A domiciliary care company in Cumbria are continuing their essential services for the elderly and vulnerable.
Most parts of Cumbria have been hit with flash floods and heavy rainfall in the last 48 hours impacting key road and travel infrastructure.
Bellcare, which looks after hundreds of people across the county, said it was putting its contingency plans in place and at this time were still providing services and operating as best asit could.
Debbie Ellwood, the company’s registered manager, said: “I’m very proud of the commitment our team has shown over the past couple of days, both those on the frontline and the team back in our offices ensuring everything is running as smooth as possible.
“The care sector is a challenging environment any day of the year without the added disruption and safety concerns caused by the weather.
Bellcare operates throughout west, north and east Cumbria.
Debbie added: “We are continuing to operate and are implementing our contingency plans and have a team dedicated to keeping in contact with service users, their families and our frontline carers.
“For now, the message is very much we are still on hand and are here for our Bellcare family day and night, the safety of our staff is of course paramount and so we monitor situations like this very closely to ensure we aren’t operating in areas that are deemed unsafe, but we always make sure our service users are safe and well before taking operating decisions in any particular area.”
Pauline Ackerley, a carer at Bellcare, said: “I do this job to make a difference to people’s lives, whether that be with their medication, hygiene or personal routines and commitments, and just having a chat an keeping them company as some of our service users are on their own. I love what I do, and I will always be by the side of my clients.”
Angela Williams, who works with Pauline also as a frontline carer, added: “The weather we are experiencing does make it more difficult and of course more dangerous, we are like drowned rats for the most of our shift!
“It’s cold, dark and can be scary on the roads at times but I love my job and we all support each other and that’s why we make a great team.”
