NorseCare’s Dementia Care Lead wins National Award
Kate Grange, our Dementia Care Lead has won a national dementia care award at a ceremony in Brighton. She won the Best Dementia Care Lead award for her support and management of dementia care across our homes and housing with care schemes in Norfolk.
Kate’s role involves training and supporting over 70 dementia care staff, developing and implementing NorseCare’s overall dementia care strategy, delivering Dementia Friends’ sessions for staff, families and communities, creating a Dementia Excellence Programme to develop care staff’s overall knowledge of dementia as well as monitoring performance of homes in conjunction with NorseCare’s Quality Management team.
Kate spoke after the awards: “I’m so pleased and a little bit in shock! There were some wonderful stories of people providing exceptional care to people living with dementia, so I really didn’t expect to win. I love my job and of course, the people are always the ones who make it better – I’m passionate about helping our care staff to learn more about dementia. More importantly, it’s about providing the highest level of quality care to the residents and tenants in our homes and schemes.”
Heather Edwards, founder of Come Singing and Music Mirrors which helps people to live well with dementia was equally delighted to hear the news: “Kate is personally delightful, easy to get on with, efficient and fun, but her exclusive and steely concern is for the welfare and wellbeing of people in her care. As someone working independently with people living with dementia, I not only respect her work but feel warmed and supported by her kindness. This award is wonderful recognition for all her qualities.”
The National Dementia Care Awards is an annual event organised by The Journal of Dementia Care, a multidisciplinary journal for all professional staff working with people with dementia, in hospitals, nursing and residential care homes, day units and the community. The awards were created to recognise the very best people in the dementia care sector, whose exceptional work and contributions make better, person-centred care a reality. There were 16 categories to enter overall and there were four or five finalists in each category with two independent judges. For more information and all categories, please visit http://www.careinfo.org/dementiacareawards/
Kate is pictured with Hazel Blears, former Labour Party Chairman and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Sharon Blackburn from the National Care Forum at the event.