Dementia Care Home Support Assistant
As the Dementia Care Home Support Assistant, you will deliver an effective dementia friendly programme for people living with advanced dementia living in residential care homes. Support will be provided on a 121 basis within the care home setting. You will provide support to our clients, their family and carers, by providing a range of stimulating, engaging and person centred activities. You will ensure continuity of quality service provision in line with the organisational quality standards.
Your role will form part of the Dementia Services portfolio which includes Dementia Wellbeing, Dementia Cafés, Maintenance Cognitive Stimulation Therapy and Dementia Meeting Centres across Worcestershire.
The service aim is to support people to live well with dementia and maintain their independence through the use of assistive technology, signposting to other support services both internally and externally and community assets unique to their own situation.
You will manage your work time effectively, have a passion for supporting older people with dementia and have the ability to be flexible in order to meet service needs. The ability to drive and have access to of your own vehicle for work purposes is essential to this role. An enhanced DBS check is required for this post.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- To ensure that activities are delivered safely, risk assessments are carried out, reviewed, and documented in accordance with the organisations Health & Safety policy.
- To accurately log all client data and activity data into the organisational CRM system – Charity Log.
- To work closely with care home staff and family members to ensure activity sessions are successful, enjoyable, person centred and beneficial to service users.
- To represent Age UK H&W at external events and attend meetings to promote dementia services in the county, feeding back on information delivered.
- Work closely with the Marketing & Communication department and in house teams to promote the 121 service.
- To support the team leader in monitoring and evaluating the service to ensure it is meeting the needs of the clients and commissioners by collating regular feedback through surveys and forms.
- To escalate any concerns or matters relating to risk in relation to a venue, activity, an individual and/or their carers to the Dementia Service Team Leader.
- To work in a person-centred way ensuring the clients are treated with dignity and respect based on their individual circumstances.
- To maintain and compile detailed records to ensure accurate statistics can be created as required by the funders and for our impact report
- To ensure that the administrative tasks associated with the role, such as case recording, database entries, statistics, form completion, scanning, etc are completed in a timely, accurate and efficient manner and meet all deadlines.
- To ensure that enquiries to the service are answered and dealt with efficiently, accurately and in a timely manner.
- Ensure any customer feedback is recorded promptly and accurately and escalated if appropriate.
- To provide cover for any other dementia service in times of staff absence, holiday or increased demand.
GENERAL
- To be an active, integrated and cohesive team member.
- To maintain and develop good working relationships
- To ensure your behaviour reflects Charity values: We are friendly, we work together, we make a difference, we are always learning, we are flexible.
- To be responsive to the needs of the charity and its clients.
- To develop and deliver effective systems of working and procedures creating a culture of continuous improvement.
- To support the development of KPI reporting, ensuring delivery of the Strategic Plan and a commitment to demonstrating impact across the organisation.
- To prioritise Safeguarding our clients and colleagues.
- To support person centred evaluation processes in order to inform current and potential service development.
- To embrace equality, diversity and inclusion principles.
- To adhere to all relevant policies with particular reference to health and safety.
- To comply with all relevant legislation.
- To undertake appropriate training and personal development as required for the role.
- To portray a positive image of the organisation both internally and externally and set high standards of personal integrity and professionalism.
- To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required, consistent with the nature and grade of the post.
- To be willing to travel and work flexibly throughout the charities operational area
- To be prepared to work from any of our operational bases as required
PERSON SPECIFICATION
ESSENTIAL CRITERIA
EXPERIENCE
- Experience in a similar role or a qualification in a relevant discipline or a willingness to undertake such a qualification
- Experience of planning, organising and delivering activities
- Experience of people with advanced dementia
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Good communication
- Understanding of risks and monitoring these risks
- Ability and confidence to deescalate a situation
- Knowledge of data protection – GDPR
- Basic numeracy and literacy
- An understanding of patient centred care
- Excellent communication skills
- Basic IT Literacy, including the Microsoft Package and email
- Patience and empathy
- Willingness to work flexibly between the hours of 9 – 5pm Monday to Friday to meet the needs of the business (some occasional weekend work may be required)
- Willing to undertake any relevant training
DESIREABLE
- Experience of working with older people
- Experience of measuring impact of services
OTHER INFORMATION
- Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire is in full membership of, and works within, the philosophy and principles of the Age UK Federation.
- Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire is committed to equal opportunities, principles and practice.
- All staff, in their particular roles and working collaboratively, will be expected to pursue the aims and objectives of Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire set out in the overall strategic plan of the Organisation.
- All staff must work within the policies and guidelines adopted by the Organisation
- All staff will participate in the supervision and appraisal systems adopted by the Organisation.
- Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire is recognised as an Investor in People and, in its commitment to staff and organisational development, will identify training needs and will expect and encourage the involvement of all staff in meeting them appropriately.
You will be required to pass a disclosure check regarding spent and unspent convictions and cautions before commencing work. If you disclose any information, you will be treated fairly and will not be discriminated against.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community. If you need any assistance with applying, for example, an alternative format for your application, please contact the Recruitment team on recruitment@ageukhw.org.uk