Richard's story

He’s been working with Making Space for just shy of a month, but has 8 years’ experience in the care sector, starting out as an administrator in a GP practise. He went on to be a short contract communications assistant, but then took on a support worker role after seeing the amazing work they do.

Now Richard is finding his feet with his new dementia advisor role at Making Space. “The main reason I applied for this job was to get back out into the community and help make a difference to people. I love hearing people’s stories and finding out what makes them smile. Being able to help people cope with difficult situations and seeing a tangible difference is a huge reward”.

Richard thinks it’s extremely important that more men think about a career in the care sector. “It’s been shown, over the last few years especially, that the way men struggle with the fairly simple concept of accepting support is a unique and loaded issue. In my experience, the way men, especially of an older generation, communicate with each other is very different to the way they communicate with women because of how deeply gender roles and identities are engrained in their minds. I have found that common ground can be found much quicker between a male service user and a male carer and this allows for a more open and frank relationship from the get go”.

So what does Richard think it will take for more men to consider working in care? “If we start promoting the way support workers help people to find their place in the world and live their best lives, the doors will open for more men to join the ranks”.