Transcript: A Day In The Life: Mandy

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Mandy - My name is (Mandy) Thompson and my role in the care home is a Senior, which means managing the shift, as well as caring for the service users.

I enjoy coming into work every day, helping them, helping the families, making their life better for them, and also the appreciation and the gratitude they give you.

When I came in, obviously you have to start at the bottom if you haven't got any previous training. So I've moved up from a Carer to an Acting Senior to a Senior within three or four months. Eventually I'd like to go into management or get my own home.

To enable somebody to give medication, you'd have to do a medicine handling course, which the establishment has paid for, to make sure you understand it 100 per cent before you are given the keys to do it yourself.

(speaks with service user)
- Well done. Do you think you'll be able to give us a little song later?
- Song? I can't sing.
- I thought you could.
- Oh, no.

The bingo will happen two times a week. You get a group of people who do like to play bingo. There's about six or seven. If it's a nice day, we'll take the residents out into the grounds of the building, and we'll have tea and biscuits, and quite often they will have a singsong of all the old wartime favourites. One of the male residents is a very good singer who likes to do a solo part.

Everybody gets on really well with each other because everyone's aim, at the end of the day, is to make them as comfortable and well looked after as possible.

Without carers, their quality of life would be very poor.

Service user - I've had three falls. I have to have somebody walk with me to the toilet or to the bathroom.

Mandy - You become closer to somebody. You have more contact with them, you see them on a daily basis and you can't help caring about them. It's different because you get the feedback from them and they really do appreciate what you do for them.