Abacare staff support ‘hidden’ carers for National Dementia Carers’ Day
STAFF at a Welsh care provider are showing their support and helping to raise awareness about the importance of society’s ‘hidden’ carers as part of National Dementia Carers’ Day this month (September, 2018).
National Dementia Carers’ Day, part of World Alzheimer’s Month, takes place on September 9 and recognises and celebrates informal dementia carers, while highlighting what it means to be a carer.
Denise Hopkins, Regional Manager at Abacare, which has offices in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT), said: “Here at Abacare we employ hundreds of dementia carers who all work tirelessly in their roles to provide care for service users in the community, however we are all well aware that there are thousands of ‘hidden’ carers out there who are providing care for loved-ones and don’t receive recognition or even payment for what they do.
“The focus of National Dementia Carers’ Day is to spread awareness and show support for all those carers, so we’re offering them any help and advice they may need, all they need to do is give us a call on 01443 742645. Our expert staff will be happy to chat to them about caring roles and share experiences and tips and generally offer any support they can.
“If any ‘hidden’ carers would like to know more about our respite care services or our dementia and live-in care services in order to take the pressure off themselves, they can give us a call.”
National Dementia Carers’ Day is now in its fourth year and support organisations, charities and community groups are being urged to get behind the campaign by spreading awareness and helping to signpost sources of advice and support using #NDCD18.
The day is part of World Alzheimer’s Month, which will highlight the importance of early detection and diagnosis of dementia.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, there are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to more than one million by 2025. One in six people over the age of 80 have dementia.
More than 225,000 people will develop dementia this year, which is one every three minutes.
Denise added: “If there’s anyone out there who would like to take up care for a living, they are welcome to join our team as we are looking for caring, honest and reliable individuals.
“No experience is necessary to become a carer as we offer free, full training in addition to a period of working alongside experienced carers. Comprehensive training includes a company induction, first aid, information on dementia, health and safety, food safety, infection control, handling medication and moving and handling service users, with the opportunity to achieve Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF) from the beginning of employment.
“New recruits are given free uniforms, access to national staff discount scheme for all major brands as well as 28 days paid holiday, paid travel between calls and paid mileage.
“We’re also offering FaceTime or Skype interviews to candidates in order to meet the demands of the modern jobseeker. Its view is that busy people wanting a career change can ‘meet’ the team via FaceTime or similar applications and find out about the roles it has to offer, as well as meet a couple of team members and, if they are about, also say ‘hello’ to a carer too.”
Anyone interested in joining the team at Abacare should visit www.abacare.org.uk or call 01443 742645.
Abacare operates a professional Care Management Team that is committed to providing high quality care to individuals in their own homes.
The large team of trained, specialist, care workers provide positive based outcomes and person centred care to people throughout Wales.
Abacare’s core values, instilled into every staff member, include ‘make us proud’, ‘focus on our service users’ wellbeing’, ‘communicate, listen well and speak with respect’, ‘be passionate, honest, caring and considerate’, ‘recruit and develop the very best’ and ‘lead by example’.
It believes it offers inspiring work for inspirational people.
It is a member of the United Kingdom Homecare Association, Ceretas (formerly British Association of Domiciliary Care), The National Homecare Council and The Information Commissioners Office (Data Protection). It is also registered with the Care Social Services Inspectorate Wales.
Abacare has been awarded an Investors in People accolade for its staff training and development.
Investors in People is a national standard, which provides a framework that helps organisations to improve performance and realise objectives through the effective management and development of their staff.
For more information about Abacare, please call the RCT office on 01443 742645 or visit www.abacare.org.uk. Alternatively, please follow the company on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/Yn4zmS or on Twitter by visiting www.twitter.com/visitabacare.
