Jan Flawn, who founded PJ Care 14 years ago, received an Outstanding Contribution to Social Care gong from the Great British Care Awards, while an employee of PJ Care – Anna Lesniak – was the recipient of a Frontline Leader prize.
The women collected their awards in person at the gala event, which was held at the end of April in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, and was hosted by presenter and singer Jane McDonald. Flawn was moved to open the Milton Keynes-based neurological treatment centres for people in the 18-65 age range by concerns over the services offered to younger sufferers of dementia in care homes. She said:
“I’m a passionate clinician, and I felt younger people deserved a better quality to the end of their life and needed more dignity and respect. That was what drove me.”
The awards for her and Lesniak will help raise the profile of PJ Care, and they will be able to turn to brochure printers in Milton Keynes to provide them with revamped catalogue printing, letting people know about this recognition.
PJ Care currently operates two separate centres in the Milton Keynes area – Bluebirds and Mallard House – which offer specialist rehabilitation and care for sufferers of strokes, motor neurone disease, early onset dementia and Huntingdon’s disease.