Like a sudden lightning bolt that streaks across the dark sky on a humid southern Texas evening, Lakyralea Capell hasn’t wasted time making an impact. In three weeks, Lakyralea has gone from being one of the newest CAREGivers at Home Instead® of Victoria to becoming her client’s daily blessing and then to the honored status as the franchise’s CAREGiver of Month.
Just in case Lakyralea were to ever forget, her client always reminds her with a heartfelt comment: “Lakyralea, you are a blessing.” Talk of being a blessing travels both ways, as far as Lakyralea is concerned. “My client always makes my day when she calls me ‘her blessing,’ ” said Lakyralea, who has had the same client since she joined Home Instead on July 22.
Next September, Lakyralea will help the client celebrate her 75th birthday. “My favorite Home Instead stories so far are simply the times when my client and I sit down and talk,” said Lakyralea, whose compassion, empathy and listening skills score a perfect 10 every day.
In addition to her strong companionship skills, Lakyralea provides safety assurance, meal preparation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and transportation and errands. Lakyralea and other CAREGivers offer personal assistance with eating, grooming, dressing, bathing, incontinence care, dementia support, cognitive impairment, hospice support and mobility assistance. By expertly doing so, Victoria’s CAREGivers not only assist their clients, but help their families eliminate worry, reduce stress and re-establish personal freedom.
Focusing on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving helped Lakyralea achieve CAREGiver of the Month status. But she is not a newcomer to professional caregiving. “My work background includes jobs at the Richmond State School and with Texas Home Health,” Lakyralea said.
Lakyralea found the award-winning Home Instead franchise, owned by Pietro Jordao and Dillon Rice, during an online search of Indeed.com. “There were choices because I was filling out job applications, and I am glad I picked Home Instead. You can say you’ve done this and done that, but the bottom line for me is that I love taking care of people. I have been drawn to this line of work even without having an opportunity to be a family caregiver for any of our senior loved ones,” she said.
Recruiting and Retention Coordinator Maegan Coldewey said: “Lakyralea and our two other most recent CAREGivers of the Month are new to us at Home Instead. But they left the gate in a sprint, ready for their challenges, eager to work and unafraid of hard work. All three of these ladies already have taken on many hours in very demanding situations and have excelled beyond my expectations. We are blessed to have them all on our team.”
Lakyralea, noting Maegan’s reference to “blessed,” said she repeats the fact that she feels blessed in her new job. “The thing I love most about my job is that I love to see a smile on my client’s face. I also must point out that every one of my co-workers makes me feel like family to them,” Lakyralea said.
Lakyralea loves being a part of the CAREGiver team in Victoria, where she is a member of a highly successful network founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska. 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 90 million hours of care annually throughout the United State and 13 other countries.
Lakyralea is among more than 100,000 CAREGivers worldwide, and she has helped add to those numbers because of her strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose. It isn’t hard to see Lakyralea 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 (361) 433-0330 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
