Ralph Folk

7.00am

The whole house is awake, and everyone is preparing for a full day of work or school activities.

8.00 am

Everyone climbs into the car, and I drive the kids to school and drop them off for the day. 

8.30 am

The workday begins! By this point lots of my colleagues are milling about the office, which is open plan and always a hive of activity at this time. It’s quite common to see our friendly CEO Kate, hard at work on her computer.

Today is an individual care shift, so I am collecting my client sheets. From these documents I get a summary of personal and care information, similar to a care plan this tells me what, if any, special kinds of assistance my clients will need today.

For shifts where I am scheduled to drive the bus, I would instead collect a run-sheet, telling me where to go and which clients to pick up. Bus trips involve collecting clients from their homes and transporting them to shopping centres or various locations for day excursions.

8.45 am

Time to grab a company car from the car park and head off to my first client of the day.

9.00 am

First cab off the rank is Betty, who has a medical appointment. Betty is 82 years old and vision impaired, her client sheet indicates she might require additional assistance to navigate pathways and roads. Once Betty is safely in the car, we head off for Eastlakes shopping centre.  

9.20 am

At the medical centre I sit in the waiting room and take some time to review Betty’s shopping list, once she is finished with her appointment, I am escorting her to Woolworths for some weekly shopping.

10.00 am

Betty has finished with shopping for the day and I am helping her navigate the car park safely, watching out for cars and uneven surfaces. Once all shopping is loaded into the car we head back to Betty’s house.

10.30 am

We arrive home right on time. Betty is very thankful of my assistance and thanks me warmly as I move shopping bags into her kitchen. She is independent and prefers to put her shopping away by herself, so after saying goodbye I head off for my next appointment.

11.00 am

Pulling up to Joe and Maria’s house. Joe is a regular client of mine, a 90-year-old man who is living with Dementia. Today I am taking Joe on a walk by the water, this will give his wife Maria some much needed respite.
 

11.15 am

Joe is excited to see me and offers me some of Maria’s freshly baked bread from the kitchen. Joe is very sweet, and it seems like he is having a good day today. With dementia clients every day is different, and it takes a lot of patience to provide good care – but I enjoy it.

11.30 am

It is a beautiful day and the sun is shinning brightly, a perfect day for a stroll. Joe points out different birds as we make our way around the lake, and we talk about his work with animals when he was a young man in Italy.

12.00 pm

Joe and I make our way back to his house, and once inside I make conversation with Maria about her week. It is very clear that Maria really appreciates the effort I put into working with Joe.

After this I have two more appointments, another medical appointment and then a shopping appointment. Management always try to schedule clients within close proximity of each other, so I don’t mind the driving around too much.

3.30 pm

After dropping my last client home, I head to a petrol station and fill up the company car.

3.40 pm

My last stop for the day is the office. I have a chat with a colleague who is also finishing for the day and then complete some paperwork.

4.00 pm

Finishing time! Now I will be heading off to collect my children from school and then home. It’s been a great day today and I am already looking forward to tomorrow when I am rostered to drive the SECC bus to Manly, for a day trip.

Please note all client names are fictitious and created for illustrative purposes.