A dedicated care home worker has been praised by her bosses for “giving residents a voice and ensuring it’s heard loud and clear”.
Bosses at Regency House Residential Home in Pontypool, say Kirsty Griffiths is a “true advocate” for the residents.
Kirsty’s dedication to the needs of her residents has seen her develop her career quickly – and has also seen her nominated for a gong in this year’s Wales Care Awards.
Kirsty, who lives in Talywain, has been put forward by Regency House Residential Home’s registered manager Cerion Thomas for an award in the Excellence in Dementia Care category, sponsored by Hallmark Care Homes & Camascope Ltd.
The awards are organised by Care Forum Wales to pay tribute to the frontline heroes of social care.
The award ceremony will be taking place on Friday, October 17, at the Holland House Hotel in Cardiff, and the overall sponsor for the awards is Meddyg Care.
Kirsty first started working at Regency House while on work placement as part of her college health and social care course.
After securing a job there, her career progression has been something of a whirlwind, quickly progressing from carer to lead carer and then shift manager in only five years.
She has now been in the deputy manager’s role for two years and says being the residents’ advocate is an essential part of her role.
Kirsty said: “Giving the residents their voice and ensuring their needs are met is everything.
“I strongly believe that if you’re not doing that and you’re not fighting for your residents and what they need, you shouldn’t really be in the job.
“We are their voices, so it’s really important that we shout for them.
“It’s vital we get all their information down for them so they can be heard.
“All the staff at the home are focused on achieving the best outcomes for the residents and getting to know the things that are important to them and we look at how we can help them achieve that.
“I do an eight-week review of each resident and when I do their review and their outcomes are achieved and you can see they are clearly thriving, the satisfaction is indescribable.”
Kirsty said she has thoroughly enjoyed her career in the care sector, and took great satisfaction from helping people.
She said: ““I actually started at Regency House on college placement, I used to go in on a Wednesday, basically making cups of tea to start with, and I just really enjoyed it.
“After I did my college course I applied for a job at the home, was lucky enough to get it, started off as a carer and have just made my way up.
“Cerion is a massive advocate for people progressing their careers and doing better for themselves, so her support has been so important.
“Just to be nominated for an award was just so lovely, it was so unexpected, and to be a finalist is wonderful.
“It would be great if we could recognise everybody because we all work so hard.”
Cerion Thomas said Kirsty was an integral part of the care team at Regency House, a 52-bed residential home.
She said: “Kirsty is incredibly patient and her abilities to obtain and achieve for our residents, giving them control and a voice, is astonishing.
“Kirsty is a true resident advocate, she gives them a voice and ensures that it is heard loud and clear.
“She ensures that our residents are heard and that our staff are supported to understand and achieve what is truly important to our residents.
“Kirsty has developed outstanding relationships with both our residents and their people, ensuring they are in control and that they have a choice.
“The majority of our residents at Regency are early to moderate dementia residents.
“They are coming in from their own homes and that can be a very scary process for them and their relatives and they need somebody to be their voice.
“We do pre-admission assessments while they are still in their own homes and start building a picture of them as individuals and when they move in we continue to build that.
“Kirsty really immerses herself in the pre-admission assessment and gets to know the relatives and the residents and puts them at ease.
“She really listens to them and makes sure their needs are communicated thoroughly to the care staff and that makes such an impact in their care.”
Cerion said the deputy manager’s role was one of the toughest roles in a care home, and through her support and dedication Kirsty had helped the company achieve its best inspection report to date, with no areas for improvement or priority action notices.
She said: “I would say the deputy manager role is one of the hardest roles in the house because they are a bridge between the ‘paper-shuffling’ manager and the actual care staff.
“Kirsty embraces that role so well.
“She delivers care, she works in the care numbers with the staff and also supports the staff in the approach they use on the unit.
“She gives the staff the feeling and knowledge that we are all on it together because caring for residents with dementia can be very stressful.
“Kirsty is out there, at the coalface with them.”
Mario Kreft MBE, the Chair of Care Forum Wales, said: “Care Forum Wales has been working tirelessly for more than 30 years to promote the social care sector.
“We established the Wales Care Awards to show our appreciation to the workforce and the wider sector for the remarkable and vitally important contribution everybody makes, day in day out.
“The event underlines the importance of the social care sector.
“It is the glue that binds our communities together, both socially and economically.
“Our mission is to be the voice of social care in Wales to advocate on the sector’s behalf, holding truth to power in order to secure a fair deal to recognise the dedication of our frontline heroes and heroines across our nation.
“If you don’t value the people who do the caring you will never provide the standards that people need and never recognise the value of the people who need the care in society.
“Every single one of our finalists is a winner and will be presented with a gold, silver or bronze award.”
