Family Resource caregiver Lito Gimenez, was honored with the National Private Duty Association (NPDA) “Caregiver of the Year” award at an awards ceremony on September 13 in Orlando, Florida. The NPDA is the national home care association for private pay providers with 1,200 member home care agencies and over 250,000 caregivers from across the country.
Lito believes there are four key reasons for his success as a caregiver. One is respect. “I look at my clients as family, and return the kindness and respect that they show to me.”
Next is experience. “My confidence lets my clients know that I am doing things the right way. I also try to anticipate their needs so they feel well taken care of and understood.”
Exercise and activity is next. “Whatever they want to do, we do,” he says. “Sometimes we’ll go shopping, or out to eat, or to a doctor’s appointment. I try to keep my clients as active as possible.”
The fourth and final key to his success is humor. “Hearing my client’s laughter just makes me happy.”
At Family Resource Home Care, we know that our caregivers are going above and beyond what is expected when their client calls or writes to us about them. Lito’s personnel file is full of such letters. Here is just one:
“You just don’t meet people like Lito, every day. For the past two years, three times a week, Lito cares for my dad. Every morning that he comes to our house it seems he makes it a point to lift my dad’s spirits and leave him in a better mood than he found him in. He cares for my dad in a way that, if I’m being honest, I find it hard to do myself sometimes; plus Lito never complains. It’s easy to say that’s his job, but I believe it goes much deeper than that. Lito bathes and prepares food for my dad. He takes him to the doctor and gives him haircuts. To put it simply, he has improved my dad’s quality of life by making sure that he is treated with dignity and respect even in his weakened state. Over the past two years, Lito has cared for my dad, but it turns out that he has cared for all three of us.”
