Long-time PSW cherishes her family at Pleasant Meadow Manor

It’s been 25 years since Mary Lynne Gallagher joined Pleasant Meadow Manor, but the personal support worker (PSW) still remembers how she felt in those early days.

“I was young. I was 21 years old, so I was very nervous. And I thought I’ll probably be here for two or three years just to pay some bills off and then go,” she says.

But then Gallagher realized the difference she could help to make in residents’ lives and she connected with the people in the Norwood long-term care home that she worked with and cared for.

It’s a role and a place she’s come to love and she says she “wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“It’s a small community so everybody knows everybody,” Gallagher says, adding staff members and residents have watched themselves and their families grow and change together.

“Our residents are our family. That’s how we look at it.”

Seeing residents’ quality of life enriched – even to the point where they can return home or regain mobility and other capabilities – is one of the most rewarding aspects of working in long-term care, Gallagher says.

She also values the opportunities she’s had over the years to grow her skills and knowledge, as well as the chance to work with new PSWs that join Pleasant Meadow Manor. After all, she says, she knows exactly how they might be feeling.

Click here https://vimeo.com/124623122 to watch a video interview with Gallagher.

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