Meet the Management
Peter Ramsay -
Coordinator
Alan Carmichael - Managing Coordinator
Sandy Steen - Home and Support Coordinator
| On 1st
October 2005, I was appointed as
the Coordinator of Threshold South Lanarkshire, replacing Sandy Steen
who moved to Cornerstone. My remit is wide and varied and includes,
amongst other things, ensuring the project and all the different
services it provides are meeting the National Care Standards set by the
Care Commission. As part of this we are keen for service user and main
carer feedback. If you have any questions about the service that we provide, such as key-working, medication, individual agreements, complaints, just give me a shout using the Contact Us page, and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. I also have a general responsibility for publicity, and was responsible for this website, newsletters, brochures etc, and therefore I am looking for any stories, jokes, or pictures, that you may have. Only 4 days into my new job, I received a questionnaire by email. I wanted to plead the 5th Amendment but I'm not American, so here goes: 1. Where did you go to school and were you clever? I attended Hamilton College, which is an independent Christian school just round the road from the office here. I don't like to boast, but I am extremely clever. I even gained a ScotVec module in guitar playing during my time in high school. 2. Jack says you were at Uni with him - was he clever? I think Jack has been exaggerating a bit, it was actually International Christian College that we went to together. I left after I got my BA Theology degree, and Jack was still there for some time afterwards, so either he was really bright and doing honours or more (oooh), or he got kept back a few years to repeat some modules. 3. Did you always want to work for a church group? Unfortunately my professional footballing career didn't work out - only kidding. I didn't really think about it much, but I now appreciate the fact that I work for a Church of Scotland project, and although that doesn't guarantee a high quality of service, it definitely helps. It also means everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet (excuse the pun!). 4. Do you have any animals and what are they called? I have a dog called Chui. He is a Staffie cross, and he recently made friends with Nietzsche (the dog, not the philosopher). Chui is a Swahili word for leopard as my wife Sarah-Jane was brought up in Kenya and likes her animals to have an African name. I have a cat called Duma. She is a black cat and likes nothing more than being mischievous and tormenting the dog or me. Every night she pulls open my t-shirt drawer with her claws and sleeps inside. Her name is Swahili for cheetah. I have a chilean rose tarantula called Paul Ince. He is extremely friendly and hasn't yet flicked hairs in anyone's eyes. I have a red-eared terrapin called Calvin. He had a partner called Hobbes who died last year. They were named after the cartoon characters. He is my oldest pet at 8 years old, although I am told they live to around 40. I have 2 bearded dragon lizards, one called Lockjaw, and one called Thalidomide. Unfortunately both of them have injuries which is how they got their names. They are my favourite pets (cover your ears Chui) as I have always wanted a lizard. I'm glad my wife likes animals more than my mum did. I have a corn snake called Obi Wan Kenobi. I also had another one called Yoda (they were named because they each had a marking on their head in the shape of an O and a Y respectively) Unfortunately Yoda decided to play escape artist one night, and is currently living under our floorboards. The funny thing is that we live in a flat. I hope my neighbours don't recognise my picture. So that's the Ramsay zoo, if you fancy a tour any time I'm sure I could offer you a discount. 5. What made you want to be a boss? The money certainly helps, but I also enjoy a challenge. I like being an organiser and having responsibility, although most of all I like to delegate. 6. Our Mum says you are a techno wizard - is she right? Compared to some people whose names I won't mention, I am a fully fledged, all singing, all dancing techno geek. Compared to others, I am a complete beginner. I love playing with new gadgets and learning how they work, and we have purchased a few things for the office to bring us into the 21st century e.g. a laptop, webcam, digital camera, video projector. All these things are useful as we aim to deliver the best possible service. 7. Does Susan actually do any work, or does she talk all day? I had to go and ask someone who Susan is - only kidding again, I can't help it. Your mum works extremely hard and there are some things that only she can do as they are extremely specialised and difficult tasks. On occasion I do catch her talking to others, but I think she is just passing on some of her wisdom to others in need. 8. Susan has been at Threshold forever, will you be? I have been here for the last 5 years, and I can see myself here for a while longer. Long term I would like to spend some time in Africa perhaps doing some kind of social care work. 9. How much would it cost us for you to take Susan on a respite break? It would depend on which short break you were interested in, and whether we felt Susan would be suitable to go on a Threshold short break. To decide that we would need to assess how she would cope with spending time away from home, how she would get on with others on the break, and whether her sons would really miss her far too much and want her back straight away, despite not wanting to admit it. Have a look at our Short Break Service page for more info. P.S. The photo was taken candidly by someone else while in Benidorm on a short break. We had just walked for miles and I was simply pausing to get my breath back. Contrary to popular opinion I hadn't just swallowed a bee, and I am not posing. Thanks Peter Ramsay Coordinator |
|
These
are exciting times at
Threshold – respite/short-term breaks, management re-structuring, staff
re-grading, apart altogether from holidays, training and cover for
staff
illness. All these have nearly overwhelmed us! Never a dull moment. To help service users and parents/primary carers to do this, we are again issuing a questionnaire and if you have not yet received this, you will do soon. Whenever you do receive it, we would really appreciate it if you could respond to it promptly. We are also keen to find out what those of you who have been on a respite/short-term break feel about that and again would like you to respond to the questionnaire about such breaks. Please do not feel, however, that you have to wait until you receive a questionnaire, for you to let us know of any ideas for improving or developing the service you receive from Threshold. Please feel free to share these with us at any time. Changing the subject, please remember Jim Muir who is still recovering (painfully!) after his car accident earlier this year. Pray for a good, and speedy, recovery. If you have already been on holiday, we hope that you had a good, relaxing break. If you still have holidays to look forward to – have a great time. We hope the sun shines! Regards, |
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To make sure Sandy Steen didn’t ramble
on for too long,
Matthew Bourne wrote the questions with which to interview him.
2. How did you feel when you left
your footballing career to
focus on social work? 3. Who is your favourite service
user? (You don’t need to
provide an answer) Every staff member should be treated the same. We hope that as managers, we treat our staff fairly and offer the same opportunities along with support in development, skills and knowledge. In saying that, we recognise that some service users relate better to certain staff members, so we would try to utilise this when planning a person-centred programme. 5, Is Archie Celtic’s Number 1 supporter? No, Archie’s allegiance is to those on the other side of the city. 6. Do you feel that there is room for improvement within the Threshold Project? There is always room for improvement and we continually ask ourselves how we can improve the service that we offer. We like to remain open and honest in our striving for improvement. 7. If you could move the project to anywhere else in the world where would it be? Absolutely everyone that is involved with the project would move to Florida, USA, for a full month on an all expenses paid trip courtesy of The Church of Scotland. We would all have a brilliant time, especially considering that we will be given spending money also. Realistically we would like to move to our own accommodation, somewhere that is on the ground floor so that it can be easily accessed by all. 8. In your opinion does God exist? Yes, in my opinion God does exist. Over the years I feel it has been proven to me through my personal experience. You only have to look at creation, e.g. sun, moon, and stars, to recognise that everything is wonderfully made, even from a scientific point of view. 9. Where do you see Threshold in the future? We will continue to develop the service to best meet the needs of the people in the community. We are hoping to expand our short breaks, perhaps offering more, and for longer periods. We are currently developing a new autism service, which will allow us to focus on this area. At some point we would hope to offer a 24/7 service. As a word of caution, I recognise that if you take on too much you can end up ‘ diluting’ the service, but as long as the resources are in place, this is the direction we would like to take the project. 10. What do you do in your spare time whilst not working? I read a lot, especially books that are relevant to social care, or psychology. I would also like to take up golf again, to get some exercise, as another hobby of mine is eating, particularly takeaways. I also enjoy holidays, providing I don’t have to go in an aeroplane. UPDATE - Sandy Steen has since left us at Threshold to take up a post with Cornerstone, so we wish him well in his new charge. |
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