Social Care Day of Remembrance and Reflection

Together we paid tribute to bravery, dedication and kindness

Staff from our Extra Help at the End of Life Service, family members who had been supported by the service and the Deputy Mayor of Irthlingborough Cllr John Farrar joined together at our offices in Irthlingborough on Thursday 17th March to thank social care workers for their work during the pandemic.

Service Manager Su Brazell said "The Social Care Day of Remembrance has been organised by Skills for Care in collaboration with 20 other partners across the social care sector and is being held to pay tribute to the dedication of social care workers throughout the pandemic.  It is also a time to remember those social care workers who we sadly lost to Covid-19; an estimated 922 social care workers lost their lives from the virus between March 2020 and May 2021.

Throughout it all, our Extra Help at the End of Life team continued to provide care as usual, visiting and supporting people in their final weeks when they had chosen to be cared for and die at home.  Due to the hospitals and hospices having to close their doors to visitors, care at home became more in demand, so that people could be with their loved ones right to the end."

Su told her staff "So much of what you do is about the emotional support and reassurance you give and being behind a mask and unable to stay for a cuppa meant that what you do best was challenged.  But as a team you rose to the occasion, giving all that you could to help everybody you visited, whilst at the same time being unable to do that with your own families and friends in lockdown.  Like so many other frontline care workers, this was your job and you continued to deliver a service with dedication and compassion.  Thank you for all that you did then, and all that you do now."

We were delighted to welcome the Deputy Mayor of Irthlingborough Cllr John Farrar and Mrs Dorothy Farrar to join us at Waterside House in Irthlingborough.  The Deputy Mayor added his appreciation of all social care workers during the pandemic and said "We salute you, we remember you and we thank you for being there when we needed you."

Age UK Northamptonshire's Chief Executive Chris Duff [pictured above right] also thanked the Extra Help at the End of Life team and social care workers in general, thanking Su and the Deputy Mayor for their kind words.  Chris explained that he often felt humbled by the dedication of his staff, and this is one of those occasions.