Photo;(on the right – Joe Guishard, director of Right At Home Cardiff & Newport donating warm clothing to a member of staff at The Huggard Centre over the winter time).
As we enter into 2018 I thought I would share some of my reflections on what has been quite a year. It has been a fantastic year for me personally as well as some exciting times for Right at Home (Cardiff & Newport).
From a personal point of view, one of my top highlights this year was getting engaged to my partner Rania and my son Peter who turned 1 just before Christmas.
Looking back on 2017 from a Right at Home perspective it has been another incredible year. We are now supporting just in excess of 250 people every week and have a team of nearly 150 amazing people. I am often overwhelmed by just how wonderful our team of staff are – with a wide variety of characters and personalities all bound together by their care for our clients and a passion to make a real difference every day. A few of the team have moved on to pastures new during the year and while it is always sad to lose people, I very much wish them the best for the future and hope that they will stay in touch and do well in their chosen career moves.
I have thoroughly enjoyed all the social and charity activities we have done. From Children in Need and Pudsey Day, Elf Day for the Alzheimer’s Society, Red Day for Aids Awareness, our Dementia Bus Tour experience, our first Children’s Christmas Party and our Care Day. We have had a very busy year and it has been fantastic.
We have been lucky enough to win a number of awards and have been recognised again within the Right at Home group as the ‘Top Sales Performing office’ – quite an accolade in such a high performing group.
We have inevitably said a sad farewell to quite a few clients this year, some of whom we have supported for many years. It can be very tough to say goodbye and, as I tell the team, we need to remember the impact we have made in the last days of that person’s life, often enabling them to stay at home until the end, making a difficult time for their families just a bit easier and honouring their wishes to be in their own bed, their own home and environment and more importantly being able to spend time with their loved ones and visa versa.
Looking forward to 2018; some excellent new people have joined us in 2017 and with their addition and contribution to the team, it is looking that 2018 is going to be another fantastic year. We want to make a difference to more and more people, particularly expanding our care services in Cardiff & Newport whilst at the same time maintaining the “Quality” that is so very important to us.
I very much hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great 2018!
