Chantel Thomas en Jaqueline Counter recently completed their Frail Care practicals at Residentia Aristea. They enjoyed doing their practical at the instituition and were thrilled to be shown the ropes by FCD graduates who are now employed at Aristea – Lorraine September, Junique Welkom, Revonia Burger and Howard Steyn.
Sister Wessels from Aristea says that she can tell that our students are being trained well because they realise that working with the elderly is a calling and not a job. She says that carers need to be passionate about working with the frail – something she has experienced with FCD’s learners. She says that the residents are happy to have our students caring for them, so whenever she needs casual staff, she likes to recruit from the pool of FCD carers.
Snazo Mtotoyi, who completed her job shadow at an instituion based in a very Afrikaans community shared that “the residents initially treated me as if I’m nobody because of my inability to speak Afrikaans, but by the time I finished my practical they realised that I am not a harmful person that I’m doing the job as well as the others. When it was time for me to leave one of the Dementia patients tried to convince me not to leave and said that she was going to organise with the person in charge for me to stay”.