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 was 19 I was one of the oldest in my group starting . Most of my class were 17 and had just left school. Couple of mature students apart from that

How long ago was that?
Nursing is degree level now. People entering training will be a minimum of 18.

How long ago was that? I started in 2004.

I have a degree in nursing. I qualified in 2013. I live in Ireland and you don’t have to be 18 to attend university here . Didn’t realise you had to be 18 in the uk. What makes you assume I do not have a degree ?

Years ago, nursing was not something you needed to go to university for.

It is not so much that you have to be 18 in the UK... it is because people do not go to uni until they have completed A-levels or similar.

I did an Access to Nursing course in my mid 30s, and most of my cohort were late 20s and above. We even had a couple of people in their late 40s, and one lady was in her 50s. Access courses are a fast track way for mature students to get into uni without the 2 years of GCSEs and 2 years of A-levels.

One lady had loads of care home experience, and she did not get any uni offers.

@XenoBitch I am aware nursing was not always a degree. Here in Ireland a lot of people go into it straight from school our equivalent of A levels is completed at 17 or 18. There were one or two in my class in their 40s/50s as well but the majority of the class were straight from school

@XenoBitch thats mad the difference in the uk. I was a nurse manager by 29 and a lot of the nurse managers were that age in the hospital I worked in because so many nurses here are going to Australia and the uk so the hospitals are so short . It’s crazy really. Being that bit older wouldn’t be a bad thing

Yes, I have known people who wanted to do nursing so they could move to Australia or New Zealand.
I didn't study nursing, but did Operating Department Practitioner course, and the professional journal magazine thing I was subscribed to use to come with so many leaflets about moving to Oz/NZ.

I would be very upset if I thought my elderly mum with advanced dementia was being cared for by people who had no choice but to do the job. We have kept my mum at home for the last 8 years caring for her ourselves because of this very reason.

Could you imagine being old, frail, confused and ending up in a place unfamiliar to you only to be cared for by people who really don't want to be there?

THIS. Noone thinks it is "easy" - they think there are lots of available jobs that she could do as a stop gap if needed.

I did care work when I was a teenager and it certainly wasnt my ideal career either, it was hard work but as a teenager I'm afraid you have to expect that you might have to suck it up and do some jobs that you dont necessarily think are "perfect" for you.

Lots of teens also work in supermarkets but I highly doubt thats what they dreamed of doing when they were little is it?

Can't not agree with the more.

We currently pay £4k per month for our mum's care at home because we specifically chose our carers, they want to do the job and enjoy it.

The three largest care home groups in the UK are owned by or backed by billionaires yet the majority of their care home staff are on minimum wage and many of their residents are having to sell their homes to pay for care home fees - disgraceful.

Big difference between stacking shelves and helping to care for the most vulnerable and unwell people in our society.

People need to understand why people are in care homes, understand the level of care and compassion that is needed and stop believing it's ok for a young person, most who will have had zero understanding or experience of what is needed to help care for people with advanced dementia, Parkinson's, MS etc. It is wrong to encourage them to simply start applying for these vacancies based on the fact their are so many availabilities within this sector.

I genuinely don't believe many people have any understanding just how extremely difficult it is to look after someone with dementia, I honestly had zero idea before my mum's diagnosis and for that very reason I would never recommend a job in care to young people unless they have a very special caring nature or experience of these wicked diseases.

Good carers are very special human beings.

But ultimately, there is not one job currently being advertised here for shelf stacking at a supermarket and there are 8 for care work. Until that changes, randoms on the internet will continue to say, ‘there’s loads of jobs in care’…which there are.

I would never work in a care home again I did it while I was training to be a podiatrist and its soul destroying.
Better she goes and does an NHS degree than do that. As a podiatrist I was on 50k in just a few years and working 9 to 5 weekends off and no bank holiday working.
Id sooner work in McDonalds than a care home. You have to be a special kind of person to stomach it and I am not that person.
She should be thinking of training for a career of some sort and that will take another few years.

I think more people should consider trying care work, including young people. It can be such a good entry point into a career in healthcare. It's an industry that is crying out for people, and can be so rewarding.
A decent company will have good training and shadow shifts till someone feels ready. A lot offer apprenticeships too.
There are plenty of crap companies too though sadly.

Most require you to be 18+ though. I don't think many will take younger anymore.

It's not a job that's going to be taken over by ai either.

It is not an easy job by any means, but I do think that it's a pathway that has roles for all sorts of people, and if someone tries it and hates it or is not the right personality, then they can leave. Plenty do.

It's a hard job, but it's a great job too. Its a job that you can move around with too.

I agree it can be soul destroying
But not everyone with an NHS degree will be working Monday to Friday 9-5 with no bank Holidays ,either ....

I did mostly domiciliary care in people's own homes, rather than care homes. I think most care homes want 12hr shifts which I think would be too much for me.
Domcare in people's homes though, often have parents fitting the work around families too.

She is training for a career but the FB request id posted was asking if anyone in our area knew of part time work which would give her some pocket money whilst she is at college.

I'd specifically stated retail, bar or hospitality work yet so many were suggesting care work when I'd never even mentioned it.

My daughter is not the type to go into any kind of medical/care work.

I am a PA for disabled people and have always worked in healthcare, not everyone is built to withstand the pressures from care work.

Why on earth would you expect someone to just casually try something like that? It takes a special kind of person to be a carer. All of my mum's carers have been chosen specifically because they are great at what they do and have had years of experience in a career they have chosen to do because they genuinely enjoy it. One of my mum's carers is 23 and cared for her dying parent. She is wonderful but again, she is natural to it. I can not think of any one of my dc's friends who would make a good carer.

We all know what we are good at. Care isn't something to dip your toe into and then pull out when it doesn't suit. That's not fair on care home residents, they need consistency not people coming and going all the time especially people who don't really want to be do a job like that.

Because people don’t appreciate the job. It’s bad really. Yes it might not be a job which requires lots of academic qualifications but it is a bloody calling.

Caring for any vulnerable people is!

No, I don’t think it is. It’s because, as pp have said, it’s easy to get into. In days gone by, when we still had manufacturing and industry, mining etc. this age group and younger would have been going into factories and down the pits. Was that easy work?

People do care work ‘casually’ because it’s minimum wage work, there’s loads of vacancies and there’s hardly any other jobs out there!

Importing people who also ‘don’t care’ is not the answer - language culture empathy mostly missing only here for the money it’s just not fair on our elderly - the answer is proper training proper funding proper qualifications, crèches in care homes, non profit or council care homes in purpose built building not Victorian hotels and the like!

Most people are in their jobs ‘for the money’, realistically.

I wouldn't think anyone thinks it's easy, just available. Same with child care. It's handy and relatively easy to get into but massively depends on personality. I would think care home is much harder though, working with kids is noisy and intense but great fun too.