Meet our Team: Manager Rachel

Rachel has worked at Needwood House Care Home since the age of 16. Needwood truly is her second home. Rachel began as a carer nearly 30 years ago she has learnt on the job being promoted to senior carer and supervisor before taking on the role as Manager. Rachel is immensely proud of the home and her team as she explains here, “At Needwood House Care home we care for individuals with very acute and often highly complex needs ranging from Huntington’s to bipolar or schizophrenia.

Our care whether someone is coming here because they have a life limiting condition and require 24 hour care to offer them comfort and support through the declining stages of an illness or whether our role is to help to improve the standard and quality of life of someone with a highly complex medical condition, our ethos remains the same, we take the time to get to know someone, to understand them, and therefore to create and implement a care plan that is right for them as a unique person.

We have found many times over the years that people with complex mental health needs come here after having failed at other places and are seemingly lost and being moved around because their behaviour is too challenging or often aggressive, I am so proud of the fact that where placements have failed elsewhere, we will meet their needs. We are a small home but with a large close-knit team who work together to support each other and our residents, we believe in actively listening and being emotionally present to help residents live with and manage their condition and enable them to live a calm and enriched life. The home is set up to feel just like that, we have a lovely garden, access to pool and darts, quiet areas and everyone has their own private bedroom where we encourage people to bring in items from home so that very quickly Needwood starts to feel like home. Of course, this dedicated approach to care is supported by our qualified nurse team on hand to deliver any required medication as agreed with Drs, we also have our in-home chef to make home-cooked meals every day and love to bring in entertainment.”