May's Aide of the Month is the hardworking and compassionate Suesan Spencer. Suesan has been working as a Home Health Aide for 25 years. Throughout the years, she has worked for several different agencies, but finds that Blossom goes above and beyond stating, “I’ve been working with a lot of just different agencies, and I like this one the best. People are super friendly.” Before home care, Suesan worked in a factory, but when that closed, Suesan decided to stay at home to care for her children. After her kids were working ages, Suesan chose to return to the workforce and was drawn to helping others as an Aide.
There is always a need for people to provide care for older adults and people living with disabilities. As a diligent and caring individual, Suesan recognizes this need and is always willing to help fill in those gaps, “I’m a hard worker. As long as I’ve been a Home Health Aide, every agency is short at times, and I’ve always offered my time to help cover the shifts.” Suesan is motivated to work as hard as she does because of her passion for getting to know someone on a profound level, “I like what I do because one agency offered me to go to school as a nurse. I said no, then you’re not working one-on-one… I like to work one-on-one, getting to know people I work with and helping them because they’re the ones that in my eyes, need the most help.”
Over her long career in home care, Suesan has worked with a wide variety of people. Although the people differ, Suesan treats everyone with the same elevated level of respect and care. Suesan understands the importance of a listening ear and is always someone her clients can open up to and share their stories with. Learning about each client and their preferences allows Suesan to adapt and perform tasks to her client’s liking. She also loves discovering each of her clients' unique stories, “… their history was interesting to me … I would say okay I don’t know you, you don’t know me, so we have to work together as a team. If you tell me how you want me to assist you with your shower or cooking, just let me know and I’ll do my best to do it your way.”
In addition to listening to stories, Suesan shares her own stories to bring joy to her client’s lives. She will share adorable stories about her grandchildren and their farm animals with her clients! “My grandchildren, because they’re at a young age, they do silly stuff, so I tell him those stories… here is a couple of pictures of the grandkids with a couple of chickens on each arm!”
With three children and two grandchildren, family is an important part of Suesan’s life, and she loves spending time with them outside of work. She also enjoys being out in nature and going on hikes. Suesan particularly loves Keuka State Park. She treasures swimming in the park's pristine lakes for invigorating exercises! Thank you, Suesan, for your dedication and for enriching the lives of your clients!
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