For International Women’s Day 2023 we have been celebrating inspiring female clients, now comes the turn of our amazing live-in carer, Georgie. Georgie is an accomplished carer who wanted to create an online community for live-in carers and support them with developing their skills whilst creating a space for self-care. Georgie did just that and designed and created it as an online self-paced course in her spare time.
Georgie, one of the live-in carer we work with, has had an affinity for elderly people since a young age. Growing up in South Africa during turbulent times Georgie would volunteer after school at a nearby home for elders. It gave her comfort and made her feel safe and she loved the wisdom they had. Georgie loved storytelling and would write poems and share them with the residents of the home.
After studying a law degree in South Africa, aged 19 years, she decided to come to the UK. Discovering law was not for her, she was the drawn to a career in the care industry, going through training and then becoming a live-in carer.
Georgie has been working in the care industry now for 22 years and loves it. She spends her spare time continually developing her skills, learning new techniques in helping with dementia, and sharing her skills.
Georgie says however:
“It’s a shame that being a carer has such a stigma attached. Some see it as a role you undertake if you didn’t do well at school, which is simply untrue. It is a very involved role with huge responsibility. You get out of being a carer as much as you put in. There are so many positive aspects of being a carer.”
Georgie epitomises this, having just created an online self-study programme. The program has been designed for carers to help them to develop their own skills, connect with other carers, build a community to share experiences and support them to put in place positive self-care practices to be a better carer. Georgie hopes the course will not only support carers to look after themselves to be better carers, but to shine the light on carers and the high levels of skills they have and need to provide outstanding care.
