Caring is a calling for support worker Lyn

ARRCS aged care and disability support worker Lyn Talbot truly believes there are angels walking the earth in human form. The people she visits in their homes might say she’s one of them.

As an Aboriginal woman, family is very important to Lyn, and that extends to the people she visits to help with personal care, social support, cleaning and shopping, in and around Darwin.

“They’re all my family, no matter who they are,” Lyn says. “And I’m part of their family.”

Caring comes naturally to Lyn, who supported her father in his final days, and is the primary caregiver for her granddaughter, who has a disability. She has also worked as a personal care assistant in aged care homes, a hospital dialysis unit, and in palliative care at a hospice.

She considers caring her calling, and describes her current role providing home care services as having “boundless possibilities”.

“It’s very interesting, because our clients are all different personalities, and have different needs,” Lyn says.

“Every day is different and that’s another beauty of the job – every day is different, it’s not monotonous,” she says.

“It’s very rewarding. When you walk out of someone’s place and they’re feeling down or had a bad day and, you know, once you’ve left their home and they’re in a happy place, it just gives you a really good feeling.

“You get lonely people, vulnerable people out in society and I just love making a difference to their lives.”

Those people make a difference to Lyn’s life, too. “If I have a hard night, I just get up and go to work, because I know I’m going to have another lovely day.”

ARRCS provides home care services across the Northern Territory.