Caring for the aged brings great job satisfaction

A career at a seniors’ centre is unlikely to make a person fabulously wealthy, but the job satisfaction will more than make up for the salary.

Mike Schulze, executive director of East London’s Berea Gardens Retirement Foundation (BGRF), said a career in caring for elderly people, often retired, was one of the most rewarding jobs, as long as the person embraced the ethos of the facility.

Schulze is a chartered accountant who has been on the BGRF board for 20 years. He said Berea’s facilities were not really about bricks and mortar, but more about the people and their comfort.

While there are several jobs that require advanced qualifications, such as in the management, medical, nursing and finance sections of a retirement centre, if a person has the right caring personality and sees working with the elderly as a passion, then they can, with training, do the job.

Rob Muzzell, chair of East London’s Kennersley Park, said the ratio of staff to residents, including the dementia and frail care sections, was in the region of one to one.

“Some of the work is outsourced, such as cleaning and catering, but the job is still generated by the need to care for people.”

He said that while some of the work is outsourced, such as cleaning and catering, the care component of the work is still driven by individuals who have a deep desire to look after people who need the attention.

He said as long as a person had a heart for people, bucketloads of patience and a desire to do good, caring could be a job for life. However, said Muzzell, while heart and patience were a prerequisite for care, senior centres were also businesses, and without strict adherence to financial matters, facilities would go under.

“Kennersley was extremely fortunate to employ Laurette Schaefer when one of our managers passed away. As a chartered accountant she revamped our financial procedures and is today our general manager. My advice to any start-up facility would be to employ highly skilled financial people, who also have empathy with the aged.”

Schulze said BGRF had a very low staff turnover.

“Once people get a job with us they tend to stay. To my mind this is not because jobs are scarce, but due to the immense job satisfaction.”

Sibongile Booi, who studied in Canada for an engineering degree, recently joined the Kennersley Park board. After graduating she spent 12 years in Toronto with the Accenture group, working as a management consultant.

“During my time in Canada I noticed that the hands-on care jobs were mainly performed by new immigrants.”

The job, she said, was not that popular among Canadians, but immigrants saw it as the first step on a permanent career ladder, but often not in caring. However, many of them were proficient in the seniors sector because they had cared for elderly relatives or young children, and had kind dispositions.

The next step was often studying for one or more certificates, leading to permanent employment.

“I joined the board because I saw the need for quality care, and many relatives, including my late mother, received it. In a way it is me giving back.”

Care jobs are unlikely to ever reach saturation in SA, according to predictions from the Federation of Unions of South Africa. The federation estimates that as many as 13m people will soon be pensioners, and the next step for those fortunate enough to afford it, is a seniors’ centre. There are nearly six million people over the age of 60, and by 2050 that will more than double.

Care is often confused with medical care, but in terms of growing old it means assistance with everyday activities, including monitoring medication, exercise, shopping and hygiene. There are an estimated 1,150 residential facilities for older people in South Africa, but only 415 of these are registered with the department of social development, and only eight are state-managed and fully subsidised by the government.