Years of dedication and care celebrated at Mitcham nursing home

Company news

Mar 27, 2012

Support workers Sylvia Bautista, Mabel Davis and Sally Johnson, nurses  Ermine Clarke and Maureen Ogg and laundry assistant Gladys Courtell all joined in 1996 – the year the home opened - and took part in a special award presentation by Care UK’s Regional Director Violet Kotu.

Manager Elaine Robson said: “I am lucky to have such a strong and dedicated team – a large turn-over of staff and can be disorientating and upsetting for residents but thankfully we don’t have that situation.

“Our 57 residents have dementia and the fact that we have had the same caring, dedicated staff, year after year, gives them peace of mind and continuity of care. It is also very reassuring for the relatives who get to know all the team and they then know that hey can not only talk to their relative’s key worker but to most of the people working here and that person will know and understand their loved one.”

In 2011, the whole Cumberland team, including laundry workers, kitchen staff and the maintenance team, took part in a pilot study of a pioneering experiential training programme that allows participants to experience some of the effects of diseases like Alzheimers.

During the training, team members were given direct experience of the dramatic effect that dementia and frailty can have on the senses; special glasses blur their vision, headphones deliver white noise and gloves restrict the movement of fingers. Trainees found themselves being fed food that they could not see, drinking tea from plastic training beakers and being asked several questions in quick succession without enough time to think of replies.

Elaine said: “It was a great experience and allowed everyone in the home to see a bit of the world as our residents do. They were already a very caring bunch, but this has raised their empathy even further.”

Other Cumberland team members who were celebrated at the event, for service of five years and over, were:

• Marvlyn Charles-Yusuf
• Naomi Johnson,
• Oomila Lobin
• Ahamefula Nwanyanwu
• Freda Rust
• Edith Williamson
• Jane Wilson