How Barry from Morningside Care Home made a difference by creating exciting and meaningful activities for residents

Naming and celebrating the stories of our champions of care   

This year, Person Centred Software hosted the Champions of Care Awards to honour our everyday heroes working behind the scenes in the social care sector, these awards celebrate some of the hardest-working and most passionate individuals!  

One of our incredible winners, Barry Fitzblevins an Activities Coordinator at Morningside care home, won our Making a Difference Award and here is his story.  

Barry has worked in the care sector for 15 years and lives in Coatbridge, Scotland, where he works at Morningside Care Home. 

Barry has turned Morningside Care Home into the care home you want to be at with his fun and exciting activities, including a virtual sensory train carriage for the residents, which they thoroughly enjoy! With Barry's endless list of activities, the residents experience excitement they couldn't get at home. From magic tables (projection technology equipped with quizzes, music and themes) to chair dancing, a conservatory café, a beautiful garden with seated areas, greenhouses and raised flower beds, and even a cinema room!   

Barry enjoys the interaction with the residents and how each day is different.  

"I like to surprise the resident's families with things they never thought their loved one would do; we take the residents' wheelchair ice skating, we take them to the local lock, where they can go on speed boats in their wheelchairs. We've even had pony access (a chariot with a platform that fits all wheelchairs). We've done loads. That's why I love my job. For me, seeing the residents happy is the most rewarding thing; that makes my job worthwhile''.  

Barry continues, ''Working in the care sector is one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs. The job is unquestionably one that needs to be carried out with passion and from the heart. You have to be invested. You have to want to do the job. It's not a paycheck job; it's something you have to want to do."