February 2025 Angel of the Month | Ines Goncalves
Congratulations to Ines Goncalves, our Angel of the Month for February 2025! Ines has been with our care professional team for a year now. In that time, she has touched the hearts of seven different clients and, like your favorite winter jacket, consistently provides the kind of warmth and comfort that Visiting Angels Newton/Canton is known for. With over 20 years of experience, Ines is a care professional to her core, treating every client she meets as if they are family.“I love people. I always bring my energy to show them that I’m there for them and to help them in any way that I can,” Ines said with a smile. “Helping people in their lives as they get older just makes me feel good.”
Ines was inspired to become a care professional when she found herself taking care of her own mother as she aged and grew more fragile. Throughout that period, Ines had a hard time imagining anyone besides herself being the primary caregiver. “I would give her all the love and care she needed, and it just made me realize I would happily do that for anyone else, too,” Ines said. In her mom’s greatest time of need, she loved making her feel good about herself, and now she’s found that she would do the same for just about anyone by starting with a very simple question: “How can I help?”
Ines got her start as a care professional by looking after a handful of private clients not too far from home. She’d later go on to work for a couple of home care agencies, which helped to further her skills and experience. Working for an agency also introduced her to different kinds of people in sometimes very difficult situations. Ines quickly learned to not take anything too personally, though. For people with conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s particularly, she finds it helpful to separate the individual from the ailment. “I know enough now to back away if I have to,” Ines explained. “I’ll just wait for a bit, then come back later and approach them nicely and politely.” She is so good at this now that clients who may have been a bit resistant to having help at first, almost always come around and accept Ines’ support.
“You have to realize it’s not easy for seniors to have strangers in their homes to help them,” Ines explained. “If you approach them with the right energy and show them that we’re all going to need someone to help one day, they’ll be okay and let you give them the assistance they need.” This is the kind of perspective that has made her so successful throughout her journey as a care professional. Thankfully, that journey brought her to Visiting Angels last March. Office and Staffing Coordinator Ryan Allen recalls meeting Ines and being immediately impressed by her experience and empathetic outlook on taking care of seniors.
“Whenever I interview a candidate, I always ask myself the question: ‘Is this someone I’d want taking care of someone important to me?’ and the answer with Ines was resoundingly, yes! One hundred times over, yes!” Ryan joyfully admitted. “She struck me as such as an incredibly kind soul that only knew how to give more of herself to others. It makes me feel good that she’s part of our team and looking after our clients.”
Director of Client Services Julie McBain recalled when Ines met with her first client shortly after joining the team, “From the very beginning, Ines’ compassion and dedication made a profound impact during an incredibly difficult time. She connected seamlessly with the client and the family, offering not only expert care but also remarkable kindness and unwavering support.” The family’s feedback on Ines’ care after her first few visits spoke for itself, so it wasn’t long before others on the case management team got to know and appreciate Ines and the quality of her work. Case Manager Patrick Murray, for example, has scheduled Ines to care for several different clients and has never been disappointed.
“She’s such a kind, caring, and compassionate person who we are lucky to have as part of our team. I receive glowing reviews from all my clients that Ines works with, and they all tell me how comfortable they feel when she’s around,” Patrick said.
Ines attributes much of her success since joining Visiting Angels to having met so many people who need her help. “My clients are all so happy every time I walk into their house,” Ines said. “They give me hugs, and I can tell they appreciate how much I’m there for them. Even when family members call, they always say thank you and tell me how happy they are.”
After all these years, it still gives Ines a great deal of pride and happiness to get up in the morning and help those who need it most. But you know what else gives Ines a great deal of pride? Working for Visiting Angels Newton/Canton!
“With Visiting Angels, I always tell people they’re in good hands. I tell them this agency hires the best of the best for anyone who needs care,” Ines said. “I feel bad when I hear from a client that they didn’t connect well with their last aide from another agency, so I just make sure they know that Visiting Angels doesn’t just send anyone—they send the best.”
Ines, make no mistake about it, that’s why you’re part of our team here at Visiting Angels Newton/Canton—because you’re one of the best. Even though this frigid winter chill just won’t go away, it warms our hearts to recognize you as our February Angel of the Month. Your energy and enthusiasm for providing the most attentive, compassionate care is what being a Visiting Angel is all about. We look forward to many more clients getting to know you as well as we all do in the years ahead!
Ines Goncalves-AOM February-2025.pdf
About Visiting Angels Newton/Canton
Visiting Angels Newton/Canton MA has been providing high calibre senior home care for over eighteen years. Countless families have benefited from our respite care, dementia care, round-the-clock care, companionship for seniors, Alzheimer’s home care, transitional aid, and home care services in Natick, Wellesley, Brookline, Watertown, Norwood, Westwood, Dedham, Needham, Roslindale, Stoughton, Upper Back Bay, Newton, Canton, Jamaica Plain, and neighboring communities. As a result of our exemplary service, Visiting Angels Newton/Canton has won the Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence Award; the Best of Home Care Provider of Choice Award; and the Best of Home Care Employer of Choice Award from the national client satisfaction survey firm, Home Care Pulse, for six years. We have been honored to receive the Boston Globe’s Top Places to Work award for seven years and one of the ten best places to work in Massachusetts in 2021 based on diversity and inclusion. Our dedicated and well-trained caregivers love their HHA and CNA caregiver jobs.