Client’s Improvement Is a Testimony to Tedrin’s Efforts
The 83-year-old woman had just returned to her care community after being treated for pneumonia in a hospital. After arriving at the care community, she seldom would eat and never ventured from her bed, sofa or wheelchair. In her weakened state, she hadn’t even considered trying to use her walker. She had been placed on hospice, and at least one person close to the situation wondered whether the senior, in the early stages of dementia, would live much longer.
Enter Home Instead® Care Professional of the Month Tedrin Cannon, who has been a highly regarded CNA for the past 20 years and who joined the award-winning Home Instead franchise in Clawson, Michigan, in August 2022. The 50-year-old Tedrin had experienced just about every possible senior-care challenge, and she had worked often in memory-care units. When Tedrin was assigned to help the woman, she wanted to make a difference in the client’s life, just as she had with many others in her previous jobs.
“After checking out her situation,” Tedrin said, “I formulated a plan for getting my client back up on her feet and improving her physical and emotional condition. I explained my ideas to her: ‘Let’s have you exercise a little bit each day and focus on a goal of slowly getting up on your walker just a little bit at a time. You need to eat a balanced meal and stay hydrated, you need to take all of her medications and you need to get proper sleep. If you would do those things, I am ready to help you with all of them. I can help you feel better.’ ”
To the amazement of many people, Tedrin’s plan worked.
“Her improvement shocked people who knew her, including family, friends and workers at my client’s care community. Her attitude changed. I got her back up on her feet and using a walker. When I got there, about the only thing she’d accept was small portions of soup. Little by little, I got her back to eating. Nobody at her care community had been able to get her to do anything. When I got there, I wasn’t sure she would make it. She was so weak. She went off hospice for a good while, but she is back on hospice now because of a recent long-running bout with viral infection. She has been suffering the after-effects of the illness, but I think she’s ‘out of the woods.’ ”
Asked how she was able to accomplish so much with her client, Tedrin said building a relationship by gaining her client’s trust was a big factor. Ironically, Home Instead’s guiding principles are “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
“Nutrition was big. At first, she was resistant to eating. I had progressed to getting her to eat half a meal during her mealtimes because I got her to eat a gradually increasing amount of her meal each day. She didn’t realize it. One day, she noticed it, smiled and said, ‘You’ve been pulling my leg to get me to eat more,’ ” Tedrin recalled. “She is mostly quiet and laid back. Her dementia is a little more challenging when she’s sick. All in all, it has been an amazing journey.”
Tedrin’s journey to Home Instead began when she saw owner Bert Copple’s Home Instead franchise on Facebook, a popular social networking site. “I had been working for another agency as a CNA. I am working at a second job at a memory-care unit but plan to scale back those hours,” Tedrin said. “I like Home Instead. I put in a lot of hours and pick up a lot of shifts. I do some overnight work for Home Instead, and my work with my primary client generally consists of 12-hour shifts.”
For Tedrin and her fellow Care Pros, touching lives impacts their souls, whether they are providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if they are offering emotional support in a companionship role.
All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (248) 203-2273 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
