The Importance of Character and Integrity in Caregiving with Patricia Gouldbourne

Patricia Gouldbourne is a dedicated and compassionate home health care aide, known for her outstanding service and care for her clients. Originally from Jamaica, Patricia has been volunteering for the elderly since she can remember. Patricia has been a Caregiver since 2005 and currently is a coordinator at Welcome Back Home Care. Patricia is very active with her church, and spends time with family as much as possible.

In this episode of Elder Care Insights, host Lee Berkowitz welcomes Patricia Gouldbourne, an experienced caregiver from Welcome Back Home Care, to share her journey and insights into providing excellent care for the elderly.

Patricia discusses her passion for caregiving, the importance of maintaining dignity and independence for individuals, and the high standards upheld by Welcome Back Home Care in selecting and empowering caregivers.

Listeners gain valuable knowledge about the crucial role caregivers play in the lives of elderly individuals and the commitment of Welcome Back Home Care in delivering top-notch care services.

Connect with Patricia Gouldbourne
Website: www.welcomebackhomecare.com
Phone Number: 561-279-6400

Key Takeaways:

1. Caregivers should preserve elderly dignity and autonomy.
2. Organizations empower caregivers for quality elderly care.
3. Trust and personal engagement are key in elderly care.

Timestamps:
02:55 Grateful for caregiver who helped aging parents.
05:03 First encounter in van leads to success.
07:47 Caregiver gained trust through patience and sarcasm.
10:14 Powerful choices define our autonomy and fear.
15:06 Client relationships are important in home health care.
18:40 Family takes care of family in home healthcare.
20:07 Orientation and individual meetings ensure caregiver selection.
25:41 Great culture, intuition, presence in transportation. Miami Heat success example.

Book a call with Lee Berkowitz: www.welcomebackhomecare.com

Transcript

0:00

It's very crucial that you just don't go in and try to take away your independence. That's a great point, Patricia. You know, I've heard and studies say these folks, these clients, they don't want to feel like someone's babying them. Yes. Right. Would you like to do this? Yes. Even saying sit down. Instead, would you like to take a seat? Hello, everybody. Welcome back to The Elder Care Insights Podcast by Welcome Back Home Care. Now we have a great guest and we have our co-host. Patricia Gouldbourne is our guest and she's a caregiver from Welcome Back Home Care. She's been working with us for quite some time. I've known Patricia for about ten years, and we have Mark, the co-host. Okay. Well, thankfully, this is a a great podcast. We just started it recently. It's the Elder Care Insights podcast with Lee Berkowitz as the as the host leads from Welcome Back Home Care, which is just a phenomenal organization that places, I guess, home health care nurses is what it's called, or home health aides and certified nursing assistants. Okay. And then we're lucky today. We're lucky enough to have Patricia Gouldbourne as our guest, who the minute you walked in, your your huge smile just. Welcome to our show today. Thank you for having me. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah, I'm from Jamaica. Okay. And I came here in 2005. Okay. I met Lee in 2013. Okay. It's been ten years since we met. And since then, he has been a great person, a great boss. So you work with. Welcome back. Yes. Okay. All right. So you're a home health aide is what? What is kind of what you do. How did you first decide to get into that? What what brought you to becoming a home health aide? Well, this has been a passion for me. Even before I came here in back home, I used to go to the Golden Age homes and provide voluntary care for them. We would make sure that their needs are met and, you know, give them a sense of purpose and take care of them as voluntary service. Okay. So. So you came here and you said 2005? Yes. Right. And so did you have to go through some schooling or or what does it take to become a home health aide? We have to go through some schooling, training and how to become a home health aide is a certified course. Okay. And I do have to say that I have great gratitude for what you do because my my, both my mom and my my, my, my, my father first and then my mom, they had the same health care aide who literally became her name. I just say her name was Patricia Clark. And and from Jamaica and just one of the most wonderful people I've ever met because she did something that I can never repay is she helped take care of my parents in their older years, which is kind of what you kind of what you do. Tell us a little bit about that. Tell us a little bit about some of the the services that that you you personally as a as a home health care aide you provide. Tell us about some of the services that that that you do. Well, some of the services that we do is to take care of their personal needs and companionship. We make them feel at home. We make them feel like they still have a purpose of living and we guide them along the way. You know, we hold their hand. We make sure you literally hold their hand. Right. A figurative way and literally hold their hand. Yes. Yeah. And so we make them feel special. Sure. Make them feel like we are the champions and we are there to help the care, to provide all of their needs, to take care and assist them in all their needs. And so. So you do do interacting with the family and all that, Do you? yes. That's a key part of our work here. We interact with the families, you know, meet them, give them updates and highlights as to what is going on with their parents when there are changes in their care and their needs. We also give them updates on that. So how long have you been doing this for? Since 2013. So it's about ten years now. See, I'm good with math. I could figure that out. You know, that's. There we go. About how many clients of you have you work with so far? I would say maybe over 30. Over 30? Yeah. Okay. Which one was your favorite? I'm just kidding. You can't answer that. Don't answer that question whatsoever. Okay. One, my favorites. They're all your favorites. Yes. So we can go back to when we first met originally. My brother has a company called Always on Time Transportation. I was a driver and this was before Patricia worked for for Welcome Back Home Care. I met Patricia while I was driving in the van and she was taking her client to a place called Raspberries, a hair salon. So when I met, I met Patricia and I gave her a card and said, We're starting this company. We'd love to have you. And now here we are now. And now Patricia is actually a coordinator for Welcome Back Home Care. She was promoted from within. We liked her quality and who she is as a person. We brought her into the office. So even prior to working with Welcome Back Home Care, you worked either for a different agency or privately and you had some private clients. Yes, but it's funny because it sounds like it goes like from family to family to family like you, you kind of Lee kind of created this family and you brought people in. You brought you know, you saw a talent when you were there in Patricia, you brought it to your family. And now she's pretty much and I know this firsthand, you've become you don't just have 30 clients. I'm going to correct you on that. You have 30 families that you that you deal with. And, you know, it's it's I guess, you know, it's funny is that I guess like Thanksgiving was always like a special time of night. My mom died three years ago during COVID. And I still you know, I'm still in contact with, you know, with her caregiver because she literally became I mean, is that do you find that are you still, like, in contact with some of the family of of people that are no longer with us or. yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I have been in contact with most of them. Okay. Yeah. So how important is stuff like hygiene and and and and I guess physical makeup. It also. Tell us a little bit about the services that you provide and the importance of that, the importance of physical hygiene. Personal hygiene is that it helps to keep them. Well, it's a part of their wellness because you have to take care of their personal needs as if they were able to do it for themselves. And to the first thing that you have to do in giving personal care is to get them at a place of comfort, a place of trust where they can trust you so they know that you're there to help. You're there to make their lives more, you know, livable, easier for them. And so when you develop that into personal relationship with them, this is not just only see you as their caregiver, they see you as someone who really cares and have compassion for them. So it's funny because again, I hate to keep going back with like, I can only go from my personal experience, you know, my my, my, my parents caregiver had to deal with two totally different people, had to deal with my father, who was very, very difficult, wasn't, you know, what was not an easy person at all. And and as he got older, he became grumpier. Whereas my mom was just the most easy, wonderful. And she very was was best friends with Patricia, you know, till the till the day she passed away. So how do you tell me about how you gain that trust? How do you you know, how how do you interact to to gain? You know, again, my dad became much easier with Patricia as time went on, because exactly what you just said, they they gain that trust and she would put up with him and sometimes, you know, like a little bit sarcastic with him and. Okay, Stanley, that's all right. You you. So tell us a bit about about your and I'm assuming every caregiver is different now. What's your method for for getting that trust? Well, that's a very good question. In gaining the trust, you have to if, for example, you walk into the house, you have to be pleasant, you have to greet them. Well, introduce yourself and let them know you're there to help. So everything that you're going to do for them, you would not just do it. You would tell them what you're going to do. Well, today I'm going to go ahead and give you a shower. Is that okay? And they will say yes or no. If they say no, then you can say, okay, do you want me to come back at a later time? And then you kind of coach them into their care. And then once they can trust you and they develop that, you have that one and one relationship with them, it's very crucial that you just don't go in and try to take away their independence. That's a great point, Patricia. You know, I've heard and studies say these folks, these clients, they don't want to feel like someone's babying them. Yes. Right. Like they don't want to feel like a baby. They want to be asked. Right. If, you know, would you like to do this? Yes. Even saying sit down instead. Would you like to take a seat? It's the little things like that that really make a big difference on how they feel. Nobody wants to be told what to do. It's their house. We will preserve the dignity and is a great point. So I guess I guess it's kind of a close cousin to that. It is. They don't lose their power, you know, I guess it you know, it's people that, again, we right now we decide where we want to go. You you decided you wanted to be on this podcast today. Least we decided that I decided to come in here. I have I have that power. And if somebody were to to take that away, I think that's that's one of the most frightening, I think troubling things that that that that the parents can experience. So I guess funny that you say that like you I could just see the the compassion in your eyes and in your smile. And I got to give Lee credit for seeing that that day in the in the transportation van that what a beautiful it's a little thing but I picked up on it You asked her do you want to take a shower today. Yes. And if they say no, then you know what? I guess they have the right to say no, to say no. And then eventually, when you built that trust in it, I think it's much easier if if if I decide I want to take a shower, then you telling me I. I have to take a shower and that's good for you. So tell us a little bit more about about that whole trust in all and everything I did. Yeah. Yeah. Key part of getting their trust is to involve myself in it. Like, for example, if I want them to have dinner, I would say, let us. Right. Let us go and have dinner. Let us go and sit. Let us go and watch TV. I just I let them feel like I'm a part of it. I'm coming with them right there. I'm taking the steps with you. And so when the knowledge is that you're not there to take over, you're there to help, then most times they let go. They were acquiesce. They react differently in a positive way rather than you go in and try to take over. So I have developed that key function and they will eventually see or like Patricia, you're the expert, you take over. I don't want to do this. I don't want to get in your way. And then you keep that friendliness, you keep that smile with them, though, it may be difficult, as you have mentioned before, your father has become more difficult. The first thing as a caregiver you have to know is that you can't take it personal right? And once you if you took it personal, then that's it'd be very difficult job. Yes. Right. But you have to always smile about it, even if you're hurting. You have you can't let them see that because they are in their ways of they may be feeling sick, they may be in pain and so they get grumpy. You have to reassure them that it's okay. I'm here to take care of you. You know, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You just have to keep on reassuring them that you're there to help. So you've worked in other you've done not just not just for welcome back home care, but you've worked at it. Tell us what differentiates Lee and and welcome back from from from other other are there other places that you could have you could have continued your career with? That's a very good question. What makes Welcome back Home special and unique is that is his commitment in providing and empowering caregivers with excellence and with his integrity. He passed that on to us. And so with his guidance and constant training of the caregivers, we automatically develop that passion that he has it, you know, like something rubs off on you. Your boss is passionate about what those he's committed and he has integrity. So you want to emulate that. You want to be that person. Of course. Of course. It's sort of like I always say, I always talk about like you can walk into a restaurant, you know, if that owner is a nice person. Yes. You know, when you when the server comes over, the servers friendly and all that and and helpful, you know that that that that that the owner that it always it always starts from the top. And I guess now when you're in your new position and everything well what was that position again what's your what's your title over there now. Scheduling and coordination. Scheduling and coordinating. So you're so you're talking to a lot of a lot of clients, families and all that and coordinating when they come and the caregivers and the caregivers too. So it's funny. So it's funny is is ironically, I'm sitting between the both of you is on the middle the middle of the both of these and that's that's my New York of the both of you is it's not used it's yours. Right. I'm sure between the both of you is and I could just almost envision what would a a family member or client experiences once talking to Lee. You know just just the fact that Lee wanted this is his this is the second podcast of this and Lee wanted you to be it's really an honor to to to be, you know, his his initial podcast to be you. It shows what what he feels about you and the pride that he has in you and and the trust that he has in you that you would, you know, not like he wasn't sitting here going, my goodness. Before we do this podcast, we got to talk to Patricia and Preparer and all that. Like he knew that that woman with that huge smile when she when she walked into the studio would, would do a great job. And obviously this portrays onto the customer I think I think when you when you call when you call that customer or you speak to that customer, that customer, the client comes in and you coordinate that with with the with the with the home health care. A, I think it's just you're you're taking your your you're making a friend in the client and you have a friend as the aide and you're almost it's almost like you're picking them up almost. So to talk a little bit about that, what makes him special and what makes me would want to join the team in the office is that I would use three FS to to describe my boss and that this is G rated. I'm telling you now. Yes. The three of you. Yeah. And that's he's fair in what he does. As to us as caregivers, he is friendly. You can always talk to him. You can call him up and say, you know, this is happening. You can talk to him as a friend and he is firm in whatever he has to execute us. His firm is committed to the task. It must be done with urgency. It must be done with efficiency. And that's what he means. So so that makes him unique as a boss. So do you do you feel that because there's going to be situations, things are going to happen, however you feel that Lee has your back. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome back. We definitely have our caregivers back. Yes. And we choose from a large group pool of caregivers, and we choose only the highest caliber caregivers. And thank you for those kind words and we appreciate what Patricia does. So something to piggyback off what we were talking about before meeting or introducing or talking to the family members, we're always going to do a meet and greet. Yes. So the family gets a good idea about who's coming into the home. Ideally, the daughter or the son is going to be there to help make it more comfortable for the parent who is not doing well. And they could be in pain and they could be in an upset mood. They could be projecting that pain. But when we introduce the caregiver to the family, it really means the world to them because they know they can trust who they're with, who's going to be in their home, they can communicate, they can do all the things that we talk about. Well, sometimes do meet and greets for an hour and a half and talk about what is mom like to do, What is dad like to do, Where do we go, you know, on a daily basis? What's the weekends like? Yes. And what are the day to day routines? We'll also have a plan of care set up in place, an assessment from a nurse to get a baseline about how the client is. So that's super important. Connecting. We're connectors, we're introducing the caregiver to the clients and making sure that the family feels comfortable and the client feels comfortable. And that's the best way to make it work. So, so so it's it's pretty much your family pretty much taking care of taking care of their family. So so so so something something that Lee and I talked about before, before you you came off, Patricia, was that you know, I know some people in the in the home health care business I've lived in in South Florida for 57 years, which is amazing because I think I'm only 40 years old. Don't don't, don't tell me otherwise. But but I know that a lot of home health care agencies have a lot of difficulty finding finding AIDS, that it's that it's not that easy. And and Lee tells me that that it's that that it's not difficult at all. And it sounds like he has, you know, seeing you and seeing what you know, that you know, how you came in the family. It seems like he has top, top notch people in it. And he said, there's you guys, there's like a lot of referrals to talk about, like the quality and the people that that that work at Welcome back home home care. Well, I would rephrase a little of getting AIDS. There are a lot of AIDS. Yes, they are. Yeah, AIDS. But at welcome back Home Care, we have selected the best of the group and we make sure that the ones we are selecting to send into someone's home, we make sure that they have integrity and they have good character. Okay? And that starts with orientation. We are we speaks with them individually. We just don't take them off, you know, over the phone or that we meet with them and we in meeting with someone, you can actually see if this person will be a good fit for this client. And does this person have integrity? Does this person have character? Because by talking to someone for maybe five or 10 minutes, you actually know, will this be a good caregiver? Will this be a good match? So we make our selections specific quickly. We make it just not just by someone applying to welcome back home care for a job we meet with and we make sure that they are competent and something very unique about welcome back home care that differentiates us. We grow all of our caregiver base from word of mouth so for instance, Patricia, you've referred a few caregivers to us that are working with us, and they're very terrific because the chances of having a great caregiver refer other great caregivers are higher than finding a caregiver off Craigslist. Say, we actually know all the caregivers that are coming into the office and that's how we grow. We we do word of mouth referrals, an organic approach. It's been like that for ten years. It's funny because I always have an edge or, sheesh, my son is good people know good people, you know, judge me by the people that I hang out with. And so that's I think that's. Tell us about some of the people that so you feel very comfortable referring friends and family I guess to to to welcome back some of the people that I've referred to. So welcome back home here are coworkers that I work with, but they are sometimes you're on a case where you have two different companies, and then I would watch to see how they work. I would watch to see if they are on. They come to work on time. I would watch to see how they took care of the patient, the client. I would watch to see how they apply themselves to the task. And you know, you move on from there and you say, okay, will this be a good fit for welcome back home care? So if I believe that they're a good fit, so to be an asset to welcome back home care, then I will introduce them. I would say, why don't you apply to my agency? And I would give them the information for them. So we don't take everybody that that comes in and applies their they have to kind of be up to to welcome homes EastEnders welcome home standard so say you wanted to refer somebody to to welcome home and they came in how long's the process before you you place them with the client. We would place them with a client once we go through all the assessments we would place them with a client. As soon as there is an availability, I'm going to throw a curveball question at you. But I and I wouldn't do this if I did realize we know that that that you could handle it. Okay. Tell us about your very best day working it. Welcome back home. That's a very good question. It's an excellent question. I do. I'm not going to ask you to stay, I promise. My best day working as we welcome back home here as a home health there. It was a client that I have. And when the doctor says I can't do anything else for you, and then when I look at the her and the situation, I started to go above and beyond. Sure. And I was able to take care of her until she gets back up and it and we start going to target again while that and that it's for my very best when we walk out and go to Target. What did the doctor say? I can't do anything more for you. It's funny because I'm welling up just hearing you that because and you're you're welling up as well. Because in essence, this medical provider said there's there's nothing further that they could do for this person. But that was the exact opposite of what you do. There's everything that you could do for them that you will whatever, whatever time they have left you. Good for you. I mean, it's funny because we're all kind of welling up here a little bit, but that's that's you know, I, I very much believe that a great motivate my favorite motivational speaker says a great day is one one in which you you you laugh yes you think deeply and your emotions are moved to tears and you go home and you feel a sense of jobs that I guess it's a gift for you to be able to give this gift of of of of life of each day of of of again. The doctor couldn't give them couldn't do anything. But you could. That's the that that what it's what it was it was it expecting that that that wonderfully awesome awesome response to that. So so so so we're in your role right now so are you just strictly the the the the guest the client coordinator or are you going to go back out and work with clients again Because you obviously have a gift and I don't want to get, you know, whatever. But you obviously just just that response in your emotion to that response, it's just wonderful. So what's what's the next step for Patricia Gouldbourne? Well, sometimes when even though I'm in office and we have emergencies that we're not able to fit immediately. And I took the decision to say no, like in the Army, they would say no soldier left behind, right? So we said, No patient, no client left, no hot client. So if I have to be there to do it and he'll do it, okay, that's, that's really, really wonderful. So, I mean, that's again, kudos to you, Lee, for for having the intuition to having somebody in your in your transportation van and realizing what what a there's just a from the minute you walk in there's an aura, a presence and I'm assuming that that's that Patricia you obviously that the first person that you wanted to bring on your podcast is an example of what your family, of what your business, of what your culture. You know, we always talk we talk about you talk about the Miami Heat, talk about the reason why they win is they have such a great culture. You know, I think the reason why you're not out there on the street on Craigslist looking looking for home health care AIDS is would you agree that there's a there's just a great culture out there for, you know, at the welcome back home care? There is We're of the best. There you go. I love that. I love that. I love that you have passion for what you do. We didn't hire Patricia. We chose her right out of a lot of people. And she was chosen because of the qualities that she possesses over the years. The clients say the best things. We've seen it in action. So we're honored to have Patricia on the team and all the caregivers that are really meeting our high standards. And it sounds like it's vice versa. Since it sounds like you, it sounds like you've found pretty much your forever home. Have you have? That's wonderful. That's really been a pleasure. That's really wonderful. So so Lee, go back to tell us a little bit about how how people can can find people like Patricia to be home, how home health care aides tell us a bit about they can get a hold of that. Welcome back. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well our phone number 561-279-6400 more time. A little slower. 561-279-6400. That's 561-279-6400. Welcomebackhomecare.com is also a great place where caregivers and clients can find some information about us, see what we're up to. Eventually, the this podcast will be on the website. And what's the name of this podcast? The Elder Care Insights Podcast by Welcome Back Home Care. And it's been a pleasure. It's been an honor and we look forward to having our future guests on. So stay tuned for that. All right, Awesome podcast. And again, Lee and I would like to totally honored like like we just said, it's an honor to have you on our our our podcast and our very special guest. You're a very special, warm, wonderful person. Thank you very, very much. And thank you for having me.