Ruby and Robert - aged care

Ruby:
All right. You go first.

Robert:
No, you should go first, you're the lady.

Ruby:
All right. My name is Ruby and I'm an in-home care assistant. I've worked in Aged Care for over five years, but I've been working with Robert specifically for about six months now. I got the idea to come into Aged Care when I was working at the retail store, instead of trying to make sales off people, I would actually help them instead. My first impression of Rob was I thought, "Is this what people kind of feel like when they first meet me?" We just got along like a house on fire and I remember thinking like, "I'm going to have to compete to get into the conversation here. This is a nice feeling."

Robert:
Even at the door, it was like, I just felt relaxed. She had a smile on her face.

Ruby:
I'm just like, "Hey, I'm Ruby."

Robert:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ruby:
"What's up?"

Robert:
Having a support worker that understands me is critical. Having someone that comes in, that responds, that can laugh at your jokes, even though like, I mean, seriously, my jokes are probably old dad jokes, even though I've never been a father.

Ruby:
Mine are worse.

Robert:
No.

Ruby:
Mine are definitely worse.

Robert:
No. There's a communication that happens that is natural and easy.

Ruby:
A typical day in Aged Care is different. I help one person with their shopping and the next person I might tidy up their house. So it varies a lot and I really like that, because you don't always know what the day's going to bring.

Robert:
Being able to receive support in your own home, it's life changing. It's given me the opportunity to actually start to live again. I was really nervous about who that person was going to be, and as I'm a gay man, I was really concerned whether they would accept that lifestyle. I've been really lucky, Ruby's given me confidence to be able to go out and do things now with others.

Ruby:
What I enjoy the most about working with Rob is just being able to kind of joke around, if I'll be honest. It's nice to just be able to have a smile on my face while I'm working. And it's really nice hearing the words, "Thank you and you've been a great help." Who doesn't want to hear that for their job?