When discussing or considering social care jobs, you are still looking at a very large spectrum of careers. One way to break down this large section of potential job areas is to focus on who the social care is being directed at. In this article, we will focus on looking at what is contained within adult social care. Which can still be broken down into further sub-categories, yet the roles and responsibilities of it are a bit more specific than when looking at social care as a whole.
Adult social care, broadly speaking is about helping people be able to live their own lives. This means it’s a level of support that puts the patient’s or service user’s independence at the forefront. Of course, the level of independence someone has can vary massively depending on their situation, illness, background etc. Regardless of what level of independence they have, it is your responsibility to help nurture this independence, and the provide the necessary tools and guidance to allow this level of independence to grow.
As an adult social carer you could be helping people in thier late teens who may have a disability, all the way to elderly people who can have a complex range of needs that they need support with. You may be directly helping adults, such as a care worker or a personal assistant (depending on the severity of a condition), or it may be a more behind the scenes role you work in; such as a technician or a therapist. What links these roles is that they are all different types of support. Forming this support network correctly creates the environment needed for someone who needs adult social care to correctly help themselves.
Finally, the motivation to work in any form of social care needs to come from you wanting to make a difference. On top of this, you cannot expect two days within the world of social care to be the same. Different patients/service users produce different problems to solve, just as every person is unique, so is the way in which you can help them. Traits such as being able to actively listen and show high levels of compassion will help massively within adult social care. If it is something beyond financial gains you want from a job, then this career path could be for you; as 96% of people working in this sector, felt that their job made a genuine difference in the world.