I would personally like to let our customers know that sadly I will be leaving Alert-iT on Friday 10th June. Many of you I have got to know well over the years, and I will miss you.
My time spent in Customer Service has been memorable, extraordinary and a fulfilling experience. I am proud to have been part of the team and the journey to make the company the well known brand it is today.
We would like to thank Mary for her dedication to Alert-iT over the many years and we wish her nothing but the best in her new venture.
A Brief History of Alert-iT, from Mary over the years
I knew David Godfrey, who originally began the business, for 30 years before he started Alert-iT Care Alarms. We both worked in the same electronics company and we both left within a year of each other to pursue other avenues and lost touch.
I then began working in the care in the community supporting people in their own home.
David continued developing electronic monitors in his spare time. He become involved with parents with children with epilepsy. This was at a time when there was nothing on the market to monitor seizures during the night. Parents did not sleep or took it in turns to sleep – so David made one.
When David started the company selling the seizure monitors he contacted me to ask if I could help part time. By this time I was working in a home for people with dementia and could fit it in around my shifts. We worked in a room at David’s house for a few months before moving to Merry Lees Ind Est.
Around 2009, I became the first full time employee. We steadily filled the room up with more employees and equipment and expanded the variety of monitors for different situations, all of them were developed for supporting service users to help keep them safe.
‘Customer Support’ became my title as the company expanded, advising which is the most suitable monitor, how to use it and ongoing support for service users with more complex needs.
So, What’s Next Mary?
When I leave Alert-iT, I am not retiring! Supporting parents/staff to help with the stress of having a child/adult with extra needs is a passion I have never grown tired of.
I have chosen what seems to be a natural progression to continue that passion, and that is to become a Shared Lives Carer(SHL). ‘Foster care for vulnerable adults’ is the simplest way to describe it. I will be providing respite (short breaks) and day services from my own home.
This may be to give their usual carers a break while they go on holiday, to cover admission to hospital/appointments or illness, to maximise their potential for independence and increased self-confidence, and also provide an extended network of support, all within a family setting.
The placements vary and can be short or longer term or perhaps just for a few hours a day for people who need extra support in their daily lives to keep them safe. If longer term care is needed, while the person is living with us we will encourage the person to become self supporting, learn basic life skills, become part of the community and eventually, if at all possible, be able to live independently in their own home.