Caregiver: Amanda S.
Employer: Aspen House
Location: Loveland, CO
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Inspiration for This Nomination:
Amanda is amazing. Everything about her breathes compassion, care, acceptance, excellence, intuition, humility, and drive to make the residents’ lives better. Amanda fully understands and embraces the person-centered care philosophy and lives it each day. She treats each resident as an individual and caters to the individual needs and desires of each resident. For example, she will take one woman to the community beauty shop to fix her hair for the day. The woman was always meticulous about her appearance and is quite relaxed sitting in the beauty shop chair (rather than in her room) to get her hair brushed for the day.
Caregiver's Best Skills and Attributes:
Amanda’s strengths and best skills are many. She takes time to learn about the individual whom she serves and then plans her care around what she has learned. She knows the residents in her area so well that she is often able to suggest and implement ideas to make their lives more meaningful. One resident was a retired physician and often thought he was preparing for surgery. Amanda would bring him a “chart” with various medication names and numerals for him to study. He would keep busy for an hour making plans for the surgical procedure.
Feedback About This Caregiver:
“Always alert to making things better for those in her care,” residents are “blessed beyond measure to have her help” has a “natural sensitivity and gift for caregiving that cannot be learned”, “I’ve seen her go from hugging one resident to asking another about family to helping another…she is so kind and sweet and does all that in one breath”, she has “an open display of affection for everyone”, “she cares for those in her care so genuinely…just like they are family”, she “demonstrates the value of respect and dignity for the individuals in her care”
What Others Have Learned From This Caregiver:
Amanda is very person-centered in the care services she offers. Amanda is kind and gentle and well-liked and well-respected by residents, families, and co-workers. We have all learned more person-centered care approaches by observing Amanda. For example, she has been able to encourage cognitively impaired residents to shower when he/she will otherwise be extremely stressed out during the experience. Amanda’s patience and gentle nature are not easy to emulate, but we all try!
More About This Caregiver:
Amanda has been in her role as a care partner at this assisted living community since January 2011. She loves what she does and takes delight in figuring out what will work best for an individual resident and to meet their special needs. She does what she does to provide meaningful, pleasant experiences for the residents—not for the recognition.
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Read More Stories | Find Memory Care | Hire This Company: Aspen HouseI love working with Amanda. She is so kind to every resident and she usually comes up with great ideas about things to do to help the residents or to make them feel better. She is one of the very few care givers who is able to assist one man with his shower without him being overly stressed out. She cares so much about the residents and their families. If a family is concerned about something, Amanda will leave a note for the family member to let them know everything is ok. She thinks about the residents on her days off and usually has a new idea of something to try when she gets back to work. One time a man had trouble following directions so Amanda made up a chart for him so that he could read it and then know what to do next.
Amanda is an exceptional care-giver. She makes it a priority to know everything she can about each resident in order to provide person-centered care. Recently, she accompanied a resident to the hospital in order to be a calming presence in an otherwise scary situation.
I am always amazed at Amanda's patience and ability to provide person-centered care in even the most stressful situations. She is always calm and reassuring to the residents in her care.
Amanda is such a kind, generous person. She will go out of her way to make sure the residents are taken care of. She goes above and beyond to make her community feel comfortable and welcoming.
Amanda was so very good to my dad.
Amanda is a leader. I learned so much from working with her! She truly is a joy to be around and loves her residents. She thinks out side the box based on the resident because she truly cares about them!
Amanda is truly incredible!