Inspirational Carer/staff member of MARCH 2015 is;
Nathan Libby of Eldon House in Cornwall.
For my first visit to Eldon House, I was delighted to find that all the staff members concentrated all their energies entirely on helping their residents to engage during my visit (where they could). All of them! The guys were very instrumental in not only helping with instruments but getting people moving/dancing. Rather than being concerned about residents couldn’t do physically, they encouraged the minimum of movement out of everyone possible, with great cheerfulness and kindness. The faces of residents who held hands to ‘dance’ was a joy to see. They were transported to a time of great joy in their lives, when they would have responded to these familiar sounds with the ‘physical memory’ they have stored, of these associated movements.
Dancing was an intrinsic part of by-gone times, being associated with regular local dances, meeting life partners and all special occasions. Hearing dance music from those days often makes feet tap, but seeing residents helped to do more than that was very satisfying and deserves a special mention. Nathan seemed instrumental in getting this participation going and was very knowledgable about the interests and lives of his residents, so it’s great to nominate him on this occasion.
