Newsletter - Respite - January 2024

Possibilities into Realities

Mirus Respite

CARDIFF

ISSUE NO | JUNE – 2023

Newsletter – January 2024 Welcome to our NEW respite newsletter! This newsletter provides a snapshot of our respite activities, events, and occasions. This is to offer an insight into the work we do at respite, and how this positively impacts the people we support and their families!

We offer short breaks which benefit both the individuals who use the service and their families.

Respite enables the person who uses the service to learn to adapt to a new environment, meet new people, learn new independent living skills, and can open a whole new world of opportunities.

For the carer/families this can provide a well earned break to recharge their batteries, and helps to give carers an opportunity to have time away from their caring roles.

1

The End of an Era

Mandy our Chief Executive who has worked in Health and Social Care since 1980 is retired in July 2023

Our Chief Executive, Mandy Evans retired in July.

future after Mirus.

Mandy, has been an integral part of mirus (Formerly Opportunity Housing Trust) since she started over 37 years ago. The Opportunity Housing Trust was a management committee, which was set up to oversee the closure of Ely Hospital. Mandy was part of that and has formally been employed by Mirus ever since.

Although she retired from the day to today running of the organisation, Mandy will remain involved in helping those with a learning disability.

“I am retiring from a full time job, not from my commitment to helping those with a learning disability” Here’s what Mandy had to say when we asked her about her amazing career and where she sees her

2

What were the greatest successes or accomplishments in your entire working history?

“Seeing people leave the hospital and get a life they always dreamed of, lots of people would say ‘I want to live in the community …’

Some people adjusted to community life well and others struggled after living such an institutional life for so long.

One chap comes to mind. He lived in Ely from a young age, about 3 years old, he was 67 when he ‘resettled in the community’. Staff at the hospital said it wasn’t right moving him and he’d never settle down. I can remember to this day when I saw him walking down his street to the corner shop to buy his morning paper. He was so happy, the perfect gentleman, living in Llandaff (posh area). He died not long after, but he was a man who fulfilled his dreams “

As well as successfully running the organisation Mandy was a Trustee of Learning Disability Wales and the Vale of Glamorgan Safeguarding Board. She even enjoyed

Supporting people with a learning disability and their carers, has helped shape Mirus into the successful values-led organisation it is today.

Everyone connected with Mirus will miss her leadership, skills, and experience when she retires.

“This is the right decision for me and the right decision for Mirus. I am going out on a high!”

setting aside time to read a good book which she would discuss at the Mirus book club!. All of these are activites she is looking forward to continuing into her retirement.

By announcing her intentions to retire early, as she reached her 60th Birthday (I know she does not look that old!), Mandy gave the Board of Trustees at Mirus plenty of time to find someone who shares our values and vision, who can continue to lead the organisation successfully as our new Chief Executive.

What do you plan to do with your retirement?

“Being a ‘community contributor’: it's time for me to give back. I want to be of more help to Josh my nephew with a learning disability, I want to advocate for carers – I will be joining All Wales Carers forum as a trustee and have been asked to be a trustee for Cardiff People First. I also just completed a bread making cause (nice Christmas gift from my sons), so making bread is expected.”

The Board of Trustees appointed an executive search agency, who worked with Mirus staff, and people supported to find the best person for the role. You can read more about who has been appointed on the next page.

What were the greatest challenges you faced at work?

Mandy will be sorely missed by all those who had the pleasure of working with her;

“Paying support staff what they just deserve. It took the Covid pandemic for them to be appreciated for the professionals and skilled workforce they are.”

“Mandy was a strong leader with vision and a passion for people we support. She is someone to aspire to”

“I also want to thank Mandy for her direction and support to help put one of our services right which is now in a great place.”

What skills have you acquired over your entire work history?

"Too many to mention. I am bottom of the class when it comes to diplomacy, still working on this one."

We wish Mandy all the best in her retirement and will all strive to continue her successful work with Mirus!

Mandy’s incredible passion and commitment to

3

Organisation News Introducing our Chief Executive, Kirsty

I have now been in post as Chief Executive for six months and I am deeply grateful for the warmth and welcome.

Since I have been at Mirus, I have loved learning about the organisation and I have really enjoyed meeting people at our Mirus Stars and Better Together events. Better Together is really important to Mirus because we have been reviewing the work that we do, and your feedback and insights as part of the Better Together process have been invaluable in shaping what Mirus will focus on in the future. We want to increase our collaboration next year too.

rganisation News

I know that lots of us have enjoyed parties and celebrations during the holiday season, and on behalf of Mirus I want to wish you all a very happy new year!

Kirsty Davies-Warner

We have made some changes to our structure

Chief Executive

Respite have a new Responsible Individual and Assistant Head of Service, Peter Davies. He has a wealth of experience to bring to respite as well as a fresh outlook.

“I'm really happy to be back working in Cardiff. in a short time, I have visited a handful of peoples homes and met some great people and seen some fantastic things happening. I particularly enjoyed the Halloween party at Ferrier avenue. I look forward to meeting more people at the mirus star awards.

New Respite Support Worker: Bethan Hughes - Beth is an experienced Mirus staff member and has transferred over to respite to take a new challenge “I’m really enjoying my time working with Respite it’s an interesting service with lots of people with different needs to get to know”

We also have two new Assistant Managers Jamie Rhymer and Justine Tickner to help support Team Manager Andrea. Jamie has had lots of experience working within Health and Social Care and is really enjoying his new role working with Mirus Justine has stepped into her new role as Assistant Manager and has a wealth of knowledge and experience of working in respite, Justine really enjoys the dynamic nature of the service.

5

Halloween at Respite

We had an absolute blast during the Halloween Respite party!

Everyone looked amazing and it was lovely to be able to meet up and enjoy each others company, staff all helped to prepare a suitably spooky buffet which went down very well.

Christmas festivities It was a lovely end to the year to celebrate Christmas together at Pantbach Avenue with so many of the people we support at respite throughout the year.

Lots of people turned up to a very Christmassy Pantbach Ave to enjoy a special Christmas buffet, music, dancing and fun!

It was lovely to be able to introduce some of the people we support to each other who had never met. Kim who uses our CCX service attended along with her daughter and struck up a friendship with Lisa who uses Respite. Their paths hadn't crossed previously, and since the party they have made contact with each other on social media as they got on so well! It is lovely to be able to help facilitate new friendships and to bring people together.

6

81%

94%

OF PEOPLE

agree that Mirus is a great place to work

OF PEOPLE

agree they share the organisation’s values

In 2022 Investors in People sent out a survey and spoke to our staff to find out what they think we’re great at, and what we need to work on. We are happy to announce that we have retained our Investors in People Gold accreditation until 2025.

What we’re great at

What we’re working on

Living our values and behaviours Empowering and involving people Building the capability, knowledge and skills of our people Leading and inspiring people Managing performance

Making improvements and trying new, innovative ideas

86% OF PEOPLE

agree that Mirus has a positive impact on society

Recognising people for the good work that they do Helping people develop their digital skills and confidence Improving how we support people’s wellbeing

Structuring job roles so they’re interesting and challenging

Creating sustainable success

Sharing more regular updates as we work to achieve our aims

87% OF PEOPLE

agree they have opportunities to learn and develop at work

Ensuring our Better Together events meet our goals Raising the profile of Mirus with people outside the organisation

73% OF PEOPLE

89%

agree they feel appreicated for the work they do

OF PEOPLE

84%

agree they’re encouraged to use their initiative

OF PEOPLE 7

they’re encouraged to improve the way they do things

Rekha and Jayne’s 60th Birthday Celebrations - We had a very special joint birthday recently, both Rekha (CCX/Respite) and Jayne (CCX) turned 60 this year, so we decided to do something special for them both. We prepared a special party for them both, we had an amazing buffet as well as party games, pinatas, and music, a great time was had by all!! We had lovely feedback from the carers to say that they had a really special birthday!

Birthday party for Rheka and Jayne 2023:

P r e P a i d C a r d s

8

New Referrals - We are happy to be introducing several

new referrals to respite, we are working closely with the Local Authority to ensure that we are introducing individuals in a person-centred way, we understand how difficult it can be at times for families and the person staying to get used to spending nights away from home, so we are committed to working with families to ensure we go at their pace, and to build confidence and trust in the service. A few of our new referrals have had their first overnight stays with great success. We look forward to getting to know all the new families and people who will be using the service in the New Year.

Theresa Davies’s Retirement – Theresa Davies, our

longest serving Respite staff member, is planning to retire early next year. She has been working in Respite for 31 years!

Theresa has supported hundreds of people in Cardiff and has an encyclopedic knowledge of people who use, and have used the service over the years. Theresa will always be considered the Godmother of Respite and is even affectionately known by one people we support as ‘Mama T’ Theresa is looking forward to spending more time with her family, and her mischievous cat ‘Blue’. Thanks for everything you have done for Respite over the years Theresa!

Celebrate great people and amazing achievements.

The Mirus Stars Awards is a big event that we hold every year. At this event, people we support and staff members can win prizes if they have been nominated.

You can nominate people supported and staff members when you think they have done something great that is in-line with our values; Together, Respectful, Responsible, Empowering and Courageous.

9

Health and Wellbeing You said, we did You told us that you wanted more information and support with their health and wellbeing, so, in September, we organised a Health and Wellbeing Festival at Margam Park.

The Health & Wellbeing Festival, which was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, was attended by lots of organisations from across Wales who joined us to share accessible information in an interactive way.

At the festival, people could visit exhibition stands to get advice and support about improving their health and wellbeing, as well as join in with lots of fun interactive activities throughout the day.

6

10

Sharing feedback We took the feedback that we received at the Health and Wellbeing Festival to the Learning Disability Wales Conference.

At the conference we showed people the video that we made of our event, and asked them: What do you think is the most important area that the Welsh Government should focus on?

An overwhelming majority agreed that Mental Health and Wellbeing should be the main focus.

Watch our video

bit.ly/miruswellbeingfestival

Have your say...

Now is the time to have your say about what Mirus should focus on in the future by filling in our survey.

We want you to tell us: • What is going well for you • What isn’t going so well for you If you are supported by Mirus, your survey will be available from your house Manager.

If you are a family member of someone supported by Mirus, your survey will be delivered to your home address.

Please complete and return your survey

by January 31st.

11