Is Home Care a Good Job?

Yes, home care jobs are rewarding, offering job satisfaction, variety, flexibility, and personal connections while allowing you to make a real difference.

To start a job in home care is to become a dedicated part of people’s lives, bringing care into people’s homes, and allowing them the dignity to remain living at home.

What is home care?

Also known as domiciliary care, home care is when staff travel to a patient or service user’s home to offer care and assistance. 

Types of home care services

There are many reasons someone could have home care arranged for them. A home care assistant may support a variety of patients in the community with varying needs.

• Personal Care – This supports daily personal tasks such as getting up, washing and dressing.
• Dementia Care – This may include assistance with personal tasks as well as helping maintain a routine and social schedule. 
• Companion Care – This is similar to a befriending service, supporting a person who lives alone with some regular company.
• Domestic Care – Going to a patient’s home to help with tasks such as cooking, laundry, washing and tidying.
• Respite Care – This is a temporary care service, to allow a patient’s loved one (if they are a full-time carer) to take a break. 
• Live-in Care – This involves moving into a patient’s home and helping out every day with tasks and companionship. 
• Nursing Care – Usually done by a registered nurse, this care involves tasks such as administering medications and wound dressing. 

Importance of home care for those in need

The importance of home care for the patient includes them being able to maintain their standard of living, often keeping pets and social engagements. It allows them the dignity of staying reasonably independent, with familiar surroundings and routines. Offering this to people in the community who don’t want their lives uprooted by a move to a care facility, can be a radical life improvement.

Advantages of Working in Home care

Rewards and benefits of working in home care

The list of rewards and benefits is extensive! Here’s our top 5:

1. Job satisfaction – working with people and having your help make such a huge difference to their quality of life is a huge motivator.
2. The people – the multitude of people you’ll interact with daily and the social elements are endless. 
3. Variety – the variety of work from home to home and visit to visit is extensive.
4. Flexibility – often managing your flexible schedule.
5. Compensation package – Home care workers are often given competitive salaries, with holiday and sick pay. 

Reasons to consider a career in home care

Home care is tailored for the patient, it’s unique and often developed with the carer. That means you have an input into what care each patient needs and receives. Working on designing care plans and ensuring the health and safety of your patients is a big responsibility and offers great satisfaction when your patients are doing well. 

The role often has training from the beginning, so no previous experience is required to get into a job in home care. Good career progression is possible, which we discuss further in the article.

Challenges in home care

Dealing with dementia patients

Working with people who live with dementia is unpredictable, it’s a disease that impacts a person’s ability to perform everyday tasks and typically causes memory problems. Dementia is a cruel disease that impacts people in a broad variety of ways, often resulting in behavioural changes. It takes a lot of patience and compassion to care for these patients. It results in their needs changing and the carer being experienced enough to adapt to those challenges. 

Handling difficult care needs

Taking care of patients with complex care needs involves a lot of administering medication and supporting them emotionally when pain or moods become too much. It can be a lot of work and have an impact on the carers. This is why a strong relationship with managers is important; being honest about workloads and capabilities is essential to not becoming overwhelmed. 

Comparison: home care vs. care homes

Differences in care services

For the person being cared for, home care can mean no change to their routine, they keep their independence with the support of someone helping with everyday tasks. For those service users who don’t like change, it can involve less staff turnover. So for the carer, there is more focused time on individuals allowing more of a relationship to build, it can mean flexibility in your schedule and patients often have fewer complex needs. The job requirements could span from running errands to washing hair. 

Residents in a care home get more socialisation with other residents, there is a routine and regulations around the running of the home. This means there’s less pressure on a care home worker to ensure the surroundings meet social and safety needs. The role is more likely to have a narrower focus of tasks to conduct every day, with a lot of support from their colleagues. Working in a care home is a lot more about being part of a team and a structured working environment. 

Career paths in home care vs. care homes

In either environment, there is career progression available. The opportunity to become a specialist in areas such as end-of-life care, dementia care or learning disabilities, is available with the right training and qualifications. The progression to coordinators, team leaders or managers is available in care homes. They have a structured progression for their teams. 

Within home care, career progression will depend on your practical knowledge and the skills you’ve gained on the job. With experience, you can become a lead care worker, and with time move to a more senior role like managing people or a service. Having the right attitude and making the most of all learning opportunities will see your career thrive. 

To take the next step in your care career register with Social Care People today. We’re here to help you find your perfect role.