Beccy joined Parkhaven Trust in 2003 as a Care Assistant and has progressed to role of Community Services Manager. She has held a range of posts in most services within the Trust. In her current role she is responsible for Extra Care Services and Day Services.
In 2021 Beccy won ‘Best Use of Digital Technology’ at the Radar Health Care Awards. Beccy was awarded this accolade for being instrumental in the introduction of truly innovative technology at Parkhaven Trust that’s made a huge positive difference. She then went on to win Care Innovator in the 2022 GB Care Awards.
Supporting our service users and ensuring they get the most out of life. It’s a hugely rewarding job, learning about the lives our service users have led and meeting their families. They become a part of our Parkhaven family.
It was a hugely challenging time during the pandemic, keep our service-users safe, comfortable and well cared for, was always our priority. It was difficult due to the ever-changing rules, guidance and regulations. Strict staff and service user testing regimes as well as additional infection control procedures were brought in and we managed these very effectively. Our staff also had to learn quickly how to digitally connect families so that virtual visits and window visits could still take place. Our staff understood the importance of keeping families connected during the toughest of times and they did this with determination, resilience and pride.
Our staff worked extra shifts and covered different roles within the organisation in order to ensure the safety and comfort of our service users. The staff displayed a fantastic spirit of comradery.
We regularly hold ‘coffee and catch up’ sessions, which is chance for service users and their families to meet with us and chat about any suggestions they might have to help us improve our services. This is in addition to our twice yearly anonymous online survey, suggestion boxes as well as a ‘open door’ policy for all our service managers – so service users and families can feel free to pop in for a chat anytime.
At Parkhaven Trust we are particularly proud to be leading the care sector in our use of new
digital technologies to support the care we provide to our service users.
Our investment in the newest technologies works alongside our excellence in care. We invest in our staff in order to get the most from the newest technology, allowing for a better care experience for our service users. We are proud to have won awards for this work.
We will continue to put the service users at the heart of everything we do. Ensuring they are safe, comfortable and well cared for. We will continue to strive to embrace the newest technologies that can support our staff and give the best possible care experience for our service users and their families. We are looking forward to the building of a new James Page House on our Liverpool Road site. This will be a cutting edge, state of the art care home, built using new technologies.
At the heart of everything we do is:
Parkhaven Trust is an organisation that includes, supports, respects and empowers our service users and staff. We do this by treating all people who use our services with dignity and respect whilst promoting independence, choice and individuality.
We give high priority to supporting and developing the skills of our staff and encouraging links with our local community.
We provide: choice, dignity and fulfilment
Our Mission: We are the dementia specialists, providing a range of dementia services from at home to end of life care.
Our ethos of kindness, care and excellence, along with our drive for using the newest technologies makes us a well sought after place for work placements from Universities, colleges and schools alike. Our staff satisfaction levels are high and compare very favourably to other care providers – because of these reasons we often have requests for work placements.
Every part of our work is centred around the care, comfort, health and wellbeing of our service users. One such example of this is our varied activities schedule including; arts and crafts, singing, dancing, plays, music, animal visits and much more! We contribute to the well-being of our local community by opening up our estate and providing a woodland walkway for local people to come and enjoy the wildlife that exists in the estate.
In November 2019 Parkhaven Trust opened The Beeches. A new residential and nursing service for people with dementia in Merseyside. Four years in the making, the team wanted to have both residential and nursing in the same building to support residents as their dementia progressed.
At the heart of The Beeches was a desire to use technology to provide the highest quality environment to cater for the needs of people with dementia.
Following good practice from the Dementia Design Centre at Stirling University, tools such as circadian lighting, acoustic monitoring and electronic care planning ensure that people are cared for using the latest technology.
Traditionally Parkhaven Trust would do hourly checks on residents during the night. By opening the door and light coming in, residents could be disturbed. Now staff use sound detecting technology, called acoustic monitoring, which listens to sleeping residents.
The technology knows what is normal for the individual and will trigger an alert for staff if anything changes.
For example, if someone usually snores at night and they stop, it will alert staff who can go in and check on the resident. It means we’re not disturbing people unnecessarily, but we can keep people safe.
The system uses sound and video, and staff take hourly turns watching a computer to monitor residents’ wellbeing.
Sensors recognise when a resident gets out of bed and lights will come on to lead them to the bathroom.
Circadian lighting is designed to help regulate the body clock. The lights mimic the natural rhythm of light during the day.
Research has shown that it can help sleep patterns and keep people more alert during the day, while being restful at night.
The team use electronic care planning by Person Centred Software that allows them to keep accurate, timely and detailed information.
Instead of staff spending time at the end of their shift writing up all the paperwork, they use handheld devises that record patient care in real-time throughout the day.
In a few taps of the device staff can record care and the system will flag any issues, such as if a resident loses too much weight.
The team at Parkhaven Trust are already seeing the benefits of implementing the technology.
Already we’ve seen falls reduce by half, which is making a huge impact. It gives peace of mind to staff, residents and their families. Technology doesn’t replace great care, but it does give us extra support.
We have shared the learning with other care providers from care facilities across the UK, through dedicated webinar sessions. Working with the National Care Forum to deliver these sessions to care providers across the country.
MICT has assisted to ensure we have seamless connectivity and the logistics of new systems will work. Without them we wouldn’t be able to function digitally.
If you feel your business or charity would benefit from the support of a proactive and friendly IT company, then please do get in touch. We would be happy to discuss your requirements and see how we can help. You can contact us through our contact form or give one of the team a call on: 0151 708 0702
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