We all face challenges. Some are small and fleeting, others are relentless and draining. But what if we can learn how to meet these challenges gracefully with strength, compassion and growth?
Jump to:
Understanding challenges - some of the common difficulties care workers face and the impact they have on wellbeing.
Mindset - how to turn challenges into opportunities for personal growth.
Strategies - actionable tips for navigating challenges in care work.
Working in homecare can be really demanding. It’s deeply human work - very rewarding, but with its challenges that can be pretty significant. Some examples of these include:
Emotional toll - we support people through illness, loss, and decline, which can be emotionally intensive on you as a care professional. It can cause compassion fatigue, emotional withdrawal, anxiety and overwhelm.
Lack of time - domiciliary care workers often have tight schedules, which means rushing between visits, rarely getting time to process what’s happened. It can make you feel stressed, guilty, or feeling like you're not doing enough.
Maintaining boundaries - it's hard to say no, to switch off or not carry other people's difficulties home with us. That's what we do as carers; we're worrying about other people all the time.
Isolation - many homecare workers work alone. There’s no team space where you can go and have a break or chat with someone. This can cause loneliness, disconnection and feeling like you don’t have any support.
What if every challenge was an invitation? An opportunity to be aware so you can build resilience and self-trust? When faced with a challenge, try asking yourself a question and see if it changes how you feel.
“Why is this happening to me?” -> “What is this teaching me?”
It might be a client you’re finding it difficult to work with. Or your visits overran and you missed your break. Or you received criticism and you're just having a really difficult day. It’s easy to think “Why is this happening to me?”, but what if you just took a moment and said, "What is this teaching me?" That can really help to change how you think and feel about the situation. What are you learning that you can take forward and do differently in the future?
“I can’t cope” -> “I’ve done hard things before”
Facing challenges and having a difficult day can lead to you feeling like you can’t cope. But you can cope. You’ve done difficult things before. Try bringing past challenges to mind that you got on and dealt with. What strengths do you have? What strengths did you use to get through that challenge? Tell yourself: “I've done hard things before.” And you have. You're a carer.
“I’m alone” -> “Others feel this too”
Especially when you’re working on your own, you can feel like you're alone in a particular situation or challenge. You can think you're the only person that feels like this, that is stressed, that is overwhelmed, that is really finding it challenging. But actually, when we share our truth, when we connect, you discover you're not the only one feeling like this. So remind yourself that others feel this too. They might not all be feeling it right at this moment in time, and that's okay because that probably means they have some spare energy, and time and space, to be able to talk to you and listen to what's going on for you as well.
Watch: Helen Gruber of Pastora talks about how mindset can change how we feel.
Here are some techniques to try when you are facing challenges. Use them in moments of crisis to help centre yourself and move forward gracefully. It can also be helpful to add some of these into your daily working routine, as they help you to lower your stress levels, build resilience and feel grounded so that you can take on whatever comes your way next.
Name what’s hard - saying out loud the challenge your facing can be really powerful in helping you to feel less daunted by it. Share it with someone else or even just say to yourself that this is a tough moment right now. But it will pass and you can deal with it.
30 second reset - in between visits, taking just 30 seconds to take a few deep breaths and slowly exhale will bring you back to yourself. It calms your nervous system and will help you think more clearly. Or say to yourself: that was then and this is now.
Speak kindly to yourself - be really aware of how you talk to yourself. Often we beat ourselves up or blame ourselves. Instead, talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend or colleague. Above all, be kind to yourself. It can really change your mindset.
Connect regularly - schedule a weekly check-in with a colleague or a friend and in that time, share what's real, what's going on for you. Share what's been a win this week, what went well for you, as well as what’s been hard. When you do that, you’ll find that there's a lot more wins than there are things that have been hard for you.
Do what brings you joy - it might be listening to your favourite song, taking a walk in nature, exercising, spending time with a friend, doing a hobby. Whatever it is - even if it's for five minutes - doing something that brings you joy will regulate your nervous system and will help you to feel better.
Watch on-demand
Handling challenges in homecare gracefully, with Pastora
Care work is hard. It's human and messy and beautiful all at the same time. But within every challenge, there is also an invitation to listen, to grow and to lead ourselves with compassion. You don't have to get it right all the time. You don't have to carry it all alone. You just need the tools and the grace in the moment. Graceful doesn't mean easy. It means grounded, human, and real.
Pastora is a training and coaching consultancy for wellbeing in social care, that provides care and management teams with guidance and support to look after themselves to be dedicated, embracing challenges, and leading gracefully while caring for others.