Newsletter June 2014
Welcome to the summer issue of our newsletter.
Sharing expertise
In May I was privileged to be invited by Kent County Council and the NHS to visit WCZ Weverbos care home in Belgium as part of a delegation funded by the CASA project. This European project promotes the sharing of expertise, skills and innovation within the care sector. We spent three days looking around the home and talking to local care home owners, architects, nurses and pharmacists who are at the forefront of new developments in the sector. One of the outstanding innovations at WCZ Weverbos which I intend to introduce here at Hazeldene is the sensory bathroom concept. The mood and atmosphere of the room can be changed with a flick of a light switch to help reduce stress levels and induce feelings of calm and relaxation for residents.
Ladder to the Moon Project
At our dementia support group meeting in April we welcomed over 40 relatives including lots of new faces. We introduced our new social coordinator Caroline Millen and social assistant Emma Stock who will be starting our Ladder to the Moon project. We are all very excited about working with Chris Gage and the Ladder to the Moon team who will be helping our staff incorporate creativity and the arts into our regular activity programme for residents.
The Graham Care Awards 2014
The Graham Care Awards for Outstanding Service have been created to celebrate the achievements of staff who are transforming the lives of people with dementia and physical frailty. In contrast to many other care awards which are based on peer nominations, later this year we will be asking residents, their relatives and friends as well as the care professionals we work with to nominate individual staff members.The gala Awards celebration will take place on the evening of Friday 14 November at the Felbridge Hotel and Spa. Updates will be available on our website soon.
News in Brief
- We were delighted to receive another very positive report as part of our twice yearly Laing & Buisson customer service survey. Several relatives have emailed me to say what a good job we are doing. In response to requests we are looking into producing more information to help relatives identify key people within the home.
- We’ve installed new benches around the grounds to help residents and families enjoy our wonderful summer! Tonbridge Age UK day care service are now making full use of our gardens and walkways too.
- If you visited the home recently you may have spotted one of our residents Mrs Elsie Batchelor with her daughter Mrs Susan Gidman fundraising for the Alzheimers Society in our reception area. They raised over £430 for the charity so well done Elsie and Susan!
