Read our January 2020 Newsletter!

Read our customer newsletter for a look back at a successful 2019, find out who is Carer of the Month for January and some useful information on the Telecare range of equipment.

End of a decade, start of a new one….2020

Having opened our doors almost 10 years ago at the dawn of the previous decade, we look forward to the new decade with excitement and enthusiasm, but also mindful of the many challenges ahead for the health and social care sector. January tends to be a time for reflection on the year just gone, but also an opportunity to set goals for the year ahead. So, we wanted to provide a short recap on some of the highlights of 2019 and reinforce our commitments and aspirations for 2020 and beyond.

Firstly, thank you from all of us to all of you who kindly sent us Christmas cards or passed on season’s greetings. This is very much appreciated by all of us at Bluebird Care. We once again celebrated the start of the Festive Season with our customers and staff at The Grovefield House Hotel when we held our Christmas Tea Party. For those of you who weren’t able to attend this year, I hope that you enjoyed our small gift of some shortbread. At the Tea Party, we drew the winner of the Christmas hamper, the entrants coming from those of you who kindly responded to our annual customer survey. Your views and ideas are important to us, so thank you to everyone who took the time to send us your completed survey.

Kind words and endorsements from our customers and their families are very special for us, especially for the care staff concerned who work tirelessly every day to have a positive impact on the lives of those they care for. We received many compliments during 2019, and we now have over 40 independently verified ‘5 star’ customer reviews on our NHS Choices webpage which we are very proud of, allowing those considering care for their loved ones to read what others have said about our services.

In October, we were delighted to learn that Libby Irvine, our Training Manager was awarded ‘Network Team Member of the Year’, the judges commending her for her ‘energy, vibrance and commitment to her role’ and recognised her passion for delivering world class training. We have significant investment going into our staff training, which will continue in the coming years. We have many staff members who have completed formal training in 2019 and many more continuing their learning into 2020 and beyond.

During the year, we introduced ‘Health & Wellbeing’ days for our care staff, to encourage them to bring a moment of calm into their increasingly demanding lives, with information and demonstrations about diet and food, yoga, massage and mindfulness. By addressing stress resilience, nutrition, relaxation and happiness we believe we can always do more to help support our valued team members lead a healthy lifestyle, and, as the feedback was positive, we plan to hold these sessions periodically throughout this year so that as many of our care staff as possible have the opportunity to participate.

Although it’s a couple of years since we were awarded an ‘Outstanding’ rating by the Care Quality Commission, we are still immensely proud of this achievement and strive to live up to the resultant expectations from customers and their families, largely through the dedication of our wonderful care professionals who deliver high calibre, person-centred care in our community each and every day.

As you would expect, our team has changed a little over the course of 2019, so to bring you right up to date with our office based personnel, we are enclosing our up to date ‘Meet The Team’ overview, which we hope will be of some help to you when contacting the office for any reason.

In the coming years, our commitment to you is that we will continue to offer dedicated and person-centred care provision whilst investing in our staff, their training and development, and in IT and infrastructure to support our operations.

Finally, we wish each and every one of you a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous 2020!!

Carer of the month

Tatjana Holub

We are delighted to announce Tatjana Holub as our Carer of the Month for January!  Tatjana joined Bluebird Care in October last year and has taken over complex care packages with ease.  Both customers and colleagues talk highly of her which is great to hear.

She is an amazing team player and has gone out of her way to help with covering some outstanding calls at short notice, and does so with professionalism, grace and integrity, always putting her customers first.  Congratulations to our well-deserved winner this month.

Whilst we recognise that you’re all amazing, hardworking and such a caring team, the runner up slot this month goes to Oana-Marie Aursei.   She displays a great skill set in the care field and has had great feedback from Customers and family members.

She delivers a particularly high standard of care to those she meets and can put them at ease.

We also wanted to give a “shout-out” to Andrea, Bianca, Holly, Marius and Sandra who have been mentioned as going above and beyond over the last month.

Customer Survey 2019

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to complete the Customer Survey last year.  We are in the process of fully analysing these results and creating an action plan of new projects to continue improving the services we provide.

We will share these results with you later in January.

Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme

is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia. It aims to transform the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about the condition.

Dementia Friends is about learning more about dementia and the small ways you can help. From telling friends about the Dementia Friends programme to visiting someone you know living with dementia, every action counts.

We are committing to creating a new army of Dementia Friends during the first quarter of this year and have a program in place to have our staff team registered and fully informed.

If you or any of your friend/family need any advice then please contact the office and we’ll have one of our Dementia friends make contact with you.

Work anniversaries

And as always, we are recognising the work anniversaries of our staff. We send a personalised email from Ian recognising their work anniversary but based on feedback from our care staff, we also wanted to recognise it in both the Staff and Customer Newsletters.

We will do so in order of length of service, as follows:

Gurdip Cheema – 9 years

Vedrana Bosnjak – 5 years

Milica Kuzela - 4 years

Francine Risse - 2 years

Fiaz Durrani - 1 year

Maja Orton – 1 year

Andrea Zeba – 1 year

Alen Bakica – 1 year

Iva Zinic – 1 year

Compliments corner

– each month we list some of the many compliments received from you about us so we can share the word…

Luis, our Care Mentor, called to say he had shadowed Mirjana in a couple of calls and she showed big empathy and compassion with customers and colleagues and is well organised.

A customer called to say she loves Ingrid and thinks she is unbelievable and brilliant, should be carer of the month.

A family member told Luis that they were very impressed at how organised our Lead Supervisor, Gabi, is with her work and approach.

A customer informed us that Alla is the best carer she’s ever had.

A customer’s family informed us that Andrea was brilliant and very professional and supportive when supporting her customer during a fall.

A customer ‘s family emailed and informed us that her parents are absolutely delighted with the care they are receiving from Bluebird so huge heart felt thanks!! It's so reassuring.

A customer’s family member said during a review that Sian is a brilliant carer, always smart, very good with her personal protective clothing, always has great ideas for care, excellent rapport with the customer, always laughing and the customer enjoys Sian's visits very much

A customer’s family member passed on some compliments for Mona, said she works brilliant and gets on very well with the Customer and is always very helpful.

A family member said Naheed is doing very well, works very well with the customer and is always immaculately dressed and smart.

A family member emailed to say it is working so well with Etel being Mum's main carer and Mum receiving continuity of care. They thanked all at Bluebird for everything we do for Mum and Dad.

A husband emailed to say he and his wife are most grateful to Bluebird Care for all the help and support over the past year. Especially for the continuity provided by Etel coming in not only each day but also living-in.  Also, to Vali who has been standing in for Etel. Both have become valuable members of their household, getting on well with the customer, stimulating her mind and familiarising themselves with our daily routine.

A customer called to say her carer, Sarah A, is brilliant and amazing. She doesn't know how to thank us for all kindness that’s shown towards her.

A customer called to say Ilona deserves a gold star. During some complications on a call Ilona was very good and calm through it all and done everything she could to make sure everything was okay for the customer before leaving.

During an email to the office from a customer family member Gurdip was complimented for having a lovely manner and working so well with our customer.

A customer’s partner told us they were very happy with Sasha.

Another customer informed us they were very happy with Ingrid's service.

Telecare is available to help at home…..

We wanted to share some information with you regarding equipment that might be able to help you at home.  Please see below some information obtain from Carers Bucks. Should any of this be of interest please contact the office and we can provide further information.

https://www.carersbucks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Telecare-user-guidance-2017.doc_1487940902127.pdf

Telecare is simple technology to help you stay living independently at home for longer. You can use telecare to remind you of things you need to do, such as take your medication. Or a telecare system can automatically send an alert via your phone line to staff at a response centre or a carer if you need help, such as if you have fallen.

The simplest form of Telecare is a pendant alarm which can be pressed to call for help.

Local authorities offer some equipment that is not linked to a call centre. This is a simple standalone solution which can be of enormous help to vulnerable people and their carer’s.

Product	Application
Care Alarms	Links to a call centre via a telephone line. Alarm is raised via a trigger (e.g. a personal call button or a smoke detector). Monitoring centre listen into property and speak with the user via loudspeaker on unit (even when user another room.) Monitoring centre alerts a named keyholder and / or the emergency services. All Telecare equipment needs a Lifeline unit, but may connect to an existing unit, if one is present.
Pendant alarm	Each Lifeline unit comes with one personal call button (an ‘Amie’ or ‘Gem’). Alarm can be raised even when not near the unit – up to a range of 50 metres. The pendant alarm is splash proof so can be worn in the shower. It can also be supplied on a neck cord or a wristband.
Smoke Detector	Smoke detector makes a sound when it detects smoke Raises an alert at the call centre. Can be linked to a flashing beacon or vibrating alarm for people with a visual impairment.
Bogus Button	Trigger is based on the pendant alarm and can be wall mounted by a doorway to use as a bogus caller button, or in other areas of the property to use as a panic alarm. Call centre can respond to the alert by speaking through the care alarm loud speaker.
Flood Detector	A wireless sensor which can detect early warnings of potential flooding. Usually placed by a sink or toilet in the bathroom. Senses water on metal prongs, emits an audible alarm and raises an alert at the call centre.
Fall Detector	Intelligent pendant worn around the neck that automatically raises an alert to the monitoring centre in the event of a fall. There is still a button that can be pressed to raise an alert. Very useful for people unable to press a button in an emergency.
Temperature Extreme Sensor	Sensor monitors excessively high (35(C) and low (2(C) temperatures and a rapid rise or fall in temperature. Typically installed on the wall or ceiling of a kitchen to protect people and property from extremes of temperature.
Bed Occupancy Sensor	Sensor provides an early warning by alerting the call centre that the person has left their bed or chair and not returned within a preset time period, indicating a potential fall. Sensor can also be programmed to switch on lights, helping people find their way to and from bed easily.
SOS Mobile with GPS Tracking	Mobile SOS button and fall detector. Connects to a monitoring centre. Loud speaker to enable two way conversations. GPS tracking available via the internet to locate the person in need. MUST have friends / relatives able to access the website to locate
Alert pager and pendant	Push button pendant to alert pager with a range of up to 120 metres. Pager can be set for vibrate, vibrate and sound or vibrate and flashing light. Operates on batteries (button in pendant and AA in pager). Providing carers with the ability to be with in the home environment and knowing they can be called if needed.
Magiplug	Magiplug replaces either the bath or sink plug (two different types) and reacts to water pressure. If taps are left running and the water reaches a certain height, the pressure compresses the sprung loaded Magiplug, releasing the water and preventing flooding. The curved sections are green in normal temperature but change colour if the water temp goes over 36(C. It does not give an audible alert that it has been activated.
Memo minder	Memo minder is a motion activated talking sign. A short message can be recorded (and re¬recorded at any time). When the sensor detects movement, it will playback. Unit can be battery or mains¬ operated and comes with a mains adaptor and hour timer to allow selective operating times if required.
Chair/Bed Pressure Leaving Mat	Provides an instant alert of movement when somebody leaves their chair or their bed. Battery operated pressure and pager system. Range up to 30 metres, the mat is splash proof and can be easily wiped down. Pager can alert via flashing light, sound and vibration.
Just Checking	Just Checking is a system to support the care of people with dementia in their own homes. Small sensors in the main rooms of the home generate a chart of daily living activity as the person goes about their daily routine. This information is accessed via the web. Logging in will allow you to see what activities have taken place It is used as an assessment tool by care professionals to help in the planning and delivery of care and is usually in place for 4 – 6 weeks. Family carers use the system to reassure themselves that all is well.
Just Checking	Just Checking is a system to support the care of people with dementia in their own homes. Small sensors in the main rooms of the home generate a chart of daily living activity as the person goes about their daily routine. This information is accessed via the web. Logging in will allow you to see what activities have taken place It is used as an assessment tool by care professionals to help in the planning and delivery of care and is usually in place for 4 – 6 weeks. Family carers use the system to reassure themselves that all is well.
Door Contacts	This system offers an instant alert when a door is opened. Two aligned contacts, (one fitted to the door, the other to the frame) once apart, signal via battery operated radio transmitter to the pager.

BEST WI SHES AS ALWAYS ………

Anne, Nicky & Cindy