Svetlana Reshetnyak – May Caregiver of the Month!

Congratulations to our recent May Caregiver of the Month, Svetlana Reshetnyak! We sat down with Svetlana to get some insight on her experience as a caregiver, favorite memories with some of her clients, and what she likes to do outside of work.

What is your favorite part about caregiving?

What motivates Svetlana is knowing that she help someone and truly change somebody’s life. As she says, she loves, “seeing her clients’ gratitude in their eyes”, and seeing the result of her efforts. Svetlana does note however that being a caregiver is all about teamwork. Being matched with a client that you click with instantly is wonderful. But sometimes, you need to work hard to adjust to the client’s needs and personality, and really work together on your relationship in order to help them thrive.

What are some memorable clients you’ve worked with in the past?

Svetlana told us about some great memories she made with two clients, a couple, who loved to garden and spend quality time with Svetlana. She mentioned that the husband would call her his “white angel”. They all got along very well.

What are some special things you like to do with clients?

Svetlana’s previous client was crazy about brain games. Whether it be Scrabble, or puzzles, her client would do crosswords for almost half of the day, and would get so into it that she wouldn’t sleep until she’d complete one. And if there was ever a moment where Svetlana wasn’t familiar with a particular game, she’d learn! Another one of her clients opted to watch TV and talk about fashion. Svetlana notes that adapting to the client’s interests is critical, and that you can’t push clients to enjoy activities that you do. You need to meet in the middle. Svetlana also had a client that enjoyed watching YouTube travel videos – yes! She’s ask her client, “where should we go today?” and there were hundreds of amazing videos they could choose from.

What are your favorite things to do outside of work?

Svetlana enjoys reading in her free time, but especially traveling! She’s visited quite a few states in the United States already. But which state is on her bucket list, you ask? Alaska.