North west home care provider, Caremark (Barnsley) continue to invest in their staff with specialist training for their care workers.

Katie Yockney, Practice Educator for the Barnsley End of Life Care Team delivered a session on ‘Care of the End of Life client’ to 51 members of Caremark (Barnsley)’s team.  The session focused on the signs of someone who is dying and the last days of life.  A proportion of the clients supported by Caremark (Barnsley) are at the last stages of life.

The purpose of the training session was to educate and prepare staff caring for people at home who are in their final days of life, ensuring they are supported according to their wishes with the relevant compassionate care. 

Ms Yockney’s session was well received by the group, as were the two short films showing two different people who were in their final stages of life at home.

At the conclusion of the session, care staff were able to ask questions regarding any concerns they had. 

Commenting on the training, Care Worker Michaela Seston said: It was brilliant, really interesting.  I was reassured to hear that the customers I have supported were not in pain.  It also provided me with some techniques that I can use to support my customers to remain comfortable.  It will also be helpful because I have chosen an End of Life unit for my Level 2 diploma and it gave me lots to think about.”

Caremark (Barnsley) provide a comprehensive care and support service to people who wish to remain living independently at home, enabling them to exercise greater choice and control over their day to day living.  Compassionate, well trained care workers are closely matched to their client’s needs and are then permanently allocated to their particular client.

Cathryn Fewster, Caremark (Barnsley)’s registered Care Manager added: “We feel incredibly privileged to help people achieve their last wishes.  It means the world to our staff to be able to help in some way those who need us the most.”