This position involves:
a. Overnight supervision -- responding to seizures during sleeping hours
b. Personal care -- assisting with daily hygiene, dressing, eating
c. Holistic therapies -- ionic foot baths, qi gong massage, rhythmic movements, and others
d. Home care -- dishes, laundry, tidying
Looking for a person who is loving, intuitive, sensitive and also highly structured to lead specific care plans and routines as directed. Ideal candidates would have experience with personal caregiving as well as a background in energy work or body work practice such as reiki, massage, cranial sacral, reflexology, etc.
Care would be provided for a joyful and charming 15-year-old young man with severe autism and seizure disorder. His daily living skills and activity interests are more aligned with a 3-5-year-old child. He loves to be read storybooks and helped in his own reading attempts, have pictures drawn from the ideas in his mind as well as do his own amazing abstract art, listen to music while dancing and drumming, and tell stories about his most beloved characters (or "friends," as he refers to them) with favorites including Winnie the Pooh, Dr Seuss, Curious George, Little Bear, Wiggles, Sesame Street, and Mr Rogers.
We are currently looking for help three nights a week on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. The main shift is 9pm-9am. Ideal candidates would also have availability to...
--start at 7pm or 8pm for extra support with the bedtime routine and/or end-of-day housekeeping
--start even earlier at 5pm or 6pm at times when parents have a date night
--stay later in the morning at times when daytime therapist has a later start
--sub on other nights when our other overnight caregiver needs off
--attend our staff team meeting/training weekly (currently 11-2pm on Wednesdays)
The main shift 9p-9a is paid at $195 per night, and any additional hours outside of this are at $18.75 (starting).
Support services would be provided at our family home in the Southern Highlands neighborhood. We would prefer someone who lives close by. Minimally, candidates need to have very reliable transportation and not feel that the travel time is a burden so that the job is sustainable. The schedule may dictate some traveling back and forth within the same day (e.g. for the meeting).
We are seeking LONG TERM help for a minimum of 2 years. Please consider your commitment to the schedule and commute carefully before applying.
Further details...
The main overnight shift would begin when our son is already asleep and would involve sleeping in a separate bed in the same room in order to respond to any seizures or bathrooming needs that occur during the night. Most of the time between 9pm-5am the caregiver could be sleeping, however there would need to be the ability to awake quickly and respond efficiently to seizure or other needs during the night which would be approx 5-15 minutes each and approx 0-4 times per night. Occasionally our son may have insomnia and be up for 1-3 hours during the night (approx 1 in 10 days).
Our son typically wakes around 5am and enjoys some quiet rest time and slowly acclimating to the day. He gets out of bed around 6am and requires assistance with his morning routine which consists of toilet use, teeth brushing, bathing, dressing, breakfast, and supplements. This is followed by play time such as reading, coloring, or listening to music as well as one or more holistic health therapies such as ionic foot bath, qi gong massage, rhythmic movements, or others, depending on what is needed in a particular period. Caregiver would receive training to provide all services needed.
If the caregiver arrives earlier in the evening before an overnight shift begins, support would be related to end-of-day housekeeping tasks. All training and checklists provided for these needs.
Please note, due to seizure triggers, no devices with wi-fi capability or other electronics that have lights are allowed in the bedroom with our son. Cell phones can be brought into the home but they must be kept in the hall and put on airplane mode whenever they are not actively being used (and they would only be used to contact us if we are out). The same goes for Fitbits, Oura rings, smart watches and the like needing to be kept out of the home. Therefore, the caregiver would need to be COMPLETELY comfortable with having no access to personal devices during their work shifts.
Caregiver also needs to ensure there are no strong scents on their person during their work hours as these are also seizure triggers; these include perfumes, scented body products like lotions or deodorants with added fragrance, scented detergent or dryer sheets, or the smell of cigarette smoke.
The most successful staff in this role are capable of going right to sleep at 9pm when the overnight shift begins, with no reading or activities that requires light, wake quickly and function well immediately for duties during the night, fall back asleep easily after each caregiving episode, and be refreshed and energized in the morning for full assistance with personal cares, therapy routines, and seizure monitoring/response during the morning hours.
Experience with seizures and autism is not required. Very thorough initial training and ongoing mentoring would be provided.
Candidates for this job would also need to have these qualities:
~Physically strong and agile to manage the body of a 150-pound young man.
~Highly responsible and reliable: never late, rare absence, exceptional follow-through (i.e. no more than 1 tardiness per month or 1 absence per quarter for any reason).
~Willing to plan any extended breaks in coordination with when the family will also be away.
~Love of learning new things and can take feedback/constructive criticism very well to continuously improve skills and performance.
~A big heart, patience, empathy, and strong desire to be of service.
Funding for this position is provided by a disability program. Employment paperwork needs to be completed and background check approved prior to starting work. Paychecks are direct-deposited twice monthly (15th and last day of each month).
