Why do some people think working in a care home is easy and something anyone out of work can/should do?

[ApriltoNovember]

My dd is 17 and in college. For the last year she has been trying to find a part time job because frankly she wants to start earning money. She has had little luck so far and endless applications later still hasn't secured herself a job.

I asked on our town's community FB page if anyone else's teen/younger adult dc was experiencing similar issues (and it seems many are). I have had so many replies telling me that she should get a job in a care home because the care industry is crying out for staff.

I know this to be true because a) I am a PA/carer for disabled people myself and b) a carer for my elderly mum who has advanced Alzheimer's disease.

But the comments really annoyed me because it seems so often that caring, for some reason is seen as an easy option and a job that anyone can do, even someone straight out of school with no qualifications or skills. In reality, this could not be further from the truth. Caring is bloody hard work and caring for someone with advanced dementia and double incontinence or severe learning difficulties is even harder and really NOT a job for the faint-hearted. All of my mum's carers have been chosen because they have years of experience and are genuinely caring and kind people and even the youngest one who is 26 has a naturally kind and caring personality and is not at all fazed by what she has to deal with.

Mum went into respite care in a home last year. It was in a local town which has a high unemployment rate. The home was full of young care workers and you could tell were only doing the job because there were very few options and most looked bored out of their brains.

Caring can be an extremely rewarding but often thankless and messy job and to think there are so many people out there believing if a person can't find work they may as well just go get a job in care as a last chance option. Yes, maybe a small percentage may go on to enjoy it but many do drop out. It's such a poor misconception that caring is a basic, unskilled thing which anyone can do or should do just because it is a job sector which often has many available vacancies (and that should tell you something for a start).

IMO, it is a job which should be given more credit (and better paid). At the end of the day many of us will reach old age and with dementia now being the most prolific disease amongst the elderly it's a sad possibility for many of us that we could end up needing to be cared by others and would all these people recommending 16/17 year olds go into care because they need any old job want their arses wiped by them?

I don't think it's easy, but often training comes on the job rather than requiring qualifications in advance and there are loads of vacancies. I think that's why people suggest it.

The care home mum was in for respite last year was full of teens, I think they will recruit anyone these days.

This is a question I will ask over the next few weeks because my dad and I are going to view lots of care homes for respite for mum. It is definitely a question high up on my list.

But you are obviously a very caring and compassionate person, and at the age of 13 volunteering in a care home is very unique. Most of my friend's dc are teens and my dd has many friends of the same age, I could count on less than one hand those who would be suitable for care work.

If you are physically fit kind and caring give it a go - training on the job, mentors help, teamwork, hard but fulfilling work and can lead to qualifications and promotion. Many girls I worked with worked their way up to become nurses. Find the best care home in your area and speak to the staff if you can, far better for this country to grow our own instead of importing carers from all over the world with language and cultural differences, who need housing and GPs and schools for themselves and their children - we need to wake up a bit as a country stick a crèche in every care home and get local women back into the workforce!

I am not unusual at all in my family or the circles we are in, we have all ended up in public sector/teaching/nursing/medical type careers and care work was a brilliant place to start. It's a very sheltered sort of work environment, generally supportive with a lot of training, caring colleagues and a lot of time is spent simply living out daily life with the people you are caring for. It's all set us up well for life too with disabled children, elderly parents, sadly a lot of dementia in later life in my family too and learning care skills can only be a good thing for anyone. I can't think of a future career where a first job in care work isn't looked on favourably. And for people out of work it can be a great way back in because they've often still continued to care for children or family members and can build on those skills.

I agree-it’s a good first role, to teach empathy and compassion and looks good on your CV as it shows you’re not afraid of hard work.

If it’s that or no work, which is preferable?

I think you are being unreasonable.

If you post on Facebook asking for a job etc of course you are going to get people signposting you to jobs that may or may not fit your requirements, skill set etc

If you post saying I’m looking for a cleaning job, it’s reasonable for people to suggest alternatives whether they are suitable or if you look into that vacancy is up to the person that posted.

I have literally never heard anyone say that care work is easy.

I agree with you however as others have said, when you're asking about jobs for a young person with little experience, social care fits the bill in terms of the fact the don't ask for previous experience for for care/support worker roles. Social care and early years are areas where you can go in while you're still at school and gain your experience and qualifications on the job. Some people do make their career out of it, it doesn't have to be an easy job just because they're young.

I posted upthread about the experience I’ve had and I wonder if there’s a difference in two types of caring roles - one in care homes where training is given on the job, it’s more relaxed and easier to do a good job because you aren’t working alone…?
And the other being caring in the community roles (like I needed for DD) which is where training on more complex medical and practical care requirements aren’t suitable for someone with no experience..?

For instance my DD sometimes needs to be suctioned. Carers absolutely have to be trained in how to know when she needs it and how to do it. I’m still shocked that she was given 2 carers who weren’t trained and then the company refused to have them trained.
The same will apply for hoisting (they did know that), giving medicine and food via PEG (they didn’t know that), stomas (not relevant in DD’s case) and other more complex tasks like that.

It’s not fair on the carers being asked to do things that are potentially harmful (when intended to keep them safe!) to the person they care for when they aren’t trained and I’d be refusing any job that expected me to do things of this complexity without proper training and a comfort level at being sometimes alone with someone who could, for instance, start choking or have a seizure, or a heart attack..

Different situation in a care home where you can press a buzzer or ask for help.

I mean, the carers DD had refused to push her in her wheelchair…! What was the f-ing point of allocating them to her? I hate any waste of taxpayers money and that certainly was!

But is caring potentially a good career? .. possibly. But I’d be very selective about what I would be doing - not because “wiping arses” is difficult or unpleasant but because I’d want to be sure that I would recognise a pressure sore and be able to deal with it, how to safely hoist someone who you flag concerns to and so on..

I'm in my 50s and I wouldn't dream of working in a care home. This is not because I consider myself above such work. On the contrary, I consider it to be a really valuable role. However, it comes with huge responsibilities. It involves caring for people with complex physical and/or or mental health issues. It may involve administering medication. A mistake could prove to be fatal and end up in the courts. Those working in care homes face the prospect of verbal or physical abuse from their patients. If you work with elderly people, there's a fairly good chance that some of your patients will die. I've read countless threads where posters express revulsion at the prospect of an open coffin at a funeral - I wonder how they'd cope having to handle a dead person. I actually think it's crazy that you can get a job in a care home without any qualifications. Furthermore, the job involves working anti-social hours, because care homes are open 24/7. And to add insult to injury, it's a minimum wage job.

There's no way I'd recommend it as a job for a 17 year old and I don't think job centres should be pushing it as an option on everyone either. It takes a very special person to be a carer. Most of the women I know who work as carers do so because they were SAHMs - they drifted into care work when their DC got older. It meant they didn't have to spend years re-training in a new career. In some cases, they had been carers for a family member and became paid carers when their loved ones passed away. Thank you OP (and anyone else reading this who works as a carer). It's a shame your work isn't respected and valued.

I most certainly wouldn't have wanted my parents to be cared for by people who were in the job simply because it didn't require qualifications and they were pushed into it to get them off benefits. You have to be a certain type of person to be good at care work. I don't live in the UK and fortunately the attitude here isn't quite the same.

People aren’t suggesting the job is easy to do. They aren’t suggestion your teen will succeed in the job long term. They are simply stating the obvious, that the job is easy to obtain.

this is true of many jobs that are extremely difficult but low paid.

The idea would be that your daughter gets a job, earns some money, but keeps looking for better options so she can change jobs before she burns out.

is it fair or right that society does not properly compensate these roles and requires so much of the people that do them? Absolutely not. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a practical way to get a job fast.

I worked in a nursing home as a teenager. It’s not an easy job, no but it’s also not a skilled job. I did it around school and during the University holidays. I quite enjoyed it and I think I was quite good at it. Some teenagers are very capable.

I do agree that sometimes people suggest it because it is a job where there are often vacancies you could go into without training. But TBH I also think a lot of people suggest it because they perceive it to be hard and unpleasant, and it's intended as a sort of smackdown. As in 'oh, if he were really serious about getting a job he'd work in a care home!' It's insulting to people who need care and people who do the job well.

Or you get told "oh, you think you are above working in a care home".

I know I could not work in a care home. People who need care deserve to be cared for by people who can do the job well and can handle all the unpleasantness too. Not everyone can.

I genuinely believe everyone should do a stint as a carer.
National service style, everyone has to either be in retail, hospitality or care work for x amount of years. Genuinely think it would make us all a lot more compassionate.

I worked as an HCA in hospitals and nursing homes. Literally nobody wants their care to come from someone who doesn’t care or have enough experience. It’s a difficult sometimes harrowing job. Very often exhausting. Always under pressure and feeling shit because sometimes you can’t give good care with incidents or staff shortages. It’s actually a sector I felt very bullied in. Some of the nurses particularly in the home were absolutely awful. I wouldn’t want my dd working in the role.

But people can get a job as a carer straight out of school, with no qualifications. Care work is on the job training and there's a recruitment crisis.
In an ideal world, only those with a real interest in care work would actually do it.
But it's suggested to anyone who's looking for a job because they'll be given one. Hardly ideal but that's the reality.

I think you’d need references that many straight from school don’t have.

Will they be paid a proper wage, and have the benefits that come with employment like sick pay, annual leave and pension?
If not, why not?

School teacher. Work experience supervisor. Extra curricular/ sports coaches etc.

I have absolutely full respect for thos in the caring profession, it's often extremely unsociable hours, not great pay and even though they literally are there for provide care and support to peoples loved ones are often viewed as a lower class job.

And it's true they are crying out for staff, and it's true we have an issue with unemployment and in many cases youth unemployment. BUT I honestly don't think just "anybody" can or should do that job. Because the wrong people doing that job, (and there will be completely unsuitable people) are the ones likely to mistreat or abuse the people they are supposed to care for or at best only provide sub standard care.

If a close relative of mine was in a care home, I'd want them to be looked after by someone who..for lack of a better word....cared. someone who wanted to be there. Someone who wanted to help people. Someone who is a nice person. Not someone who's been forced there under threat of a UC sanction.

I don't know what the answer is. I mean maybe it's a similar feeling to not wanting your dentist to be a sadomasochist 😬

Absolutely, as in they would be paid accordingly. Bit like NHS banding. Although hospitality has tips thrown in.