FINALIST

Tonya Melton

Golden Harmony, NC

Tonya possesses endless compassion and an innate ability to read people and anticipate their needs. It is often said that caregivers treat clients like family but Tonya elevates this to a new level. Tonya's clients and family members all agree that she has truly changed their lives. She gently builds trust with the client and their family, so there is no doubt in their mind that their loved one is well cared for. They can breathe a sigh of relief as they realize they truly have a care partner in Tonya. 

Service has always been important to Tonya. She served her country as a veteran in the Navy. She served her father, with whom she was particularly close, when he was in need of care. She also served patients receiving dialysis.

​Tonya is a great leader. She helped to spearhead a new caregiving program for our agency, providing shorter visits to clients in a senior living community. This service requires a caregiver who can work at a much quicker pace and she has met the challenge. She has fully become one of the team members in that community and is not only happy to serve our clients but offers a helping hand to other residents as well. She helps with activity programs and started a blood pressure clinic for any of the residents to attend.

Golden Harmony served a client who suffered from dementia for several years. Over the course of our service, she slowly declined to the point that she was essentially non-ambulatory. Tonya was assigned to this client and went right to work. She took the initiative to watch the physical therapists, who came in to work with the client, and the exercises they did with the client. On each visit, she practiced the exercises with the client. Before long the client was walking full laps on the track where she used to be confined to a wheelchair and unable to transfer without assistance. 

Tonya is very observant and meets clients where they are. Her keen observation skills help her to truly personalize care for individual clients. She observes topics of interest, songs, movies or TV shows or music that resonates with each person. One of her clients with dementia is non-verbal. Tonya learned her favorite song is "You Are My Sunshine,” she sang the song every morning to her and eventually left out one word at a time. After a few visits, the client started filling in the words and singing along. In a few months, the client was singing songs in church and even initiated simple conversations during car rides.

​Tonya is very observant of her clients, and she thinks about how she can put these observations into practice with her clients. One client she works with loves the Golden Girls. In one episode they watched together, the characters were enjoying cheesecake. Tonya noticed the client lit up when the cheesecake appeared on the screen. The next day, Tonya brought in a cheesecake and she and the client enjoyed the cheesecake as they watched another episode

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