Congratulations to Caregiver Excellence award winner, Julianna Chaffee. Julianna is one of the stars of the caregiver staff at the Upland, California location of SYNERGY HomeCare. She is very knowledgeable about caregiving techniques and performs her duties with a kind, generous and loving heart.
Julianna just celebrated her first anniversary with SYNERGY HomeCare after being out of the workforce for 7 1/2 years battling and eventually surviving breast cancer. She was eager to start helping others, and her first assignment occurred immediately following her orientation.
Since diving into caregiving, she hasn’t gotten out of the caregiving pool; logging over 1,325 hours with 14 clients, five of them on a regular basis. She is willing to cover call-offs, sometimes on very short notice. Even after asking no longer be assigned live-in shifts, she stepped in when conflicts arose and the cases needed to be re-staffed.
How About Julianna?
Julianna makes a connection with each client in her care. Julianna does occasional fill-in work for one client who has trouble remembering names. When her regular caregiver can’t come, she has asked, “How about the older lady with the white hair? Can she do it?
After filling in at the last minute for a client whose wife had Alzheimer’s, he called the Upland location to report that she was “the perfect caregiver for his wife”. He signed up for two shifts the following week provided Julianna would be the caregiver.
For a quadriplegic client, Julianna brought him an extra electric can opener from her home so that he would be able to open cans with his one good hand when his caregivers weren’t there. He commented, “Julianna is always positive, optimistic, and supportive. No job is too demeaning for her. She always has a sense of what needs to be done, and when and how to do it. She’s a good cook and often brings me food from her home.”
Most recently, for her stroke client who has difficulty with speech, reading, and writing, Julianna inquired at the local library about the availability of any reading and writing programs. She found out the library offers free one-on-one reading/writing classes taught by retired teachers who donate their time. Julianna signed up her client and will take her to her starting appointment next week.
Julianna is always mindful of ways to enrich the lives of her clients. Thank you Julianna!
