Maureen’s story

Maureen, General Assistant, has worked at Leuchie House since 2010, delivering personal and social care to guests during their short breaks at Leuchie. Here she describes what her role involves and gives an insight into why she was an ‘Unsung Hero’ finalist in the Scottish Social Services Awards in recognition of the exceptional care she provides.



What does a typical day in your job involve?

A typical day starts with helping guests get up in the morning and ready for the day. As well as providing their personal care, I like to make sure they look nice and feel good about themselves, so I’m happy to help with hair and make-up if they need it. Then it’s down to breakfast where I help out too when guests need a hand. After that, I’ll often be involved in taking a guest out on an outing in one of our adapted cars.

What kind of approach do you take to your job?

At Leuchie we work with people with different conditions and all ages, backgrounds and interests. To me, it’s really important that every single guest has the best break we can offer them. So while the care side is essential, having a great holiday at Leuchie is about much more than that. It’s about finding out what a guest likes to do, or would like to do that they’ve not been able to before, then making it happen for them. That’s why I enjoy taking guests out on trips, because you can give them all your attention and make them feel special. It’s important to me that they enjoy their day out.

How do you make things special for individual guests?

I’ll always try to find out as much as I can about the best way to support people’s individual needs. It’s the little things that make a big difference when you’re looking after someone.

It’s also important to be flexible, particularly when you’re out on a trip because things don’t always go the way you think they will. For example I was out recently with a guest and for various reasons to do with her medical condition we weren’t able to do what we’d planned. So instead I took her on a scenic tour of the local area to make sure she still had a great time and her day out was still a positive experience for her.

It gives me so much pleasure to get positive feedback from guests and to know that you play an important part in making their holiday extra special. I found out recently that one of our guests always asks if I’ll be working when he books his holiday, because he enjoys our trips out for a pub lunch so much! That was so nice to hear.

What do you love about your job and what do you get out of it?

I love the fact that I feel I’m doing something useful. It’s great to know that you’ve helped someone to have a really good holiday.

I also really like working as part of the Leuchie team and will always try to help my colleagues where I can. It makes me feel good that they think I’m approachable and feel they can always come and ask me for help if they need it.