Home health aide Lateefah Gary wasn’t going to take no for an answer. The elderly woman she was caring for would not let anyone touch her l
aundry. But Gary knew the woman needed clean clothes, so Gary would empty her hamper into a bag when the woman was in the bathroom, then sneak the bag out, bring the clothes home to wash, then bring them back again. It was just another day on the job for Gary, who was recently named FirstLight’s Caregiver of the Month. “Clients with dementia can be challenging,” says Gary, matter-of-factly, “but I like a challenge.”
Gary, who lives in Paterson, NJ, has been with FirstLight for about a year, and this is her first job as a home health aide, but she feels her past jobs as a cashier at various department stores actually trained her well for the job. “I was dealing with customers who would come into the store and get crazy,” she remembers. “At Christmas time, with lines around the corner and everybody’s going crazy, it’s all about having patience and dealing with people in a correct way. The customer is always right. And sometimes you’ve just got to hear people out.”
Gary is often assigned to patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia, who can occasionally be aggressive. But in those situations, Gary keeps her composure. “What I do is, I try to let them always be right, then I change the subject and talk about something different, or say, ‘Hey, let’s eat lunch’ or ‘Let’s go for a walk,’” she says. “I’d rather let them be right even if I know they are not, and keep them calm.”
Once, when Gary was staying overnight with a client who had dementia and recently lost her husband, she was awakened at about 5 a.m. by the client hitting her. “She was yelling at me, ‘Who are you, what are you doing here, where is my husband?’ recalls Gary. “My heart was beating so fast, but I had to stay calm. I said, ‘I’m Lateefah, I’m the girl from yesterday, maybe you don’t remember me?’ I did not want to further upset her by reminding her that her husband had died, so I just said, ‘Maybe he went out to get some coffee. Let’s go down and get some breakfast.’ And after a while, she got calm, and she forgot she was upset. She said, ‘I’m going to lie down for a few minutes longer,’ and we went back to sleep.”
Difficult moments like this would discourage a lot of people, but not Gary. “I love this type of work,” she says. “I like getting to know different people and taking on different tasks.” And the feedback Gary has received from clients and their families makes her feel good. “Everybody I have worked with for FirstLight always asks me to come back,” she says with pride. So what makes her so good at the job? “I think it’s in me,” she says. “It’s not a job, it’s a calling for me. I think I was meant to do this type of work. It’s not the amount of money, I think, I do it from the heart.”
