April 1st is Caregiver Recognition Day!

careAware is a provincial initiative that aims to raise awareness in support of Manitobans who provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends. These family and friends provide full or part time unpaid personal care, support and assistance to people of all ages with disabilities, medical conditions, mental illness and frailty due to age. Caregivers can be children, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings, friends and neighbours. They come from every ethnicity and every region of the province or country. 


Home Instead Senior Care Winnipeg franchise owner, Julie Donaldson is president of The Manitoba Caregiver Coalition and whose task it is to host the official  provincial event.

Did you know that in 2012, about 8.1 million individuals, or 28% of Canadians aged 15 years and older, provided care to a family member or friend with a long-term health condition, disability or aging needs.

You can learn more about careAware at their website; http://www.careaware.ca/

March CAREGiver of the Month

Heather is our CAREGiver of the month. She has been with us since September 2008 and is warm, caring and has a big heart.

"I became a CAREGiver after spending 2 years on disability following knee replacement surgery. Almost every job I have ever done has revolved around providing care for someone and in my personal life I did this for my husband who was very ill and would not have been able to stay home without that care.  Being incapacitated by my knee surgery and the removal of a kidney many years ago put me on the “other side” of the caregiving relationship and certainly provided perspective on the need to receive care as well as empathy to provide it.  I feel that seniors in our society are often undervalued and minimalized.  People often feel that our elderly don’t have anything left to offer and that they are “no longer useful.”  Nothing could be further from the truth and I continue to learn with each client I am blessed to have in my care.  It pleases me to be part of a team with office staff and other CAREGivers who seek to keep our clients safe, happy and in their homes as long as possible.  It fulfills my own need to be able to say at the end of each work day that I have made a difference in someone’s life and that they have made a difference in mine.

A memorable/happy moment with a client?  Tough question because there are so many.  I guess I will just generalize and say it is when a client says, “I’m so glad you come to see me.”  I know then that I am not “just doing a job.”

To new CAREGivers I would say, “Think of someone you love......how would you want to see them treated if they needed care?  Now think of yourself.  If you are very young it might be hard to imagine yourself being “old” so try to remember a time when you were sick and needed time to get back on your feet.  How would you want to be treated?  Take that desire into each CareGiving relationship and you will know what to do."