My story: that ‘one client’ as a social worker.
It was my first year as a social worker in community mental health, visiting an aging client in her home.
We all have that one client that stays with us for our career. She became mine.
This client has stuck with me because she has a particularly unique disorder that has led her to have multiple personalities.
I could have a different conversation with a different personality.
In a lot of ways, it was problematic and led her to be in compromising situations. When I first met her, as a fresh new social worker, I had no idea what to expect.
But as I got to know her, I learned about her history and how she managed life. I also learned how her home environment played a crucial role in how she managed her mental health.
She had created a space that allowed one of her personalities to feel safe and secure, even if it was rudimentary. The simplicity in how she arranged the environment gave her what she needed to manage, as best she could, her physical, mental, and spiritual health.
It certainly wasn’t perfect and her home was often chaotic. But this gave insight into her mental health: as the saying goes: tidy house, tidy mind, or in her case… untidy mind. And that’s not to be rude.
As a social worker, I’ve had the privilege of working with diverse individuals and families from various backgrounds and socioeconomic situations.
I believe these experiences have led to the biggest growing aspects in my own life.
One of the most significant observations I have made is how a person’s home environment has complex and long lasting impacts on their well-being.
Where I am today.
Today I spend my time supporting the elderly through ‘aging in home’.
That means being tasked to assist the elderly with living as independently as possible in their own home and reduce the need to move into a nursing home.
As we all do, we want to live in our own space; not a sterile, hospital like room, that is often run down. And living with others who are often more unwell than you, or has dementia, who you have the same conversation with every day.
I gave up house sharing a long time ago… I don’t want to return to that when I’m elderly (or even now to be honest).
I’m sure we can all agree.
My Family: wife, son, and dog.
My wife and I love seeing art and architecture, enjoying red wine, and quality food. I love good coffee and an equally good burger.
We have a son, Austin. He’s our little champ and growing up fast.
We also love dogs. He’s really our first ‘son’, our border collie, Samson.
Though it’s gotten harder, with a son, and a dog we miss terribly, we love to travel and see new places.
I guess we’re drawn to the finer things in life. We like to think of these “shiny things” as more creatively fulfilling and visually pleasing; which in turn brings some level of comfort and meaningfulness to our lives.
We’re both very thrifty and pretty hands on with many aspects of our lives. In how we make our home and approach business.
In many ways, I am a jack-of-all-trades.
I’ve always had many interests, and pursued them at different levels, like music, both listening to and learning different instruments, drawing, building things for our home, creating a business, or engaging in philosophy, deep thinking, and nutting out ideas with other fellow intellectual types.
My “generalist sensibility” may have been reinforced when I became a social worker. Social workers have the ability to adapt to different situations leading us to navigate different eco-systems to help others.
We have to in many ways have a good understanding of many areas to do our job.
Maybe we specialize in the skill of generalization?
We can’t help but think our clients believe we have some sort of magic power to change any problem; like we have a wand or something.
When a social worker ends a phone call with a “frequent caller” don’t be surprised to hear them mutter under their breath “Sure! Let me get my wand!”
I sometimes daydream that I graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so I can cast spells and grant the needs of my clients.
“All aboard the Howards Express!”
As a father and a husband… I have first-hand experience with what we needed for our home caring for our firstborn. My wife and I are both creative… and perhaps dyslexic (among other ways to describe how our mind works), so naturally we have a strong focus on how we set up our home through design, decor and the technology we use.
But I also work with the elderly.
As we age, particularly as we reach the final chapter of our life, we need much more support from our family and have an increasing need to access services, products and technology that helps maintain our independence in our own homes and maintain some sense of safety and independence.
So with my personal experience: as a creative, and husband, father, homemaker, and my profession: expertise as a social worker, it has led me to this point:
“how do we continue to live in our own home with the things we need… from birth to our senior years… and make it: a simple haven that supports our lives and wellbeing.”
One way to consider enkel.life, is that it’s a one-stop-shop to discover new ways to make simple changes to the home in positive and meaningful ways that promote health and wellbeing. But more specifically: how do we support our aging family members to do this.
This is why I started enkel.life.
To provide carers the tools to address common health issues, home safety, and independent living for a happy and healthy senior life.
Helping cares make informed decisions on how to support older adults ‘age in place’ through smart tech, support aids and home changes to reduce risks and maintain living in their home.
What is enkel.life?
Enkel is the Swedish word for simple.
And why use a word from the Swedish language?
Swedish design is a movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism, functionality, and beauty.
This is the philosophy I pursue. This is the foundation which enkel stands from.
simplicity.
Though I don’t think we need to have Swedish decor or Swedish products, I do believe, that if we incorporate a philosophy like this into our Western way of life we will improve our own health and well-being, and more importantly, the elderly loved ones we care for.
Through my professional experience assisting elderly people in using products and new technology I aim to provide many ways we can consider improving the homes and lives of elderly people.
This is where I ask myself: where are the pain points in an elderly persons life that is not positively leading to better outcomes for their health and wellbeing?
This will naturally translate into how we can start solving the problem and looking at ways to support our aging parents in their own home.
In my career I encounter many challenges, seeing firsthand how a person’s home has subtle, or sometimes incredibly painful and unsafe hazards on a their wellbeing.
And so it was through my professional expertise and experiences that I explore the world in search of ways to improve elderly lives (and their carers) through the latest technology to see how we can better support our aging family members (and maybe even ways to support all of us).
In many ways, it’s a simple change in our home environment that could have a profound effect on us.
As access to technology becomes more readily available to the every day person, like you and me, we will inevitability see our homes become more ‘conscious’ of us and better support us in our daily lives in our home.
Chris Pickering