Our Dedicated Trustees

Amy Crichton is an expert in the area of applying the advanced dementia care model, Namaste Care, into care homes and supporting staff and family in the implementation and sustainability of this. She has an MSc in Dementia studies and has co-founded the charity Namaste Care Education and Resources (NEAR) to support her passion of person-centred care for people living with advanced dementia. Amy’s work background is international with experience in both the Australian and UK care system, as well as 12 years of experience as a practice manager of dental and maxillofacial surgeries. Her work with NEAR has developed from collaborative efforts across the UK and since completing her MSc she is now looking to scale implementation of this model, and to continue advocacy for people living with advanced dementia, who often have their needs, wants, desires and basic human rights neglected.

Min Stacpoole has a professional background as a Palliative Care Nurse having worked as a lecturer at St Christoher’s Hospice as well as a nurse researcher with extensive experience of working with people with dementia at end of life. She has been involved in teaching Namaste Care for over 10 years to care homes and other organisations across the UK, more recently online, and has lectured nationally and internationally on Namaste Care. Jo Hockley and Min Stacpoole were the Principal Investigator and nurse researcher for the initial UK Namaste Care research study at St Christopher’s Hospice which entailed implementing Namaste Care in 5 Care Homes. They are joint authors of the Namaste Care Toolkit, the manual developed for supporting care homes to implement Namaste Care which was developed from the learning from the study. Both have published their research on Namaste Care.

Dr Jo Hockley is a Trustee of the charity NEAR. (Namaste Education and Resources). She has recently retired from The University of Edinburgh where she worked as a senior research fellow in palliative care and care homes research. As a nurse, she has worked for over 40 years specialising in palliative care. She has a wide experience of palliative care in care homes, doing her PhD on death and dying in care homes (University of Edinburgh, 2006). She was awarded an OBE for her work in palliative care nursing in 2013.

Leslie has over 30 years' experience of working in care homes and is the manager of Erskine Park Home.
She was awarded the title of Queens Nurse in 2018; her project for her award was around training and sustainability of Namaste Care within the Erskine Care Homes. Lesley recognised that there was a need for better access to training and that sustaining Namaste care following completion of the training and implementation into a Care Home required further development. As a result of embedding Namaste Care in her care home, Lesley has witnessed better staff retention and more awareness of self-care. In the care home that Lesley manages, she has witnessed that Namaste Care has been influential in reducing the number of falls, reducing distressed behaviour, and even a reduction in the use of end-of-life medication; also, residents who previously were silent within the home and now more engaged. Relatives have reported to her 'when they thought there was nothing else for their loved one, there was Namaste Care; and, that Namaste Care gave them back their sense of purpose. This is why she believes developing a program of sustainability is vital for all care home staff who undertake a Namaste Care course.