We have blinked our eyes and reached November within no time at all. It’s astonishing to see how quickly time goes by, but we’ve been kept super busy with an array of fun and engaging events for our residents in October, across all our care homes.
Over the past six weeks or so we’ve seen our CEO donning hat and gloves and helping our residents prepare a seasonal treat. We’ve celebrated staff that went the extra mile (again). We transformed our homes with autumnal arts and crafts and, as well as our daily sing-a-longs and dancing, we have held a few shin digs celebrating a smattering of residents’ anniversaries and birthdays. Here’s just a snippet of how we spent time with our residents…
CEO turns chef at Red Rose!
During a visit to Red Rose, our CEO, Roger Daniel was delighted to switch his role and don a chef’s hat for the day.
Supervised by our fabulous social support team Dawn and Andrea (who organise all our wonderful events and activities at Rose), our residents and Roger thoroughly enjoyed their cookery session and reminisced about their own family recipes. After much discussion on what to do with the excess pastry, resident Pam, a former artist, sculpted the most beautiful little mouse to adorn the pie.
Changing seasons across our homes
With vivid autumnal colours brightening up our gardens, staff and residents decided to bring the outdoors indoors and set about creating an array of arts and crafts. Brightly painted orange pumpkins and autumn golds and bronze garlands adorned our comfy communal spaces and Red Roof sent us some lovely images of their work in progress.
We often gather to draw and paint and reflect on the changing seasons. Discussion soon evolved to the onset of Christmas – our residents really look forward to Christmas and are already helping us decide some of the fun-filled festive activities we’re going to be running this year.
The power of animal therapy
Residents and staff at Red Rose were over the moon to welcome DB Animal therapy and their adorable family of furry and scaly friends to their home this month. Pet therapy is becoming increasingly popular in care homes, as it provides a multitude of benefits for the elderly.
Close and safe contact with animals can produce a calming effect which reduces our blood pressure and heart rate. Precious moments spent with our feline friends, cuddly canines or pretty much any domestic or even exotic creatures can also provide great comfort to those who may be missing their own pets or perhaps coping with the loss of a loved one.
Two incredible staff recognised for their hard work
We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful members of staff here at Red Homes that really are devoted to their residents and devote their lives to care for them. It’s so difficult to choose our staff winner of the month, as they are all worthy winners.
However, this month Red Roofs wanted to recognise the extraordinary efforts of Leigh Lovatt and Sara Wynn who have both gone way over and above their roles to ensure their residents were having the best time.
Red Homes believes in staff wellbeing and supports professional development. Caring for anyone is a skill in itself, but many of our residents have complicated and extreme needs – and some have very few family members or loved ones that are able to visit regularly. So, on top of providing exceptional care, our staff are more like family.
To equip our staff with the skills and resilience to deal with elderly and palliative care and establish a healthy work-life balance, we provide regular training and mentoring including wellbeing support. Leigh and Sara typify a wider cohort of employees at Red Homes, who excel every day in their positions and bring an extra layer of comfort and care to their residents and their families.
Celebrations
We love to celebrate at Red Homes. Birthdays are a way to honour individuals and share some joy and happiness.
Two of our dearest Red Court residents, Nellie and Chris, celebrated significant milestones this month and we wished them a very happy birthday with banners, cards and balloons and the obligatory birthday cake each, too! Not to mention some hearty singing.
We hope you enjoyed the birthday celebrations, Nellie and Chris!
We live life to the full across all of our homes and we will continue to fill up our calendar with an array of fun and educational activities and events that bring joy to our residents and staff.
