Frontline Honors: Michelle Cummings, Help At Home

Michelle Cummings, Home Health Caregiver at Help at Home, has been named a 2024 Frontline Honors honoree by Home Health Care News.

To become a Frontline honoree, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be:

• A dedicated, high-performing frontline worker who delivers exceptional experiences and outcomes
• A passionate worker who knows how to put their vision into for the good of their respective industry, the patients and residents they serve, and their families
• An advocate for their industry and their fellow colleagues

Home Health Care News recently caught up with Cummings to discuss their time in the home health & home care industry.

HHCN: What drew you to this industry? 

Cummings: I love working with and helping people. It has always been a passion of mine to help others ever since I have been a little girl in Girl Scouts. It is one way that I can give back. There are so many people who don’t have any family and it brings me joy knowing that I can be that for my clients.

HHCN: What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in the industry?

Cummings: I would have to say that this job is definitely not for the faint of heart. It has its ups and downs (mainly ups), but it is also one of the hardest jobs. Your clients become family. You become super close to them, and sometimes the unthinkable happens. You see them one day and they pass on the next. Home healthcare is the most rewarding job, but also the hardest.

HHCN: What’s your favorite part about your job?

Cummings: My favorite part of the job is being with my clients: Spending time with them, getting to know them, being able to be there when they have no one else, and seeing the pure joy on their face when they see you walk through their door.

HHCN: What do you want the general public to better understand about your job and the industry you serve?

Cummings: That we are there for your family members to make their life easier and to take care of them. Yes, we are caretakers, but we are also there for them. Yes, we will comfort you in time of need and inform you on how they are doing, but, above all, we are trying to make our clients lives the best that we can.

HHCN: What’s something that you wish other people in your organization — particularly leaders who don’t work on the front lines — understood better about your job?

Cummings: How hard it is, not just physically, but mentally as well. We get so close to our clients. When something happens to them, we are literally losing one of our family members. It is so hard, but we don’t get counseling or time off for that, and it really takes its toll.

To view the entire Frontline Honors Class of 2024, visit https://frontlinehonors.com/.

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