Finding Her Calling in Care, Joan’s Journey to Home Instead

A Childhood That Shaped a Future in Care

Some people choose a career in care.

For others, care quietly shapes their life long before they ever step into the profession. That was certainly the case for Joan Vincent-Otiono, Learning and Development Training Manager at Home Instead Reigate & Tandridge.

When Joan talks about how she first experienced care, she doesn’t start with a job. She starts with her family.

Growing up, Joan helped care for her younger sister who lives with disabilities. Even as a young girl she felt protective of her. She would help explain things when they felt confusing, encourage her when school felt difficult and remind her that being different wasn’t something to hide.

“It’s your superpower,” Joan would tell her.

Looking back now, those moments planted the seed for the career she would eventually choose.

Discovering the Joy of Helping Others

Care also appeared again during Joan’s school years. While attending a boarding school in Lancashire, students spent time each week supporting people with disabilities in the local community.

Joan naturally gravitated towards working with children. She remembers helping to create activities that brought joy and confidence, including something she still laughs about today.

Wheelchair dancing.

“We would do the tango and cha-cha with the wheelchairs,” she recalls. “Just to make them feel like children again.”

A Career That Looked Right on Paper

Despite these experiences, Joan’s career initially followed a very different path. She studied Economics and Management at Aston Business School and expected to move into a finance career.

On paper it looked like a sensible choice. But something didn’t feel right.

“I was never happy,” Joan admits. “I couldn’t see myself spending my life doing that.”

Then the pandemic gave her the moment many people experienced. A pause. A chance to ask bigger questions about purpose and happiness.

If life is unpredictable, what do you really want to do?

For Joan the answer was clear. She wanted to care for people.

Starting Again, and Learning Everything

Determined to do things properly, she began training even before joining a care company, completing her Care Certificate and enrolling in professional qualifications. Once she started working as a Care Professional she immersed herself in learning everything she could.

Joan worked in both home care and care homes, gaining experience supporting people with complex needs including end-of-life care and motor neurone disease. She trained in clinical skills such as PEG feeding and catheter care, building a wide range of practical experience.

But although she loved caring for people, she soon realised something important.

The way care was organised in some settings didn’t allow enough time to truly care.

“I felt like I was ticking boxes,” she explains. “I wanted to talk to people, understand them, really get to know them.”

Finding the Home Instead Way

That search for a more relationship-led approach eventually led Joan to Home Instead Reigate & Tandridge.

For Joan it immediately felt different.

Home Instead’s model focuses on companionship-led care, with longer visits that allow Care Professionals to build genuine relationships rather than rushing between short appointments.

“That was everything I believed care should be,” Joan says.

With more time, Care Professionals can encourage independence, prepare meals clients actually enjoy, share meaningful conversations and provide the emotional support many older people need.

Helping the Next Generation of Care Professionals

Joan quickly progressed within the organisation and today leads the training and development of new Care Professionals.

In her role as Learning and Development Training Manager she guides new recruits through their first steps in care and supports experienced carers to continue growing in confidence and skill.

One part of the process she is particularly passionate about is the two-day induction programme for new team members. It allows people to fully understand what a career in care involves before they commit.

This thoughtful approach benefits both the Care Professional and the client, helping ensure that the right people enter the profession and stay in it.

Encouraging Others to Find Meaning in Care

Listening to Joan speak about her role, one thing becomes clear very quickly.

She feels she has found her happy place.

“This is where I’m meant to be,” she says. “Helping people become the best carers they can be.”

For anyone considering care as a second career, Joan has simple advice.

If you want meaningful work where you can truly make a difference to someone’s life, care can offer exactly that.

And for experienced carers who may feel disillusioned by rushed visits and impossible schedules, she offers reassurance.

There is another way to work in care.

A way where relationships matter, where there is time to sit down with a cup of tea, and where you can go home at the end of the day knowing you genuinely helped someone.

For Joan, that feeling is what makes care not just a job, but a calling.

If Joan’s story has inspired you to wonder if a career in care is for you or you’re ready for a change, please do get in touch and have a chat. Either email or call 01737 529793.