Jean my stepmother has advanced dementia, and has been supported by the team at Waterloo Park three days a week. In addition to the usual exceptional care she receives – she is given choice, she is given dignity and most importantly she is given empathy – the team at Waterloo Park may have recently given her the gift of life.

Jean’s deterioration has been huge in the last six months and the team have changed the care package as needed, such as 1-1 care at home time, as Jean can get on the wrong bus, manning the gate when she goes out for a cigarette, helping keep her safe when she wants to give out teas, taking her into the community which is not an easy task, and constantly reassuring Jean to stay at the centre when she is always trying to “pick her kids up ” or visit her (late) mother.

The team are great at adjusting her care package as her needs grow and change, but she still gets to smile when she is at Waterloo which is totally down to the total care of the staff.

Recently, Jean attended the day centre when she obviously wasn’t very well – she had been acting a little different which we as a family had noticed a couple of days before and we took to her GP and was told it was probably the side effects of her medicines.

Later that day I received an email off the manager of Waterloo Park, Michelle, using lovely caring words just making sure we were aware of the changes in Jean’s behaviour that the staff had noticed in one visit to the centre!! How on the ball is that?

A few days later, Jean again went to one of her sessions at Waterloo Park and became more unwell. She was vacant and shaking. The team alerted Francey the activity lead who knew straight away Jean was unwell and not herself.

Francey has a very good relationship with Jean, and she and another member of the Waterloo Park team, Lynn, took Jean to a quiet place for her own privacy.

Lynn believed she may have an infection based on her behaviour – by this time Jean couldn’t carry her own weight. Michelle made the decision to call an ambulance.

The whole team worked together to notice, to alert, to plan and to arrange care via NHS – and Francey made a caring professional call to myself to update the family.

Jean was taken to Aintree hospital where she was diagnosed with an infection and admitted.

Waterloo Park doesn’t specialise in dementia, but the care is second to none, they know Jean inside out and detected she was ill when her GP didn’t!!

The paramedics did suspect sepsis at one point and this is life threatening but rest assured if any resident at Waterloo Park is in any danger or risk the staff will assist to the highest level and give total quality of care.

I am eternally grateful to all the staff at Waterloo Park who don’t just do a job, they have a vocation to the people they support and as a family, we will never be able to repay them. Truly a huge thank you to each and everyone of them.