Like most people I didn’t have an understanding of the care industry until a family member required care. At this point our family faced huge challenges in finding the right solution which was flexible and that we could trust.
Trying to arrange this at short notice and being involved with care companies that didn’t have a customer service ethos highlighted the issues that people and families face in a similar situation, that’s when I thought ‘there must be a way to do this better’.
Although I have a legal and professional services background, somehow I’ve always been involved in looking after people and trying to help them improve their lives. After completing my law degree, I started my career working for a human rights NGO in New Delhi, India. Our team advised the Government on the implementation of the Right to Information Act with the aim to give over a billion people the right to challenge corruption and give transparency in where their money was being spent. This was an amazing and transformational experience and even though you can find me online with credits to the contribution of that Act, I always wanted to be more hands on and changing people’s lives on a daily basis, not just on a policy level.
Running Bluebird Richmond & Twickenham really is about changing people’s lives. We support people to remain as independent as possible whilst at their most vulnerable. We are rewarded with so much positive feedback as we help turn customer’s lives around. They discover the possibilities of being able to live life as fully and independently as possible. We help our customers face a huge range of health challenges including stroke, brain injury, MS, Parkinson’s and people living with all forms of dementia along with other neurological conditions.
Our care is unique, it goes beyond the task based care that many companies offer. We look at how we can enhance and extend people’s lives, offering therapeutic, nutritional, or lifestyle services based around their wants and needs, not just ticking off tasks.
We are exacting about who we employ and we spend a huge amount of time and effort in getting the right staff to deliver our service. Those who do make the grade are given training, support and ongoing development that exceeds any other home care company in London. For me it is about doing the simple things right. We communicate well with our customers and create an honest and open relationship. We give customers the same care staff on a daily basis so that they can build good relationships, we turn up on time and we do everything we can for the people we care for to enable them to achieve their outcomes.
For me the most important ethos of our company is to provide care that we would be happy to give to our own families. We need to build and maintain trust and be flexible to change our service in accordance with our customer’s needs. Most of all we need to be caring and have an empathic nature in everything we do.