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A week in the life of... a support worker

Dawn Carpenter is a support worker at Southern Housing Group. This week she has been going shopping for some tenants and organising a house move

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After calling residents, Dawn does e-learning in her ‘home office’ to keep her skills fresh
After calling residents, Dawn does e-learning in her ‘home office’ to keep her skills fresh
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Dawn Carpenter is a support worker at @SHGroupUK. This week she has been going shopping for some tenants and organising a house move #ukhousing

.@SHGroupUK’s Dawn Carpenter talks us through her week at work #ukhousing

Monday

I started the week by phoning some of my regulars to make sure they are OK. Normally I would see them at home, but for now check-ins have to be done by phone.

One resident, Mr G, was worried that he was running out of food and not able to go to the supermarket. I suggested that he go online and take screenshots of all the products he needed. We don’t usually do shopping for residents, but we are doing all that we can to help those who are unable to get what they need during lockdown.

Tuesday

This morning I went over to Mr G’s house to collect his debit card and shopping bags.

I managed to get most of the things on his list (thankfully supermarket shelves have returned to normal) and he was over the moon to see so much food.

Wednesday

Today I worked from my ‘home office’. We now have everything we need to enable us to work from home, which means I can work a lot more efficiently.

One resident asked me to contact her so we agreed to video chat. I learned that she had a Personal Independence Payment assessment the day before, which she found really stressful. I did my best to reassure her and she said she felt much better after speaking to me.

After the calls I decided to do some e-learning to make sure I’m keeping my skills up to date.

Thursday

My first call was with a woman who is in the ‘shielded’ category. She said she was struggling since her three children would normally get free school meals. I referred her to a local foodbank and offered to collect the food on her behalf.

The foodbank gave me some Easter eggs that were donated by a local supermarket. I gave the eggs to some families in the area – I felt like the Easter bunny!

Later, I got an email from another housing association that had been trying to contact a lady I support to let her know the house she had been offered is now ready. I reached out to her neighbour, who told me that the lady had unfortunately been taken to hospital.

I managed to call her and let her know the good news. We agreed it wouldn’t be possible for the move to go ahead at this time. Thankfully, the other housing association was really understanding and agreed to put the move on hold.

Friday

Today I collected prescriptions for some residents. I saw Debbie, my team leader, on the way. She is always available on the phone but it was nice to actually see someone – even if it was from a distance.

I asked the pharmacist to sign across the label so that residents can see that their medication hasn’t been tampered with. The pharmacist said this was good practice and would offer it to others picking up prescriptions on behalf of someone.

In the afternoon a colleague told me about a supermarket that takes orders by phone and offers next-day delivery for people who can’t do online shopping. I let one of my residents know and within half an hour, she had her shopping sorted.

Then it was time for a well-earned Friday night G&T.

Do you know an outstanding professional who deserves to be featured? Email jess.mccabe@insidehousing.co.uk with your suggestions

A week in the life series

A week in the life series

Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.

Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week. 

We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.

Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion

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