Staff profile: Vincent Gregory, Care assistant

Meet Vincent, care assistant at Old Gates, a Bupa care home in Blackburn.

“For me, caring for my residents is more than just a job,” says Vincent. He moved into care homes five years’ ago after being a youth worker.

“I’ve loved it ever since,” he says.

An enjoyable day

Just like in any home, there’s a pattern to the day. Vincent starts by assisting with breakfast and personal needs.

“After breakfast we may do some activities or just chat,” he says. “Then, at about 11, we have a brew.” He’ll continue to help the day go smoothly until bedtime.

Throughout, Vincent helps people do the things they enjoy, asking them
“’what do you fancy doing?’” It could be anything from dominoes, cards, painting, drawing, playing board games, just having a chat over a magazine or going for a walk.”

Extra inspiration

No matter how pleasurable routine is, sometimes you’ll want to do something new.

Vincent and the residents spend a lot of time talking, and come up with ideas together.

“Talking to relatives also works quite well,” says Vincent, as does getting to know a resident through their ‘map of life’. (This is the record you and your family create when you move in, so that the care home staff can get to know you better.)

Vincent works with the activity co-ordinators and helps them run their full programme of events, clubs and other activities.

But he also carries around his own file, full of ideas that he’s collected, so that he can always help fill a dull moment.

Something special

Vincent is key worker to about four or five residents at any one time.

This means doing something really special on a regular basis. For instance, Vincent takes one resident to his favourite Caribbean restaurant each month.

“There are also things like making sure your room is tidy and suitable,” says Vincent. “Maybe putting up pictures and things like that.”

A home to make you proud

Vincent likes to do as much as he can to liven up the home – to make it “somewhere that you want to be, where you enjoy being”.

A homely environment is as important to Vincent as it is to you. “Having a nice place to work is really rewarding,” he says.

“We have a lot of opportunity to make things even better, to make the place look nicer, to have an even better atmosphere within the home.”

Caring for your independence

In essence, Vincent says his job is to get to know you personally and provide care in a way that treats you as individual.

“I’m severely sight-impaired and, while my condition does have its limitations, it also means I appreciate how important it is for our residents to retain their independence,” he says.

“When one of our residents who has dementia tried to pay for a haircut recently (even though she didn’t need to) she got confused when she discovered she had no cash in her purse.

“So, that night, I printed out some pictures of old money, cut them up and placed the notes in her purse.

“It’s by doing things like this that we provide residents with some form of normality,” says Vincent.

“It can make the world of difference to people.”

Training for excellence

In 2010, Vincent won a Dr Kartar Badsha Award for Outstanding Dementia Care Support Worker.

“It has given me greater confidence and focus on furthering my career with Bupa,” says Vincent. “I am on the ‘Person First, Dementia Second’ course and will soon begin Dementia Champion training.”

“I still have a lot to learn but I believe that if all of us caring for residents living with dementia dedicate ourselves to the Person First philosophy, we can go a long way to improving lives.”

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