A specialist care expert from Balhousie Care Group, one of Scotland’s leading care providers, took to the national stage at a gathering of thought leaders in health and social care.

Yvonne Manson, Operations Dementia Manager shared the care home group’s highly successful dementia strategy when she spoke at the Care Show 2019 at Birmingham’s NEC on October 10.

Yvonne talked about the importance of involving care home residents and relatives in person-centred care for people with dementia, as well as some of Balhousie Care Group’s unique community initiatives, in a talk entitled ‘Dementia Care – it takes a village’. Yvonne, a former RCNi Award Winner, oversees up to 100 dementia ‘ambassadors’ across Balhousie Care’s 25 homes in the north and east of Scotland. The ambassadors are charged with taking Balhousie Care’s innovative dementia strategies and disseminating them among staff in the care homes.

Yvonne is a regular speaker on the care sector circuit and has shared her expertise as a participant in Government strategy groups, as well as on national TV and in national press. She is a judge in this year’s National Care Awards and next month will speak at the Royal College of Nursing’s Aspects of Age exhibition in Edinburgh. Robert, formerly Head of Nursing in Learning Disabilities for NHS Tayside, is a national expert in complex care. A visiting lecturer at both the University of Leeds and the University of Greenwich, he heads up Balhousie Care Group’s specialist healthcare arm ASC.

Yvonne, who began her career as a nurse, is a fierce advocate of the private care home sector, which she has worked in for her entire career. She said: “It’s a privilege to have joined the cream of the care sector as a speaker at this year’s Care Show and I can’t wait to share some of Balhousie Care Group’s successes as well as our thoughts on dementia services and the exciting opportunities ahead of us in the sector. The theme for the talk is ‘It takes a village’ and Balhousie’s Care’s success in making care truly person-centred, involving residents and relatives every step of the way, is proof of that.”

The Care Show, a coming together of thought leaders and innovators in the care home sector, took place at NEC Birmingham from October 9-10, 2019.