Care Partner of the Month: Shaun Tull
New York Care Partner of the Month: Shaun Tull
An inspiring career pivot to person-centered care.
by Linsey Knerl
Shaun Tull is a Care Partner with the New York office of Renewal Memory Partners, who joined the team in November of 2022. His jump into serving others is very recent, however; he came to care work after a career at an advertising agency.
“It just became so cold and digital and inorganic,” Shaun says. “You don’t really get to work with people.”
After a bit of soul-searching, he decided he wanted to find a way to give back to the community and interact with others. He took his desire to change careers to a Florida caregiving agency. Then, after moving to New York, he found a home at Renewal Memory Partners.
One enjoyable aspect of his work is the little tidbits of advice each person gives him. “Every client I work with gives me something that I can take with me into my future,” Shaun says.
He also says that working with so many interesting clients is “like a box of chocolates,” he shares. “You never know what you’re going to get.”
Shaun’s upbringing had him interested in art from an early age, but the path of an artist is anything but an easy one.
“For the longest time, when I was in the arts, my mind was always in the forest and in nature and all that…flowers and plants and drawing and illustrating landscapes. I've always had a very organic spirit,” he shares. “I've always been a free-natured, free-spirited kind of person, and I just wanted to make a career out of that.”
“Working in healthcare is something that's always going to be needed.”
While some of Shaun’s clients haven’t always seemed to need very much care, they have let him know how much his work is appreciated.
“Even if they don't necessarily need you to run an errand or do this or do that, just having somebody physically there to speak with helps them not feel isolated.”
Shaun’s care work fills that need for a purpose for himself, working "organically" with people on a human level while also giving his clients the contact they need to thrive.
As a freethinker who craves expression, Shaun sees an opportunity to give back to the world in a way he didn’t expect before coming to this line of work. He looks for ways to help his clients approach life positively instead of letting isolation bring them down.
When dealing with clients who have memory and cognition issues, it’s common to have to repeated conversations or hear the same stories again and again. Shaun’s advice to other caregivers working with clients is to practice patience.
“Patience is so important, whether it's just speaking with them or carrying out their tasks,” Shaun says.
Shaun still loves art, and while he doesn’t do it as a career at the moment, he finds ways to incorporate it into his daily life, whether it’s admiring the fashion scene in New York or listening to Baroque music. He uses his surroundings to inspire him every day. He’s also actively pursuing his Home Health Aide certification to pursue both companion and HHA roles.
“I love going to galleries and illustrating. Whenever I'm not working with a care partner, I'm either in a museum or I'm walking around getting
ideas of things to draw.”
While Shaun never imagined himself working in the care industry, everything Shaun learned about himself translated into just this type of work. “At one point I did feel that the advertising industry was just a wrong turn. But I’ve come to find out through my work with clients that what I learned has translated over to this career.”
Shaun's theme of patience extends not just to his clients but to others. "Have patience for yourself and appreciate what you have learned so far. Be open to life.”