Love is the greatest gift ever given to humanity. St. John Paul II stated that “Love is the only proper and adequate attitude towards every person.” Love brings us closer to the truth about the person we interact with, and to the truth about the reality that we experience. A person who knows that he/she is loved will feel safe with the caregiver, agency, and other members in the person’s circle. The person will show us exactly who they are in return, and will share their strengths, weaknesses, feelings, and expectations. The person will eventually let their guard down and may seize to be combative, and may even become creative, peaceful, relaxed, and simply happy. Being loved reduces the fear of being harmed.
Conversely, a person does not feel loved is living in darkness of fear of being hurt by a stranger. The person will guard everything possibly to protect themselves. The person will not let anyone inside the window to their own heart. Fear makes a person inactive, less creative, while paralyzing every intention, suppressing the freedom of expression. The person will fear that their uniqueness will not be accepted. The eventual result is the compounding unhappiness that results in many ways including clinical sicknesses.
How is the presence of love and the lack of love expressed in the home care business?
For ICONNEL, everything starts from a warm introduction: Stating who we are, what we are going to do and why. Some agencies provide this instruction, and it’s very simple, but most of the time we see that this most basic gesture of good etiquette is forgotten. Yet, this simple introduction for the cooperation of any person we approach changes us from a stranger to a caring person.
With every increment that follows, the caregiver can augment their expression of love to bring the relationship closer together. Instead of sitting in a chair doing nothing, the caregiver can engage his/her client so that he/she is not afraid to ask for help any time. The caregiver is also not afraid to ask for extra help when they have sleepless nights, and the client’s family members are not afraid to ask for more skilled personnel or different assistance, when necessary. Work and communication goes smoothly, when love is present. This strategy consistently works, and anything less has always jeopardized a successful care-giving engagement. Only with Love we are all winners.
