Stella Mbahepa

My name is Stella seuaa Mbahepa and I work as a live in carer with an individual experiencing care at home and I have a HNC in Social and Health Care. I assist the individual with their daily needs, including personal care, cooking and eating. I support them to attend activities and GP appointments. I also support them to maintain their home, environmental hygiene, and prompting and administering medications.

Initially, it was not easy to find the job as a refugee in the UK. Before gaining refugee status I was an asylum seeker without any UK working experience or documents to share with employers. I was in receipt of Universal credit, which helped me financially whilst looking for work.

Later when I received support from organisations including Scottish Refugee Council and an organisation called Job and Business, they provided me with training and assisted me applying for the jobs. I found the training really helped me and I gained experience and knowledge of lots of topics including communication skills, care planning and person-centred care, values and the role of the care worker.

Social care is a good choice for me because I grew up in a community where people help each other in different ways. It’s good because social care improves the quality of life for people and helps them to achieve their life goals. In my home country, in festival season, we supported people who needed it within the community for example providing meals and offering support with their personal care such as cutting their nails and doing their hair etc. All these things made me choose social care as a career.

Every part of social care keeps me motivated because I ended up gaining valuable skills, including, empathy, patience, commitment, excellent communication, emotional intelligence, and more. The key skills we use daily are communication, such as how you explain and record the work you do. Teamwork skills, listening to others, conflict resolution, respect, treating others the way you want to be treated and creativity.

I need to be creative to support the individuals I support to explore and do more of the activities they enjoy, so I try my level best to help and encourage them. In terms of emergency, I need clear verbal communication and active listening skills when reporting any incidents.

What I enjoy the most about working in care is making a difference in someone's life by providing support and helping them maintain their independence, seeing them happy and encouraging and motivating.

A memorable moment was when I supported an 89-year-old man living at home. When I visited him, he gave me a tour of his house, he was so creative, he used to be an artist before, and he had many of his paintings displayed on the walls. I spent a few days in the house to get to know him and asked him if he still painted and the answer was no. I politely asked why he didn’t paint anymore if there was anything stopping him, he replied “I think I'm too old for that now” so I suggested we try together. One day, I asked if he could paint something, which he agreed, he did a really great painting and he was really amazed. From that day on he started painting again.

What I would say to someone considering a career in care is that they should try it because it's really changed me personally. It’s a career that teaches you to be humble and understand life especially when you're working with people from different backgrounds. You'll learn new skills such as being more patient and a good listener. You also make a positive difference to the people you support, providing someone to talk to and someone who listens with kind heart. Hopefully this makes the individuals we support feel confident and safe.

A care career offers the opportunity to make a significant positive impact on people's lives by providing essential support to them and also provides flexibility in work schedules. A lot of people develop valuable skills, and it allows you to directly contribute to the well-being of others within your community, just like I do.