Meet Our Team
We’d like to introduce our friendly Heathland House team who are determined to be the difference in senior care.
At Heathland House we treat people how we’d like them to treat our loved ones – like family. We understand everyone we look after has their own needs and preferences. So we create care plans which address everything from their individual care provision and dietary requirements to their favourite foods and hobbies. And with great food on the menu every day, each day is a new enjoyable experience.
Gemma Ridout-Bowden
General Manager
Gemma Ridout-Bowden
General Manager
What I Do:
My name is Gemma, and I am the General Manager at Heathland House. I’m really excited about commissioning Heathland and building a home for residents and nurturing our new team members, I enjoy my role as every day is different and our residents never cease to make me smile.
As a general manager, I feel privileged to be looking after peoples loved ones and ensuring each individual residents received the best possible care suited to their needs.
I have a deep passion for individual person centred care to enable me to do this I nurture and develop my team members to have the skills, knowledge and understanding of our residents needs ensuring the team have care at the centre of everything they do.
My Experience:
I joined the care sector in the late 90’s and have worked in different areas allowing myself to grow different skills with the understanding of residential, nursing, day care, domiciliary, rehabilitation.
I hold a level 4 qualification in social care and a leadership and management award this has supported my roles a General Manager in the last 10 years to support the running of 3 residential and 1 nursing settings this includes the commissioning of 2 brand new care homes.
The feedback from residents and their families is particularly important to ensuring I and my team deliver exceptional care and support, I am so proud we have recently score 10 out of 10, with independently verified reviews on carehome.co.uk for Mornington Court in New Milton which I opened in 2021.
About Me:
I live in sunny Bournemouth and I enjoy walks on the beach or in the forest, I have a close family unit and enjoy family time with walks by the sea.
Mary Stepin
Deputy Manager
Mary Stepin
Deputy Manager
What I Do:
My name is Mary Stepin, I am the Deputy Manager at Heathland House. I started working at Heathland House in December 2022. I work very closely with the General Manager to ensure that Residents, their family members and our staff team are supported and that the service we provide is designed and delivered around the needs and wishes of the residents.
My Experience:
My career in Social Care started in 1984, as a Care Assistant in a residential home run by Dorset Council, transferring to the Borough of Poole with the implementation of the three Local Authorities. working in both Residential and Day service Provisions. I then moved to Germany in 1996 where I worked in the Army Medical Centre before returning home and joining a local Housing Association as the Registered Manager developing their Supported Living, Domiciliary Care and Extra Care services in the community.
About Me:
I am married with 5 children and 4 grandchildren. My passion is and always has been football, playing with my friends at the local rec and with the boys at school (girls weren’t allowed to play officially in those days). I managed several children’s teams when I lived in Germany, but now I watch the game from the terraces, I am a season ticket holder with AFC Bournemouth. I also enjoy spending time with my family and going to music concerts.
Debbie Holmes
Home Admissions Advisor
Debbie Holmes
Home Admissions Advisor
What I do:
I would love to welcome you for a visit at Heathland House, as part of my role is to help people find the right care and support in their later years and to help you through what can be a hard task, especially if you have not been in the position of caring for a loved one before or you do not know what is available.
My experience:
Having supported two of my own family members to find the right care for them in previous years and been involved in older persons housing for longer than I would like to mention, it would be a privilege to assist you in your search.
My past experience has also been within estate agency as well as residential care, which gives me insight to signpost you to advice and support.
About me:
Living close to Heathland House in the New Forest, I am able to enjoy all that this beautiful location has to offer and ably placed to share my knowledge with you.
Vicky Bake
Recruitment Resourcer
Vicky Bake
Recruitment Resourcer
What I Do:
My name is Vicky and I have had the pleasure of taking on a new role within the Cinnamon Care Collection of Recruitment Resourcer. I undertake this role for Heathland House and 3 of our other homes around the New Forest area.
My role is to creatively resource the best people to come and join our team, this includes all areas from our wonderful care team to our creators in the kitchen. I do this by making links into our local community and building relationships with those who feel as passionate about high quality care as we do.
My Experience:
I joined the care sector in the mid 2000’s having spent much of my teenage years caring for my grandmother who had advancing Alzheimer’s. This experience inspired me to undertake a Nursing Degree at University during this time I also worked in several care settings, residential homes, mental health hospitals, operation theatre and recovery units and supported living. After University I decided to work within the social care sector rather than in a hospital setting, this has become an area I am very passionate about and committed to over the course of some years I developed my skills and worked my way into the management team whilst still personally providing the care and support. This really helped me to remain in step with the needs of my team and those we were supporting. Particularly through the pandemic. Recruiting people who have the skills to provide high quality care is a labour of love and I found that I increasingly wanted to spend my time looking after the future of care, I’d had success with recruiting and bringing our new team members in my management role and was so proud of the team we had built. In April 2022 I took the decision to move into Recruitment and my focus every day is to find those who feel as passionately as I do about providing the best care and support, guiding them through the recruitment process and onboarding.
About Me:
Originally from Reading, I moved to the New Forest/Bournemouth area in 2009. I greatly enjoy nature (all the mud!) and creating things whether it be a new painting or blanket. I live with my young daughter and partner we regularly enjoy our adventures, take trips to see family members who live far away and host our friends for dinner and games nights.
Carol Walton
Admin Assistant / Receptionist
Carol Walton
Admin Assistant / Receptionist
What I Do:
I am a Receptionist/Administrator at Heathland House.
My Experience:
I have had many years experience as a Receptionist and Administrator and I love the role very much.
About Me:
I live at home with my husband and dog. I love walking my dog and taking him on holidays with us. I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren, 3 of which live in Australia so don’t see them as often.
Oana Edmonds
Trainee Administrator
Oana Edmonds
Trainee Administrator
What I do:
I am the Trainee Administrator for the home, and I am very excited to be part of an amazing team.
I mainly deal with recruitment, HR and overseeing reception area as well as receiving training with the finance department.
My experience:
I have over 10years experience in retail, and 4years in the Care industry working in different roles, mainly dealing with Residents admissions.
I have joined Heathland House in Aug 2022 as an Admin Assistant and have recently been promoted to a new role as a Trainee Administrator. I’m looking forward to the new challenges and to give administrative support to the residents their families and staff.
About me:
Outside work I’ve been married to Chris my husband for 16 years and we have two boys who are avid Southampton supporters.
As a family we spend lots of time on the pitch, walking, cooking, gardening and playing video games.
Alfredo Changchao
Maintenance Manager
Alfredo Changchao
Maintenance Manager
What I Do:
I am the Maintenance Manager at Heathland House.
My Experience:
I possess 8 years of experience in site and maintenance management.
About Me:
I have a keen interest in outdoor pursuits in particular trail running, hiking and paddle boarding.
We’d love to meet you!