About us
Find Out More About Why
We Do What We Do
By Your Side Ltd was established in November 2015 by Sarah Parkins.
Sarah had worked in the care industry for several years and through her passion to care in a truly person-centred way, decided to set up BYS with her learned skills, knowledge, passion for dementia care and her experience in the sector.
Sarah Parkins
Sarah fell into the carers role as many people do after caring for her mother who was diagnosed and sadly passed away from a terminal cancerous brain tumour.
“During caring for my mum through her illness from diagnosis to her eventual death, we experienced very personal moments that gave me true insight into what it means to be a carer. I felt the isolation and burden of becoming my Mums carer. The guilt of thoughts I had due to stress and frustration of not being able to help her. My relationship changed with my mum, no longer the daughter but a role that no child should have to experience. I experienced all the heartache of watching a loved one suffer and eventually die whilst feeling alone and helpless.”
Knowing the importance of knowledge and support became very important to Sarah after she worked in the care industry following her mums passing. And now she is passionate about sharing this knowledge and the available support that is out there with those who are in a similar situation.
“During my mum’s illness, she stopped verbally communicating and eventually stopped her motion skills too, until one day out of the blue she spoke to my youngest brother. He said in passing that he was dropping off his girlfriend and would be back soon, in response my mum suddenly said “you said that last time and didn’t come back for ages”. They were the first words she had spoken for months! Ever since then I have lived and worked with the attitude that just because a person cannot speak or appear that they can not communicate, they may be trying to.”
Because of this experience, Sarah treats everyone as though they are communicating even if the words don’t come out. With this attitude, she has seen results from others living with terminal illness or dementia and encourages others to let people live their lives as they wish and not how others think they should.
Now her Grandad has Stage 6 Vascular Dementia and Macular Degeneration so supports the family to assist him to live well with his dementia. “
So as a family we are on our own adventure with dementia”
What do we do?
Provide person centred care through our philosophy that you care for the individual, for their needs in their reality.
Who WE are?
Qualified, empathetic, and experienced carers with a passion to help individuals and a quality of care that is outstanding.
Why We Do It?
We understand from personal experiences the stress and isolation caring for a loved one entails. Our passion is to support others, so they are not alone on their journey.
Our Staff
About our staff
We fully understand at By Your Side the need to have highly trained and knowledgeable staff. Our priority is to look after our staff as we know they are the most important factor to ensuring that individuals receive the high-quality care and support they deserve.
At By Your Side we do our best to match our staff with the individuals using our services. This is essential to build trusting relationships and environments. We encourage our staff to support our individuals so that they can remain safe and independent in their own homes. We try to ensure that both parties will get a sense of security from their time together and where it is possible be actively involved in activities, they both enjoy.
We ensure that all our staff have either or are working towards their Level 2 Health and Social Care (NVQ/QCF) (Diploma). We reward our staff for their qualifications and offer support, funding and training to all those who would like to further these qualifications. All staff also complete the Care Certificate as part of their induction with By Your Side.
Every member of By Your Side has also had a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check carried out on them prior to the employment commencing.
As part of the ongoing work we do in educating people about Dementia, By Your Side ensure that all members of staff attend a course of training including all aspects of supporting individuals living with Dementia. We also ensure that all staff attend regular training on specific topics and conditions that we support in the community.
