What does a community living assistant do?
Community living assistants provide fundamental health care and assist patients with daily living activities. They apply practical intervention procedures for behavioral issues as well. It is their job to lessen discomfort and preserve patient dignity while performing duties like bathing. Also, they support housing administration through equipment maintenance, staff contractors, and expense monitoring.
Community living assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real community living assistant resumes:
- Monitor patient's vital signs in order to improve their rehabilitation.
- Work with dementia and Alzheimer's residents.
- Provide primary first aid, CPR, etc.
- Provide care to the resident by feeding, bathing, assistance in ADL'S when need.
- Attend staff meetings as well as staying up to date on CPR and first aid training sessions.
- Preserve patient dignity and minimize discomfort while carrying out duties such as bathing, assist in ADL's.
- Care manager for elderly residents, assisting with medication, bathing, dressing, companionship, laundry and transporting internally
- Provide companionship and encouragement to individuals.
- Provide nursing assistance to residents in a long-term-care and rehabilitation facility.
- Transport non-ambulatory patients and facilitate their appointments, financial accounts, and supervise family visits.
- Complete physical checks and monitor patients to detect unusual or harmful behavior and report observations to management.
- Obtain and evaluate patient medication regimens, allergies, lab values and past/current medication history utilizing electronic medical records.
- Work on IEP's with students within home settings
- Execute and surpass education and IEP goals for special needs children.
- Document progress and communicate to MHMR case manager.
Community living assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 23% of Community Living Assistants are proficient in Medication Reminders, Quality Care, and Patients. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Community Living Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Medication Reminders, 23%
Performed medication reminders, performed ambulatory assistance and assisted with personal hygiene at an Independent/Assisted Living Facility
- Quality Care, 7%
Developed and maintained quality care systems and standards, including but not limited to creating and improving medical protocols/guidelines.
- Patients, 7%
Transported non-ambulatory patients and facilitated their appointments, financial accounts, and supervised family visits.
- Rehabilitation, 6%
Transport clients to appointments Pass Medications Rehabilitation of clients lifestyles
- Culinary, 6%
Developed and trained culinary staff to raise resident satisfaction scores.
- State Regulations, 5%
Created and maintained adequate paperwork to ensure Resident files comply with State Regulations.
Common skills that a community living assistant uses to do their job include "medication reminders," "quality care," and "patients." You can find details on the most important community living assistant responsibilities below.
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a community living assistant to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "social and human service assistants talk with clients about the challenges in their lives and assist them in getting help." Community living assistants often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "specialized processes working with residents requiring memory care requiring strong communication and processing details with a team. "
Compassion. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling community living assistant duties is compassion. The role rewards competence in this skill because "social and human service assistants often work with people who are in stressful and difficult situations." According to a community living assistant resume, here's how community living assistants can utilize compassion in their job responsibilities: "functioned as a certified nursing assistant, providing compassionate care ensuring patients safety using technical skills and appropriate knowledge base. "
Organizational skills. community living assistants are also known for organizational skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to community living assistant responsibilities, because "social and human service assistants must often complete lots of paperwork and work with many different clients." A community living assistant resume example shows how organizational skills is used in the workplace: "functioned as management team member, contributing to organizational strategic planning, development and oversight of company mission attainment. "
Problem-solving skills. community living assistant responsibilities often require "problem-solving skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "social and human service assistants help clients find solutions to their problems." This resume example shows what community living assistants do with problem-solving skills on a typical day: "developed skills including: timemanagement, conflict resolution, minor cpr training, minor safety/fire training. "
Time-management skills. A commonly-found skill in community living assistant job descriptions, "time-management skills" is essential to what community living assistants do. Community living assistant responsibilities rely on this skill because "social and human service assistants often work with many clients." You can also see how community living assistant duties rely on time-management skills in this resume example: "insured all plans were turned in on time and that case managers complied with state regulations for billing. "
Interpersonal skills. While "interpersonal skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to community living assistant responsibilities. Much of what a community living assistant does relies on this skill, seeing as "social and human service assistants must make their clients feel comfortable discussing sensitive issues." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of community living assistants: "cited for excellence in interpersonal communications, teamwork, customer service, flexibility and reliability. "
The three companies that hire the most community living assistants are:
- Greystar Real Estate Partners51 community living assistants jobs
- Asset Living24 community living assistants jobs
- American Campus Communities9 community living assistants jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable community living assistant resume templates
Build a professional community living assistant resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your community living assistant resume.
Compare different community living assistants
Community living assistant vs. Direct care worker
A Direct Care Worker's responsibility revolves around overseeing clients' welfare and health care from different ages and conditions. Most of the duties will involve assistance in basic hygienic tasks such as bathing or going to the toilet, performing light chores such as preparing healthy meals and cleaning a bedroom, and ensuring the patient's medication intake aligns with the schedule. Furthermore, it is also the duty of a Direct Care Worker to empathize and build rapport with clients to make them feel more at ease.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between community living assistants and direct care worker. For instance, community living assistant responsibilities require skills such as "rehabilitation," "culinary," "state regulations," and "senior care." Whereas a direct care worker is skilled in "direct care," "crisis intervention," "companionship," and "mental health." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Direct care workers really shine in the professional industry with an average salary of $29,581. Comparatively, community living assistants tend to make the most money in the non profits industry with an average salary of $31,450.On average, direct care workers reach similar levels of education than community living assistants. Direct care workers are 2.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Community living assistant vs. Residential program worker
A residential assistant is in charge of overseeing the living conditions of students in a university or similar establishment. They are primarily responsible for assisting students and making them feel at ease within the dormitory or campus community. Moreover, a residential assistant must respond to inquiries and concerns, handle and settle any issues or problems, take part in organizing activities that are beneficial to the students, and keep them informed on all community-related updates. Furthermore, it is crucial to adhere to and implement the campus rules and regulations at all times, maintaining a safe environment for everyone.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, community living assistant responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "medication reminders," "quality care," "rehabilitation," and "culinary." Meanwhile, a residential program worker has duties that require skills in areas such as "motor vehicle," "mental health," "direct care," and "adaptive." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Residential program workers earn a lower average salary than community living assistants. But residential program workers earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $28,780. Additionally, community living assistants earn the highest salaries in the non profits with average pay of $31,450 annually.In general, residential program workers achieve similar levels of education than community living assistants. They're 1.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Community living assistant vs. Residential assistant
An assistant intern is responsible for facilitating administrative and clerical tasks as assigned by the management. Assistant interns' duties include keeping records of meetings, receiving calls and handling customer inquiries, assisting on writing reports and data entry processing, cooperating and providing support for business events, and adhering to company policies and regulatory procedures. Successful assistant interns must have excellent time-management, multi-tasking, and communication skills. They must be a team player and fast-learner to handle various tasks in the corporate industry.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a community living assistant is likely to be skilled in "medication reminders," "culinary," "state regulations," and "food preparation," while a typical residential assistant is skilled in "direct care," "mental health," "meal preparation," and "social work."
Residential assistants earn the best pay in the finance industry, where they command an average salary of $32,278. Community living assistants earn the highest pay from the non profits industry, with an average salary of $31,450.Most residential assistants achieve a similar degree level compared to community living assistants. For example, they're 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Community living assistant vs. Assistant
Types of community living assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
