Summerlee House

In celebration of Care Home Week, Summerlee House changed the Annual Fete to a Vintage Afternoon Tea Party. This was an enormous success. It was great to see people spending good quality time with the residents and having good old tradition family fun. The ladies dressed for the occasion with fascinators and the men dressed with shirts and jackets. As well as afternoon tea, residents and families enjoyed some Prosecco and ice cream. Young children were also catered for with a bouncy castle and party bags. It was so good to see residents and families so relaxed, the sun also came out for us. Residents told us the day was fabulous and can’t wait until next year. Mr Balmer was delighted to see so many families and thanked people for their support. We are planning on inviting a vintage quartet to play music for the  next year.

Croftbank House

Croftbank House took part in the village community project in Uddingston. This involves creating a variety of visual art displays around the village. Croftbank house Staff, Residents, and relatives alongside Tree Tops and St Brides Nurseries embraced the Ethos of the craft bomb and created several art pieces that are displayed around the trees at Croftbank House.

The theme was 'Colour in fusion' and we were the rainbow colours, this enabled us to create a different vision for each tree using recycled items such as plastic bottles, old wellie boots, cans and tins, and involved lots of crochet, knitting and painting. More than this, the nursery children came into the home on a regular basis, two afternoons per week and together with residents and staff helped make the creations for the trees, whilst residents and children enjoyed each other's company.  This will be an ongoing weekly treat for everyone.

A new lease of life.

It’s so easy to take our vision for granted.

Vision is a key sense in helping us better understand and engage with the world around us.

From taking part in your favourite hobbies to eating food, your sight plays a big role in how you undertake and enjoy activities or even basic daily tasks.

Figures from Future Sight Loss UK reveal that there are 1 in 5 people over 75 in the UK living with some form of sight loss – and this figure rises to 1 in 2 for those over the age of 90.

Poor vision can result in increased falls, isolation, depression and lack of engagement with the individual’s surroundings.

Even if your sight is poor, there’s always room for improvement through good eye care to help you see better and live better.

A regular sight test can help to minimise incidents through improved vision and treatment or management of any eye health problems before they cause damage to a person’s sight.

Sight can also be improved through knowing whether or not glasses are needed or a change in prescription.

However, large changes in a prescription must be avoided as it’s more difficult for elderly people to adapt to new lenses than younger people and can cause disorientation and poor depth perception.

Disorientation and poor depth perception create a cycle of falls, reluctance, isolation and avoidance from activities and living in general.

Good eye care also includes making sure glasses are clean, current and correct to your latest prescription as this allows us to make the most of our sight.

Clean glasses make it possible for someone to participate in their surroundings unhindered as there aren’t unnecessary floating marks and smudges everywhere they look.

This can prevent an individual from isolating themselves as clean glasses ensure clarity and improved vision of what they can see, which is important if they have an eye condition which restricts or limits vision.

Small adaptions to a person’s care for their sight makes a world of difference and it’s something we’re all guilty of taking for granted.

Visioncall believe all individuals should have the opportunity to engage with the world around them and more importantly, enjoy it.

By making the most of our vision regardless of how much or little we can see, there is an endless world of independence, opportunities and memories.

You can make this a possibility for someone you care for or care about, starting with a visit from an optician.

If you have visited one of our homes over the past few months you would have noticed the bustling of activity coming from our social areas, this is because we spent the past six months building a collection of creative art.  Ranging from drama to sculpture, the works were displayed at our very first art exhibition which took place in May, in the Mercat Centre, Kirkcaldy.   This week we were absolutely delighted to receive a motion from Parliament to recognise the success of our exhibition.  As you can imagine everyone is absolutely delighted.  Art Therapy is one of our greatest passions here at Kingdom Homes, we feel it not only showcases our resident’s talents but also encourages the learning of new skills and is a wonderful outlet for self-expression.

However, this is not the only excitement we have enjoyed this week!

Residents from our Auchtertool home, Camilla House have been very busy indeed.  Thanks to the fabulous loan box service at Kirkcaldy museum they have been enjoying a week of childhood reminiscence.  Being able to handle items such as a WW2 children’s gas mask, a vintage 3d viewer and of course the dreaded school strap, brought back lots of fun memories.  Another thrilling event at Camilla House this week was a visit from animal handling experts, Zoolab.  The team brought with them a variety of fabulous animals including snakes, giant millipedes and a couple giant land snails.  Our residents not only enjoyed the sensory benefits of being able to hold the animals but also enjoyed engaging with the handlers and asking questions about their new exotic friends.

Further up the coast in Cellerdyke, the residents of Willow House have been designing their new tuck shop.   Over the past few days they have been making lists for the type of stock they want to sell while enjoying reminiscence sessions about childhood sweets.  They have also exercised their fabulous creative side by designing posters and making decorations for their shop.  This has been a particularly fun project as our groups have not only enjoyed being able to see their idea come to fruition but have loved sharing stories with each other.

We are also delighted at the positive feedback from our recent Namaste Care launch.  The benefits from this multi-dimensional programme have been very encouraging.  Designed at promoting communication and spiritual contact with individuals living with more advanced dementia, each session covers physical, sensory and emotional elements in a protected environment.  We are now ready to launch Namaste in three more homes, with our aim in to have the practice running successfully within all our homes by early 2019.

And finally, several ladies from our Cardenden home, Fernlea House enjoyed a lady’s day complete with shoe shopping and afternoon tea.  As you can see from the brilliant photograph taken while trying on some spectacular shoes, everyone was not only feeling fabulous but also looking fabulous as well.

All in all it has been a lovely week here at Kingdom Homes with lots of good news across the company.  Fortunately, the excitement doesn’t end there as we have the first of our summer barge trips with the Seagull Trust Cruises taking place at the end of the month and we have just launched a Gentleman’s Games Club in our Cardenden home which we hope will be hugely popular.

There is never a dull moment at Kingdom Homes, we are always looking to enhance the lives of the residents in our care with our staff working every day to promote the excellence ethos.

For further information on Kingdom Homes or to follow our activities & events please see our website: www.kingdomhomesltd.co.uk or like our Facebook Page.

Paula Paterson,

Events Manager, Kingdom Homes

Dining Room

A Care Home in Aberdeen City had previously been using one large room for dining. At times this space became crowded and very noisy. Some residents obviously found this unpleasant, unsettling and some could become quite agitated which had an impact on their appetite.  Some residents were not very sensitive regarding those who needed more assistance and often hurtful and upsetting comments could be heard directed at the residents who needed more support.  It was also difficult at times for staff to focus on the resident they were assisting due to the noise levels and general chaotic atmosphere.

They took the decision to introduce a second smaller dining room for the more independent residents.  In the second dining room, the placed residents with similar social skills and abilities, and encouraged independence in various ways, such as providing toast racks, butter dishes, preserves on tables even going on to provide tea/coffee pots with milk jugs.  Residents are given side plates and butter knifes and encouraged to “help themselves”. They continued to work towards a “buffet” style breakfast providing choices of juice, cereal and fruit which residents can help themselves to. The plan was to provide a more convivial dining experience.

One resident would knock on her neighbour’s door to make sure that they both get to the dining room independently.  This gives her a task/purpose and allowed her to feel valued.  Another resident (registered blind) needed a lot of assistance, joined the small dining room and was able to eat by herself with the use of a plate guard and the 12’oclock plate system.  Her appetite improved, and it was noted she became less frustrated.  A resident who used to have all her meals in her bed room decided to use the smaller dining room and   this has enabled her to feel less isolated.

Staff noted that the residents in the independent small dining room formed a closer friendship and felt responsible for each other. If somebody did not arrive for meal time a resident would check if the person was ok.  A gentleman who has previously been unable to due to illness received a cheer when he re-entered the dining room.  Overall the mood in both dining rooms improved and the atmosphere became more relaxed and residents in the independent dining room would look out for each other.  This small change made for a much more positive dining room experience for everybody.

Theraponies

Torry Care Home Residents in the city of Aberdeen, enjoyed the visit from the Theraponies named Applejack and Flicker from Perth last during April 2018. The residents were delighted to interact with the Ponies who were quite soft and fluffy to touch.