Speaker 1: Ethics and integrity refer to doing what is right or correct, even when it is difficult. Ethical behavior means being honest and respectful. Causing any harm to your client, such as taking his or her money, speaking harshly, or having sexual contact is not ethical behavior and may lead to criminal charges. Integrity and ethical behavior are very important in companion homemaker care. Some examples of integrity are not speaking to others about your client's personal information, reliability, doing what you say you will do, telling the truth, protecting your client's property, and admitting mistakes. As a companion homemaker, you have access to private information about your client. All client information, such as financial, medical, or personal information, should be kept confidential or private. In other words, do not speak about your client to friends, family, or other clients. The only time that it is appropriate to share client information is with the client's health care professionals, your agency supervisor, or the family member who serves as the primary caregiver. Another way to show respect is to honor the individual's preferences.

Speaker 2: The best way to address what's important to the person you're giving care to is to ask them. Honor what their preferences are by asking them, how would you like this done? Would you like music played? Would you like this to be turned lower? Would you like me to open the door as I leave or leave it closed? How would you like things to be? In and around their environment, when a person is bed confined or confined to a room, they've lost a lot of choices. And so we need to bring back choices to them. And what I like to tell caregivers is don't make assumptions. Don't think that what you like is what they're going to like. So give them a lot of room for choices that will honor them.

Speaker 1: Being dependable is also important. Your client relies upon you to arrive on time and do the assigned tasks well. In order to do a good job as a companion, you must be alert and emotionally balanced. The use of alcohol or drugs before or during work could put your client or yourself in danger and can result in you losing your job. Keep an accurate record of the hours you work and follow your agency's policy on reporting your hours. Liability refers to legal responsibility for things that go wrong while you are on the job. Negligence, theft, abuse, and invasion of privacy are areas of liability. Following instructions carefully is an important way to safeguard yourself. Protecting Yourself from Liability 5 Key Points Do not do more than what you were trained or assigned to do. Attempting things beyond your training or ability can be dangerous to yourself and your client. Do your work thoroughly and well. Work that is done carelessly can lead to accidents or injury. Do not do less than what you are assigned to do. This could lead to a charge of negligence. Provide accurate reporting and documentation. Maintain professional behavior. Do not abuse, threaten, restrain, or belittle your client. Report abuse by others.

Speaker 3: One of the most important things in working with older people is not bringing ageist attitudes to our work and relationships with them. Ageist attitudes are really stereotypes in our society about older people that really are not true for everybody. And it's so important that when we're working with one individual that we are focused on that person and not have stereotypes color our work with that individual. Many stereotypes exist. Perhaps number one is that all older people are senile. Thinking that people, when they're older, all experience some decline in mental capacity. Other stereotypes are that older adults are useless and really do not contribute to their family and community. Yet we know many older adults are very involved in their communities. In fact, talking about families, we have many older adults that are actual parents to their grandchildren. A common stereotype is that older people are sexless. That they aren't interested in intimacy or sexual involvement. And yet we know that as people age, the need, the feelings in terms of intimacy and sexuality do not die. As one older gentleman told me, he says, the fires are still burning. And he was 93. Another common stereotype is that people as they age tend to get irritable, grouchy, and they're not fun to be around. There are some older adults who are maybe more difficult to be around and are irritable, but there's usually some underlying factors. Perhaps they're in a lot of pain, they're dealing with multiple health issues, or sometimes they may be just depressed. But aging itself does not result in greater irritability and grouchiness. A common stereotype about older people is that everybody who's older has hearing loss. How that affects communication, if we believe that, with every older person we have contact with, we may tend to talk louder at them, raise the pitch of our voice, which makes it even more difficult for that person to hear, or we think they will hear better if we slow down and exaggerate. What can happen when we begin communicating with an older adult, especially one who is frail on the basis of stereotypes, is that we start communicating with them in what we consider childlike ways. Sometimes when individuals will use terms that they think are terms of endearment, such as sweetie, honey, deary, and yet they really don't recognize the individuality of the person. It's much more respectful to use the individual's title and name, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Alvarez, Mrs. Robinson, unless the person then gives permission to call them by their first name or a nickname that they might prefer. Sometimes too we may be using child terms and asking an individual to do something and to say, for example, do you need to go to the potty, is really not respectful of this individual as an adult. So basically we want to speak to that older person no matter how frail that individual is, no matter how old that person is, just as we would talk with another adult.

Speaker 1: When providing care, it's essential that you respect your client's dignity, keep client information private, and perform your job in an honest, professional way. Thank you. Thank you.