant license,” Katherine said, “so I have been in caregiving for five years.”
Katherine joined Home Instead® of Winchester one year ago. “I found Home Instead while I was looking for a job where the responsibilities included caring for people, which is one of my passions. I applied with Home Instead and was ecstatic when I was called in for an interview,” Katherine said.
Allyson Starling, a manager who works in the Home Instead franchise’s human relations department and in recruitment and retention, announced Katherine’s honor as August CAREGiver of the Month. Keith Clay owns the award-winning Home Instead franchise that serves the Northern Shenandoah Valley.
The humble Katherine was reticent to toot her own horn when asked about her major accomplishments and best experiences. “There’s really no particular story to tell. I just love all my clients,” Katherine said.
Home Instead’s unsung heroes, such as Katherine, provide safety assurance, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and transportation and errands. The Winchester CAREGivers offer personal assistance with eating, grooming, dressing, bathing, incontinence care, dementia support, cognitive impairment, hospice support and mobility assistance. By expertly doing so, Katherine and her Home Instead teammates not only assist their clients, but help their families eliminate worry, reduce stress and re-establish personal freedom.
Katherine is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide, and she has helped add to those numbers because of her strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose and core values. Those core values are: “Honor God in all we do; Treat each other with dignity and respect; Encourage growth in ourselves and others; Build value in our service to others.”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (540) 722-8750 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
