Local provider of specialist home care and dementia care services, Carefound, recently celebrated the end of its first year of helping elderly people remain at home in the Harrogate, Ripon and Wetherby area.
The team was joined at the event by local MP, Julian Smith, as well as families helped by Carefound and representatives from local community organisations including Alzheimer’s Society, St Michael’s Hospice, Dementia Forward and North Yorkshire County Council. They were all very complimentary of the professional team of home carers at Carefound and praised the efforts they go to in helping elderly people remain in the community. They were also delighted to hear about the specialist dementia care training introduced across the Carefound team following its recent collaboration with the Contented Dementia Trust.
Oliver Stirk, Director at Carefound, commented:
It was great to celebrate the achievements of our home care team over the last year. We have established a fantastic group of people here at Carefound and the dedication, professionalism and hard work of our home carers is what enables us to offer excellent levels of care to our clients and the families we help.
When we opened in 2011, we were keen to ensure that we could be as flexible as possible in meeting the needs of our clients – it was therefore important for us to be our own entity and not part of a wider organisation or franchise.
On reflection, this was a great decision and has enabled us to take innovative steps such as developing our specialist dementia care service based on the Contented Dementia Trust’s SPECAL method.
We now look forward to launching quarterly Understanding Dementia events in the New Year which will be an opportunity for families to not only learn more about helping people with dementia but also share experiences with others who face similar difficulties.
Also invited to the event were teams that offer complimentary legal and financial advice to elderly people in North Yorkshire such as Berwins Solicitors and Cardale Asset Management.
Oliver added:
The event presented a great opportunity to build links amongst the different organisations that help our local elderly population.
We believe that although the existence of a high quality care service such as Carefound is going to be key in enabling people to retain independence in the community for longer, no individual or organisation can achieve this alone.
A huge part of what we do is to work closely with all those involved in the care of a client which can include relatives, neighbours, health and social care professionals, charities, lawyers and financial advisors.
Gareth Marland, Solicitor at Berwins Solicitors in Harrogate, commented during the visit:
It’s heartening to see an organisation building links with charities and other institutions who focus particularly on the needs of elderly people.
I was particularly impressed with their commitment to training their staff in new concepts such as the SPECAL method for individuals with dementia; not only do their clients receive the benefit but their home carers have a much greater insight into the condition.
They have made a great success of their first year and our clients that use their services all give excellent feedback.
