Social care jobs encompass many different types of roles. A large portion of these are based around direct care. Even within this subsection of social care jobs, there is still a large variety of roles. In this article, we will look at some of these roles and see how they differ from one another.
The most common direct care role is being a care worker itself. This is helping people out in all aspects of their life. this might involve working with just one person on a day to day basis. Within social care, this is often referred to as being a personal assistant. Otherwise, you may be helping a small group of people, perhaps within an assisted living structure, with other care workers.
An activities worker can help tremendously toward the wellbeing of those that need assistance. In this role, you’d be helping to organise and run activities for people within an assisted living area, community centres, charity events etc. This might not be what you first think of when it comes to direct care, or the most vital. However, improving someone’s mental health in this way is a huge part of the caring process, and something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Social care roles can involve helping both those who need extra care throughout all stages of their life, and those who suddenly find themselves in a position needing extra care. A rehabilitation worker’s role would be focused more on the latter of these two. This will be helping people get to a level of independence they once previously had. This can be an extremely rewarding area of direct care, where strong progression can be seen over a short period of time.
Shared lives caring involves opening your house to those who need care. This might be on a full time basis or for a few hours a day/week. This can offer a solid foundation and healthy environment for those that need care and support. Of course having someone living with you full time is not for everyone. As a result, it’s important to know what level of commitment you can give to caring, for your own wellbeing, and the quality of care you can offer.
These few different examples of direct care shows the level of variety available within social care, and there are still many other roles, both within and outside of direct care. It shows there is a career path for anyone who might consider social care, as there are many different skill sets needed.
