“They’re all like family to me. I love looking after people and making them smile.”
Morgan Kennedy from Lisburn didn’t always know she was going to work in social care as she was working in hospitality. When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the café, she worked at to a halt, she found herself wondering what might come next.
At the same time, years spent caring for her great-aunt had shown her how much she valued supporting others and helping people feel cared for. She decided to take a chance on a career in social care. After six years in the profession, Morgan won Carer of the Year in 2023 from her employer Connected Health, recognising her contribution to social care and seeing her as a future leader.
Learning about care close to home
Looking back, she believes that the signs were there all along, long before she ever considered a role in social care. Morgan’s great-aunt has been one of the most important people in her life. She helped raise Morgan, provided stability when she needed it most and became a constant source of support throughout her childhood and into adulthood. As the years passed and her great-aunt grew older, Morgan found herself naturally stepping into a caring role and that experience changed the way she thought about caring for others.
The more responsibility Morgan took on, the more she realised that supporting people came naturally to her. She recalls, “I love looking after people and making them smile. I just thought, you know what, I’m going to go for it. If I don’t like it, at least I have tried it. For the last six years that I’ve worked within social care, I have loved it. This job is made for me.”
Care and connection
Morgan now works in homecare with Connected Health, supporting people in their own homes. Each day is different for her, she may help someone get ready in the morning, support them with medication or personal hygiene, prepare meals, help with mobility, or help them settle comfortably for the evening. Every person she supports has different needs, routines and preferences, and she tailors her care to meet them.
What Morgan values the most are the relationships she builds. Entering somebody’s home and supporting them with personal aspects of daily life requires a level of understanding, patience, and respect. Morgan recognises that those relationships are built one day at a time, and one conversation at a time. As Morgan notes, “You have to get used to each other at first. There are certain ways people like things done, and you want to make them as comfortable as possible, and then once they get comfortable, you build a bond.”
The qualities that shape great care
One of the reasons Morgan loves working in social care is that she sees every day what small gestures can mean to an individual. Morgan knows these small moments can have a lasting impact, “I might be the only person some service users see that day. Even having a chat with them can give them a lift.” Morgan’s approach is shaped by kindness and compassion. She says, “I always treat all service users the way I would love someone to treat me, or my great auntie. It’s all about making them feel comfortable, and making sure they know somebody cares.”
The best social care practitioners, she says, are people who genuinely care about others. As Morgan states, “You have to have a lot of patience and take your time with people. Sometimes that’s all they want. They just want somebody to listen to them”. It’s qualities like these that allow social care practitioners to build trust and help people feel safe, respected, and understood. Social care, for Morgan, is about seeing the person beyond the circumstances.
Her managers have also encouraged her to consider future leadership opportunities, seeing qualities in her that could one day lead to management roles. While those ambitions excite her, the thing that motivates her most remains unchanged. Morgan says, “My favourite thing is just making someone’s day. Whether it’s the smallest thing or a big thing, that’s what gets me out of bed every morning.”
Taking the first step…
Social care can be challenging, and Morgan doesn’t shy away from noting that. Supporting people through illness, declining health, and end-of-life care requires resilience and compassion. She has experienced difficult days during her career, but those experiences have reinforced her belief in the importance of the profession.
Morgan has seen firsthand what a caring presence can mean to someone who needs support. Daily, she is witness to the difference a human connection can make. For anyone considering a career in social care, Morgan notes, “As long as you’re a caring person, you’re empathetic, and you’ve got patience, then I would say go for it. Until you’re out there doing it, you’ll never know whether it’s for you.”
When asked to describe social care in just a few words, Morgan chooses “rewarding”, amazing”, and “hard”. Those three words for Morgan capture the reality of the profession. It brings challenges, but it also offers something many careers cannot: the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in somebody’s life every single day. For Morgan, that difference begins with caring about people, and that is exactly why she knows she is where she is meant to be.
Take a deeper dive…You can hear more from Morgan and her work at Connected Health by watching the video below
Feeling inspired?
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