Newsletter #29 – Tuesday, 6th October 2020

We remain at Implementation Level Two for both Homes and HomeCare with no Symptomatic Residents, Clients or Staff.

Visiting Pods

Our Temporary Winter Visiting Solutions will be ready from this coming Monday, so please feel free to start booking your slots. The existing Garden Visits will be available until that time for anyone courageous enough to brave the weather!

We will be creating a new Online Form for Visitors to complete in view of the changes this will bring, and perhaps we can use this opportunity to remind everyone to:

• Please phone when you arrive (some people have been coming into the garden or to the door) as we want to limit the opportunity for surfaces to be touched by Visitors in case they become transmission points;
• To ensure that every Resident has an opportunity to receive Visitors regularly, please only book visits once Existing Bookings for that Resident has been completed; some people misunderstood this as one booked visit per Visitor rather than per Resident, which has meant that Residents with multiple Visitors were filling up the available slots.

We are still hoping that the permanent Visitor Pods will be completed towards the end of this month.

Testing

Testing is working well in both Homes, and with HomeCare Staff, although we are still struggling to arrange tests for HomeCare Clients, which Lauren is working on.

Nettlestead

• Jane will be celebrating some National Days this week which include World Smile Day on the 7th October alongside World Poetry Day.
• Stathis will be making and decorating Cupcakes with the Residents.
• Chris has set up a group game this week involving large print Crosswords, with prizes for those who can solve it!
• Now Autumn is coming, please keep phoning for those Facetime Slots so Residents don’t miss out on seeing family members.
• Apologies again for any visits that we have had to cancel last week due to the inclement weather.
• We currently have Two Rooms Vacant, so if you have any recommendations please send them our way

Priors Mead

• We’ve got Autumnal Arts and Crafts planned for this week as the weather forecast is gloomy.
• On Wednesday we are partaking in a Musical Afternoon Tea and will be enjoying a ‘Playlist for Life’ put together by our Residents to include all their old favorites. We will be playing some Music Related Games and competing in a themed tune quiz! This #MusicalTea has been put together by a Dementia charity to raise awareness about the power of personal music for those living with Dementia.
• Our resident bunnies, Rex and Frankie, have settled in well and are receiving lots of attention.
• Welcome Back to Kelly who returned today following maternity leave, she has enjoyed catching up with the Residents and sharing photos of baby Mason.
• We are also delighted that Tenniece has joined the Priors Mead Management Team on a permanent basis from today.
• Michelle is continuing to excel in her activities role and always welcomes suggestions or new ideas.
• Kirsty is now on a much needed and well deserved week off as her supporting management team is back to full force, so please book Visits with the Duty Manager.

HomeCare

• We continue to expand and have had two new Clients join us this week.
• We now have all three Area Supervisors in place. Tracey and Fran are the Area Supervisors for Bromley while Katie is looking after Croydon and Reigate.
• A big Thank You to all of the Home Care Staff for all of their continued support and hard work, and we would also like to thank Kim, Lauren, Paige and Becky for all of their support and dedication throughout these difficult times.
• We have a new Member of Staff, Enrica, who will be completing her training tomorrow before joining the Croydon Area.

Suggestions

Suggestions continue to be welcome. Please share them with us by emailing covid-19@nightingales.co.uk.

Thank you all for your continued support and understanding.

Nick & Sarah Bruce

nick.bruce@nightingales.co.uk

sarah.bruce@nightingales.co.uk