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Community Care Assistant - Lois

I began my career with Denbighshire working as a Learning Support Assistant for children with autism at Ysgol Brondyffryn in October 2004. Before that, I studied Linguistics at Bangor University, and worked part-time at a local supermarket. It was perhaps working in a supermarket that originally developed my interest in working with people.

I moved from Learning Support to a 6 month secondment as a Community Care Officer with the Learning Disabilities Team in Henllan. Community Care Assistants review care packages which have been put in place for service users by their Social Workers.

I was lucky enough to have the temporary post extended until another post as a Community Care Assistant became available in March 2007 with the team I work with now – the Specialist Adults Team (SAT). The team is multi-functional, working with adults aged mainly between 18 and 65 who have a physical disability and/or sensory impairment.

I also have a secondary role within the team as Deafblind Coordinator, and I work with the Visual Impairment Team within SAT, Sense UK and Deafblind UK to coordinate services for people who suffer dual sensory loss. I really enjoy working with adults, because the broad age range of the service users means that the job is very varied, and always interesting.

I have recently undertaken training presented by RNIB and RNID in Liverpool on dual sensory loss, and will be starting my NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care in May. I also hope to take a training course in Specialist Assessment when dates become available.

I feel well looked after in Denbighshire, and this job is something I see myself doing for a while. In future, I would like to train as a Social Worker, and am hoping a traineeship will become available so that I can train and continue to work for Denbighshire.

To anyone thinking of becoming a Community Care Assistant, my advice would be that you have to start the job prepared to learn – there is so much to take in! The work will keep you busy, and it’s an excellent opportunity to learn as you work. Most of all, I would say that the job is really satisfying.