Caregiver and Direct Support Professionals Awarded National Home Care Aide Scholarship

Community and Rehab Care - Community Living / November 17, 2021

BrightSpring is proud to announce that four of our employees are the recipients of the $500 Home Care Aide Scholarship.

The scholarship is awarded by The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), in partnership with CellTrak, and was created to recognize home care aides who are vital to the industry. The award is distributed throughout November in celebration of National Home Care Month.

Catherine Crossell

Direct Support Professional
ResCare Community Living
Mt. Laurel, New Jersey

Catherine has been a true champion of her client’s rights and is a role model at the group home where she was worked for nearly two years. Of her varied accomplishments, the most remarkable is her advocacy for the clients in her care and representation as a role model to her co-workers.

Many of the individuals in her care have significant challenges with communication. Because it is not always easy for them to always be understood, Catherine has developed creative ways of engaging her clients, always incorporating word games, crafts, and other media into the day. When Catherine enters the home, her clients beam and cannot wait to interact with her. Despite communication challenges, their smiles, hugs, and actions such as laughing, clapping and putting their heads on her shoulder speak volumes.

While her Residential Manager was on maternity leave this year, Catherine assumed a temporary leadership role at the group home. She helped keep the program operating efficiently – even throughout the pandemic. Staff and clients remained free of illness during this year, due in no small part to Catherine’s care and investment in her program. When the manager returned from maternity leave, the home was still in full licensing and quality standard compliance.

Catherine embodies many competency areas, but it is her ability to cultivate meaningful relationships not only with those we support, but also with her peers, supervisors, and her clients’ families that have been especially valuable during this uniquely challenging year. She has improved the lives of the clients in her care by helping them stay connected to others and their community while minimizing the isolation that has been so endemic of the coronavirus.

Catherine is a rare Direct Support Professional whose combination of genuineness, knowledge, and reliability are valued by the clients she supports as well as her peers, supervisors, and others she comes into contact with. She teaches through example and is a standard-bearer for employees who are new to the field of human services.

Dwayne Brownbody

Direct Service Professional
ResCare Community Living
Dayton, Ohio

Dwayne takes a person-centered approach with all of the clients he supports. He is very familiar with their plans and the things that are important to them. He seeks to find new things about his clients and shares this information with his team. He is engaged with his clients and participates in activities they are interested in.

He fosters teamwork and gets along well with all of the other staff in the home. If someone else needs help, Dwayne is the first person who will step up and offer support. He has a great attitude and can usually be found smiling and laughing with his clients and staff.

Dwayne does not subscribe to a “cookie-cutter” level of care for the clients he supports. He recognizes that everyone is different and tailors his interactions for each client. He enjoys learning new things about them that can help him get to know them better. He will often make suggestions to site leadership that he feels would improve their quality of life or allow them to have more meaningful days.

Dwayne is definitely an example to the clients he supports and his co-workers. He can always be trusted to do the right thing and is someone who the other staff in the home look to for leadership. He has a great attitude and is an asset to our team.

Raymond Hoover

Direct Service Professional
ResCare Community Living
Greencastle, Indiana

Raymond’s works incredibly hard with every one of our 20 clients at the ICF. He knows each client’s plan, and gives praise and positive attention for each attempt the client makes on a task. He follows each client’s behavior support plan. He lavishes praise for the good decisions a client makes instead of focusing on the poor ones. He goes out of his way to instruct and teach new skills at an appropriate level for each client and encourages each client to set high standards because he knows they can reach them.

Raymond leads by example and maintains a positive attitude, even amid non-preferred behaviors. He picks up shifts regularly to provide support to clients and staff alike by assisting with daily tasks and event planning.

Always presenting himself as a professional in the field with his supportive positive attitude, Raymond follows all client individual service plans, behavioral service plans, and medical care plans and completes all assigned tasks daily. He consistently receives praise and thanks from staff and clients alike for going the extra mile to assist with client care. He truly does all he can for the clients who need the most understanding and support. The clients who are the most aggressive and the hardest to work are the ones that Raymond enjoys and he knows that when they succeed in life, it is his success too.

Diamonique Henley

Caregiver
All Ways Caring HomeCare
Valdosta, Georgia

Diamonique possesses the compassion needed to be a caregiver. She takes the time to understand the medical complications of each of her clients and she learns how to help each one.

One of Diamonique’s clients suffers from memory loss and sometimes gets sad when she can’t remember things. Diamonique showed the client small memory games and puzzles to help exercise her memory. The client’s daughter was thrilled and asked if she would help with more ideas to help her mother remember to eat. Diamonique created memory boxes with small notes and also set the client’s phone to ring to prompt her to go to the memory boxes.

Diamonique always has a smile on her face and brings joy to each client that she serves. She is a true servant leader, serving her clients from her heart.

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