9 Jun 2023 Community

Sycamore Park Care Home staff are taking part in The Kirkwood Memory Walk 2023

Sycamore Park Care Home staff in Bradley, Huddersfield have decided to take part in this year's The Kirkwood Memory Walk. 

The care home has worked closely with The Kirkwood as we have provided end of life care training for their staff. As a thank you, a number of the care home staff have decided to take part in our walk and raise funds for our charity. 

Sycamore Park Care Home manager Coral Abrahams said of their staff taking part in this year's event: "It was Kim, one of our senior staff members' ideas. When she found out about it she just ran with the idea. She just said come on let's do it, let's get on board and give it a go. Obviously she has been coming to The Kirkwood and seeing all the amazing things that people are doing there for a while. She has seen all the fantastic initiatives you have going on. She got us all involved and so we had to sign up. 

"Personally I absolutely love walking. It is my favorite pastime. I haven't done 10 miles in a while, so I'm a little bit apprehensive but I'm sure I'll be fine."

On the relationship The Kirkwood has with the care home Coral added: "We are a care home that looks after elderly people and we support people at the end of their lives. The Kirkwood has been really great in supporting us to make sure our people have a good quality end of life and to make sure that people's symptoms are managed and that they are pain free. 

"The Kirkwood has given us practical support when the time comes. They have liaised with GP's and other health professionals and co-ordinated that care right at the end. 

"So a couple of months back we started the end of life care charter and have been attending training sessions at The Kirkwood's site in Dalton. Myself, my deputy and one of my senior staff members Kim, have been taking part in the program, which has involved attending all the training sessions at The Kirkwood and building a portfolio to evidence exactly what goes on." 

"The relationship we have with The Kirkwood is absolutely imperative. The staff here have always been brilliant to be honest. I've been here about 15 months and I could tell straight away that the staff loved giving end of life care, no one shied away from it, they were immensely proud of delivering that care.

"A lot of the confidence has come from the professionals at The Kirkwood, making sure all our staff are on the same page in wanting to give that really good standard of care. The Kirkwood staff are the specialists and we know we can come to you to ask for advice when we're struggling. So being able to call on that advice is really good and important."