Community Service Team

Peartree Community Service Manager

Hi I am Caroline, manager of Peartree community service.

I have worked in neurological care since qualifying in 2010. I have experience working as a staff nurse and then ward sister at Southampton General hospital on the acute wards, caring for patients on neuro medical, neurosurgical and regional transfer unit for emergency neuro care. It is here I also completed my post graduate regional neurological qualification over six months, learning more about complex neurological conditions and best nursing practice to care for these patients. I also completed the mentorship course to enable me to support students and new members of staff, I remain passionate about staff training, support and development today. During this time I had responsibility to hold the emergency responder bleep and bed management bleep for all of the neuro wards within this hospital and completed much training, both theory and practical to develop skills and experience in nursing care of complex neurological clients.

For eight years I was the ward manager and then the matron on a neurological and neuropsychiatric rehabilitation wards in Southampton, which is where my love for rehabilitation grew. Supporting clients with brain injury, spinal injury, acute neurological conditions and long term complex neurological conditions was so rewarding. In this role I loved leading projects for service development, staff training and increased quality of care. My passion for personalized care has been able to be put into practice since working in rehabilitation, really getting to know clients and their families, what is important to them, what goals they want to work on to get back to independence or their own understanding of quality of life for them. It is important to me that our team all have the same values and aim to provide the best service we can, at the highest standards to achieve client safety, effective outcomes and build great relationships based on trust and open, honest communication.

We understand that treatment and care must be cost effective for funders and providing a service that treats each client holistically, working together as a multi-disciplinary team whilst putting our client at the Centre of everything we do, involving them and their loved ones at each step of the way. Having been both a patient and a relative of unwell loved ones myself, I really understand how vital it is to have good and frequent communication, honesty and to feel empowered to make decisions about your own care and that is everything Peartree community service strives to achieve. I am proud that we have a team that I would be happy to have care for my own family members, who are experienced and skilled, but also have empathy, always showing kindness and respect. The feedback we receive from clients, their families, case managers and then seeing the outcomes in the recovery of our clients makes every single day worth the hard work.

Recognizing the importance for people to be able to stay at home with their loved ones to receive care, we have worked hard as a team to support complex care clients at home and have received  training and cascade trained clinical skills such as tracheostomy care, deep suctioning, wound care, care of feeding tubes and also training around de-escalation and positive behavior management. I pride myself in supporting staff to discuss clients in our weekly meetings, conducting frequent supervisions and training for staff to ensure they feel well supported and can therefore provide the best care and therapy to our clients. 

My love and passion for nursing, neurological care/rehabilitation and for Peartree community service only continues to grow.

Community Service Deputy Manager

I have been the Community deputy manager for just over a year now and have over 26 years of experience in Complex Care having worked within the NHS Healthcare setting prior to this.

I have a real love for Neuro Rehabilitation and have 20 years of experience in this specialist area, being able to see a client achieve their aspirations and goals and to know that I have contributed to this is one of the most satisfying parts of my new role.