Angela and Shing Lui – aged care

Angela

Hi, I’m Angela.

I’m involved in aged care services.I’ve been in this role for more than 20 years. I’m responsible for planning and organising aged care activities.

I started this job because I find looking after elderly people very meaningful. When my mother first came to Australia, she was very lonely, and she needed care. Ever since I’ve always wanted to look after elderly people.

I’m responsible for designing activities and and brainstorming what they enjoy doing. For example, if they love outings, then I would think about places for them to visit. And we would organise time for these activities.

Apart from organising activities ,we also need to listen to their needs, they would also share with us their concerns, and we’ll try to find our staff or other professionals to help them.

Shing Lui 

My name is Shing Lui

I’ve been with this elderly’s group for a few years. I really enjoy it here because sometimes they organise group exercises for us. Sometimes they tell us stories and also take us out for meals.

A day goes very quickly

Angela

Because I can speak Cantonese, it’s a big help in my job. Once an elderly phoned me and said:
“Wow, you can speak Cantonese!”

“I’d like to speak with you every time then!”

Because we are from the same background, so I can better understand their needs and feelings.To an elderly, I guess, the most important thing is to have someone to listen to them. So being able to speak Cantonese is a big help in this job.

I would strongly encourage young people to join the aged care industry. This job has many learning opportunities: you can attend many trainings, and learn to look after others and also learn to manage a support group, or manage an organisation, etc.

It is a meaningful journey. I wish you would consider joining this industry. It isn’t easy to find a meaningful job, so I’m hoping to keep working in this profession until I retire.