Laura Tierney, our head of activities, gave fellow delegates plenty of food for thought during a presentation at the Kent Care Summit recently. Having described her motivation for entering the care industry and highlighted the benefits and challenges of providing activities for older people, she ended with a plea – for a very special type of entertainer!
The purpose of the conference, which was also attended by Barty’s home manager David Willis, was to plan for the county’s care industry in the medium to long term, “while considering current and future challenges, fragility of the care market and legislation”. A key part of this was to discuss areas of care that had been most exposed by the pandemic, review options for improvement and put in place plans to strengthen the offering to Kent’s elderly population in the immediate future.
One of the biggest challenges currently facing the sector is the recruitment and retention of staff. Laura had been invited to give the conference her own perspective as a relative newcomer to care. Having left her “stressful accounts job” at the start of the pandemic, Laura joined Barty House as a receptionist and rapidly progressed to the head of activities role. She told attendees that her determination to bring variety to the homes’ activities was fuelled by vivid memories of her grandmother’s care home, where the only amusement for residents involved sitting in front of old films or the occasional game of bingo.
“My nan used to love cooking so we arranged for her to help out in the dining room which gave her the much-needed stimulation she craved,” she recalls. “This is why we try to come up with as many ideas as we can to keep our activities fresh and entertaining at Barty House. We also strongly encourage residents’ feedback and ideas they may have for new activities or days out. The mental, physical, and social impact this has on our residents is always a positive one and very much needed in a care setting. I love coming up with ideas that are out of the ‘norm’ in care homes and executing them.”
For Laura, another very attractive aspect of working in care is the team spirit and drive to work together to provide the best care possible, which was especially noticeable during the pandemic. “I have never seen teamwork like it. From our carers to our domestics – everyone just helped everyone out as they all understood the strain that was being put on each team. This ultimately made me decide that this was the career path I wanted to pursue,” she says.
Laura wrapped up her presentation with a few words about her hopes for the future of the care industry. “I want every home to be given the same opportunities as some homes don’t have any activities teams at all. Having a wellbeing lead or team is so important for our residents’ physical and mental health. They need to be stimulated and the activities programme is so important to this.”
She adds: “My challenges are more to do with the sourcing of outside entertainment and trying to keep it fresh. So, if you know of any juggling, singing, birdkeeping, contortionist one-man-band then please send them my way!”
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