A Strabane care worker who has been serving her local community for 22 years says caring for others is simply a part of who she is.
Hayley Phillips started working at Melmount Manor care home in the Co Tyrone town when she was just 17 and she always knew that it is what she wanted to do.
Nurse Hayley specialises in looking after patients with dementia and has progressed to a managerial role at the home.
Hayley told MyTyrone: “I’ve been here now 22 years and it has been a real learning journey.
“From being here at 17 with no experience whatsoever, you either have it or you don’t.
“You either have that caring nature and that will to look after people, or you don’t have it.
“My heart always lay within the dementia area and looking after older people.
“I eventually managed to get in to do my nursing here, then got a role as a staff nurse here at Melmount.
“I managed to get a position within our dementia unit, and worked there for a number of years, before getting promoted to unit sister."
Hayley added that the last 18 months have been particularly challenging for those within care home setting.
Melmount Manor suffered a number of Covid outbreaks in late 2020 which proved a difficult period for staff and residents.
She added: “Throughout Covid we’ve been their family and their first port of contact.
“We sailed through the first period reasonably well, we only had one positive case in the home.
“Then in October of last year, we were hit severely with Covid, both residents and staff.
“I don’t think we will ever experience anything like what we experienced through those number of weeks.
“It was mentally and physically exhausting. We had staff members coming into work at 7.30am and they didn’t come out of that unit until maybe 8.30pm.
“So you had no communication other than ringing around other units. We were segregated into that one unit because Covid was so rife.
“As a team we all had to stick together, we knew at different intervals there was staff that were testing positive, staff that were off.
“We had great support from the community in Strabane, we had deliveries from numerous takeaways and donations from local businesses.
Serving her local area of Strabane is something that Hayley values highly, and her knowledge of the community helps with her job as well.
Hayley said: “I value the relationships that I have made and built throughout the years with family members and local schools in the area.
“Both my children go to school in the area and I think it’s vitally important that we commit to those connections.
“I do feel that the generation of now that are growing up in this crazy world of social media, have lost that connection a wee bit.
“It’s a massive benefit for me to have the knowledge of the area, the knowledge of people and people know me as well.
Imparting some advice for those thinking about working in a care home setting, Hayley said there are some valuable lessons she has learned over the last 22 years.
“You need to want to work hard, it’s not easy work. Some people think you just sit and talk to old people in a nursing home all the time and that’s just not the case.
“People need to realise that it is very hard work, but it is also very rewarding.
“If you get someone who is extremely advanced in dementia and maybe cannot communicate very well, and you can form a bond and see their face light up it makes it all worthwhile.”
