The importance of Empathy in caring

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Out of all of the essential elements of holding down a care role, empathy has to be one of, if not the, most important skills a person can have. If you ask anyone at a Nursing Agency Stroud way such as takefivehealthcare.co.uk/contact, they would agree that the ability to empathise and not just sympathise is vital to a successful care operation.

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What is empathy? It’s something that we all have, but it varies in us from person to person. Our natural personality shapes it along with the many social interactions that we have encountered through our lifetime. It may be that we have had empathic people around us that have encouraged our own sense to grow. On the other hand, it may well be that we grew up in a more sympathetic based household and can only show this side of our personality.

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Empathy is trying to show understanding to the person, and then offering support regardless of their own personal feelings or position. You don’t have to be experienced in what the other person is going through, you just have to be there for them and actually act on that help

This greatly differs from sympathy. Sympathy is where you say you understand and then try and point out the positives. This may sound like it’s a good thing, but, as an example, it takes the form of someone saying to you “My father is dying”. A sympathetic response is “Oh dear, at least you have a Father”.

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