Prior to her role with the Greater Vancouver Community Services Society (GVCSS), Jennifer Newman lived in Ireland and worked in media. She found her strength in organizing and found it to be a very transferable skill that could be combined with her love of people in the home health care sector.
“I actually began temping with GVCSS and I got to know some of the staff,” she explained. “I really enjoyed it and helping people is very rewarding. The work we do here is very important.”
Starting her role as a casual scheduler allowed Jennifer to mentor with some of the supervisors within the company. She benefited greatly from their experience and was able to pass on her own skills in mentoring to other she worked with.
“Everybody in their own way is a great role model. Everyone has incredible skills to learn from.”
In her current role as a Home Support Supervisor with GVCSS, Jennifer Newman is setting up schedules, managing a team of community health workers, liaising with clients and looking after care plans. Her role requires precise time management and extensive communication skills.
Creating a feeling of security for her team as well as offering support to guarantee exceptional quality of care is an important focus for Jennifer.
“Home support is very involved nowadays. The demand is really only going up as the population ages,” she explains. “It is a really large piece of health care in British Columbia and it is important to have well trained staff capable of handling situations.”
Finding inspiration within her own team isn’t difficult as Jennifer admires the hands on word done by her teams.
“I am really inspired by our teams of community health workers,” Jennifer says. “These are really hard working people. They go out every day into the community, are constantly meeting new clients and dealing with demands that are the reality of the care and I find that really inspiring. It is a really tough job and my team really inspires me. The work that they do is amazing.” [quote name=”Jennifer Newman” pull=”left”]I am really inspired by our teams of community health workers[/quote]
Her rules to live by are simply to try not to get too stressed. At the end of the day things will go on and trust that things will happen as they are supposed to.
“My job can be challenging because you have a lot of different priorities that you have to juggle,” she explains. “They are all equally important.”
As an avid foodie, Jennifer enjoys baking and cooking and exploring new restaurants of Vancouver when she is not at work. Despite having moved from the lush greenery of Ireland, she is thoroughly in love with west coast of Canada.
“Not as much when it is raining outside, but on a sunny day Vancouver is the best place in the world.”
– Written by freelance writer Angie Holubowich for the Seniors Care HR Planning Committee. Funding for this project was provided by the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Development Agreement
