Community care jobs can be one of the most satisfying jobs out there, while also being incredibly stressful at times. In this article I want to show what type of roles a community care worker does, and what the pros and cons of these types of jobs can be. Community care can encompass many different types of jobs, therefore I will try and look at the more generic qualities of community care.
The pros and cons are closely linked to one another, as it is often the struggle of some of the harder aspects of the job, that once a breakthrough is made, can make the job so satisfying. For example, you will often be working with members of the community that need special medical care physically or mentally, this can result in simple tasks becoming quite time consuming. Yet, one of the main functions of a community care worker is to facilitate the means in which these types of roles, many of us take for granted in day to day life, to feel as frictionless as possible. Therefore, even though there are times where the time consuming nature of these “simple” acts can be, once someone you are caring for achieves these of their own merit is instantaneously rewarding seeing you are helping those individuals gain fulfilment and a level of independence they would not otherwise be able to achieve.
Unsurprisingly, community plays a large role in these jobs. Specifically, helping certain individuals be an active member of the community, one who contributes to the community in some regard or another. Often a worker may work with individuals or groups of people with a physical or mental disability. Often these disabilities, no matter what they are, can make an individual feel isolated from the community, or feel they are not contributing compared to those without disabilities. As a community care worker, you can make possible the means in which a person can be and feel like a contributing member of the community. This isolation to begin with can make some people trickier to break out of their shells or lower their defenses to allow someone to help them. But once again, this makes the moments when someone realising they are an active member of the community so rewarding.
In short, community care work can be a challenging and stressful experience, but these attributes are also what makes it such a satisfying role, when you and those you are helping are able to overcome social barriers to get someone to be a genuine contributing member of society.
