1st July 2024
The important work that domiciliary care staff do in providing social care and support to thousands of service users has been recognised at the inaugural Southern Health and Social Care Trust Home Care Awards.
Staff from right across the Trust’s three domiciliary care teams – Armagh and Dungannon, Craigavon and Banbridge and Newry and Mourne as well as the Out of Hours team – came together for a special afternoon, to allow the Trust to recognise and thank them for making a difference to the lives of the 2,236 services users they care for.
The ceremony saw a number of winners and runner-up awards presented across eight different categories. These included The Saving Lives / Bravery Award, the Above and Beyond Award, the Joy Maker Award, the Awesome Admin Award, the Compassionate Care Award, the Mentor Award, the Supervisor Award and the Team Award.
Music was provided by service users from The Arc, which provides a range of meaningful day opportunities for adults with learning disabilities as well as by one of our own Domiciliary Care Workers Sinead Heaney.
Service User Mrs Margaret Heslop also spoke about her experience of accessing domiciliary care for the past 10 years.
Margaret said:
“I was delighted to be invited to these awards to just say thank you to all the domiciliary care workers within the Southern Trust. You all have done so much for me over the past 10 years, and I want people to know how much I appreciate every one of you. I really cannot thank you enough. The work you do really is everything to me and I am sure it means as much to the thousands of others who you care for.”
The first award presented was the Saving Lives / Bravery Award, when the actions of a Domiciliary Care Worker (DCW) resulted in the saving of a life. This award was won by Angela Oozeerally (Newry and Mourne DCW), with runners up being Michelle Corkin and Amanda Marno (both Craigavon and Banbridge DCWs).
The Above and Beyond Award was presented to Julie McWilliams (Newry and Mourne DCW) for her passion, dedication and for going the extra mile, with Roberta Morton (Armagh and Dungannon DCW) and Doville Pikeliene (Newry and Mourne DCW) being well-deserved runners-up.
Armagh and Dungannon DCW Pauline Abernethy was named the winner of the Joy Maker Award for spreading joy and happiness amongst her colleagues and service users with runners up for this award being Newry and Mourne DCWs Niamh McAllister and Greg Tumilty.
Andrea Bell (Craigavon and Banbridge admin) won the Awesome Admin Award for her administrative work which has a real impact on the quality and efficiency of Trust Home Care, with Michelle Meehan (Newry and Mourne Business Manager) and Louise McDonald (Newry and Mourne admin) named as runners up.
The Compassionate Care Award, recognising an individual who has the values and skills to provide person centred care in the community, was won by Newry and Mourne DCW Marie McNulty with three runners up – Grace Hanna (Craigavon and Banbridge DCW), Claire Byrne and Louise McKenna (both Newry and Mourne DCWs)
The next award was the Mentor Award and this was won by Pauline Loughran (Newry and Mourne DCW) for training, encouraging and motivating other staff with runners up Petya Petrova (Newry and Mourne DCW) and Paddy McNally (Armagh and Dungannon DCW).
Lesa McCrory (Craigavon and Banbridge DCW) was named the winner of the Supervisor Award for demonstrating a commitment to supporting a highly motivated staff team to deliver quality, safe person-centred care, with runners up named as Anne Holmes and Tonya McArdle (Newry and Mourne DCWs).
The final award of the afternoon was the Team Award which was won by DCWs in Katrina Ferran’s domiciliary care patch areas of Lurgan and Craigavon for demonstrating and living up to the Health and Social Care values in their everyday actions and behaviours, with the Out of Hours team and the Newry and Mourne Locality Team named as runners-up.
Brian Beattie, Director of Adult Community Services, said that he was humbled to be in the same room as colleagues who he described as our ‘unsung heroes’.
“Every day our domiciliary care workers provide person-centred care, emotional support, empathy and respect to our service users, clients and their families.
“I am delighted that we have been able to host our first Trust Home Care awards which celebrate and recognise what our domiciliary staff do on a daily basis.
“We have almost 1200 domiciliary staff across the Trust who support people to stay at home or to return home early after hospital discharge, which helps to ensure that there is actually space in our hospitals when someone needs that acute level of treatment and support.
“Whilst we have had a number of runners-up and winners, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our domiciliary care colleagues, we are very proud of all of you, whether you attended the event or if you are one of our domiciliary care staff who were out on their rounds, delivering essential care to service users.
“I can say that your work saves lives, sometimes in very dramatic situations however also as you go quietly from house to house delivering essential care, while at the same time helping to reduce the impacts of loneliness as you spend time with our service users.”