Home Instead Senior Care Saskatoon is proud to
announce this year’s recipient of our CAREGiver℠ of the Year Award:
Sharon Miller.
Sharon joined our team in
September 2008 and has now served over 1200 hours CAREGiving for the
elderly. Keen to jump into new situations as needs arise, Sharon has
served 25 diverse clients during the past year. She capably shifts from
providing home help service to cooking, running errands as well as
providing personal care, dementia care and palliative care. She has
spent nearly half of her hours this year thoughtfully caring for a
client with dementia who has no remaining immediate family. Sharon goes
above and beyond regular caregiving as she provides care she deems
necessary to this person‘s wellbeing, always without being asked.
Sharon is no stranger to elder care as she has
made long distance trips to assist her own aging parent on two occasions
this past year. Her tender-hearted care reflects genuine concern for
her client’s interests … she generously cares for them as if they were
her own parent. Sharon routinely is taking home mending or repair
projects and purchasing suitable clothing for her clients on her own
time. Similarly, when Sharon’s cancer client had irregular scheduling
due to treatment timing, she was quick to offer flexibility to
accommodate the client’s needs while carefully communicating changes
through the office.
Sparkle and energy describe
this soccer mom who also championed her teen daughter’s soccer team to
nationals this fall. That energy buzz led Sharon, during a visit to a
hospitalized client to decide, one 32° summer day, to wheel her client
four blocks (and back) to her client’s neighboring residence to
celebrate a friend’s birthday. They had fun!
Other
talents emerge when Sharon is on a creative or playful tangent. Typical
visits to the office include entertaining anecdotes about her shifts.
Most holidays inspire Sharon to offer her creative crafts for her
client’s pleasure or our office staff’s enjoyment, see attached photos.
This Halloween she dressed up for her shifts as Minnie Mouse -- Sharon
walked into the office in full garb as this letter was being written!
Describing
Sharon’s experience as a CAREGiver with Home Instead Senior Care in
2009 would not be complete without saying that when the economic
downturn impacted so many families this year, including hers, she had to
consider how best to contribute her talent to the ‘bottom line’.
Sharon made the choice to make a difference caregiving, as a mother, as
a daughter and as a professional Home Instead Senior Care CAREGiver.
We are proud to have Sharon on our Saskatoon team.
