Living Our Values Archives - Southcare Homes Group

How to Help Those with Dementia on Bonfire Night

5 Tips to Help Those with Dementia on Bonfire Night

November ushers in the autumn layers, warm drinks and firelit nights. Fireworks too. While the sound of booms, pops and whizzes are exciting for most of us, for some with dementia it can be a cause of distress. Here are some tips to help bring relief while fireworks are going off on bonfire night.

1. Stay calm

By keeping calm when another is in distress, you can provide an emotional anchor and not exacerbate the situation. Try to think about how they are feeling right now. Striving to show empathy and put yourself in their situation may help you react in a more understanding manner, no matter how they address you. Take time to consider how you will answer them.

2. Use gentle body language and a soothing tone

Linked with keeping calm is also doing your best to create a calm atmosphere. Your tone of voice can make a difference. Speaking with a soothing, gentle tone at a steady pace can help dissipate distress in someone that has dementia. Rapid, jerking movements can denote aggression so do your best to use soft, slow movements around them.

3. Create a relaxing environment

Remove anything nearby that could worsen the level of distress experienced. For instance, anything that makes sudden loud noises, overly bright lights – anything that could harass the senses could cause further distress. Minimise surrounding distractions where possible.

4. Understand the person and their needs

Knowing much about the person with dementia will help you to understand how best to help them. Once you’re aware of their personality, their background and history, it may give you an indication of what situations and stimuli may be triggering for them. Once you know what makes them tick or are aware of the underlying causes of their distress, you can be better informed to provide support and relief.

5. Provide opportunities for meaningful engagement

It’s not enough just to create a relaxing environment. The sounds of fireworks are likely to permeate. So, keep them occupied in an activity that is meaningful and one they find enjoyable. Reassure them with your presence, words and active engagement. Validating their feelings helps shift their focus away from the noise and may help calm the person down.

Resident holding a sparkler in garden — A previous Bonfire Night at Highbury House, Rottingdean. A dear resident enjoying the fun of sparklers!

There are great benefits to either hosting or attending a bonfire night celebration for residents. And the above tips can be used in any distressing situation. We wish you all the best with bonfire season and hope as many as possible can enjoy it.

21/10/2024 / by Amber

Southcare Homes Raise over £500 for Macmillan Cancer Support

All our homes had a terrific time raise funds and awareness for the outstanding charity, Macmillan Cancer Support and their annual Biggest Ever Coffee Morning.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Highbury House… that’s right, a tea party for a coffee morning – mad I tell you!

Highbury House and their wonderful Mad Hatter Tea Party! It was a day full of colour, craziness and cakes! A massive thanks to local businesses, such as Tesco, The Trellis Restaurant, S.A. Devesons Groceries, The White Horse Hotel, Rottingdean, Shane’s kitchen, Budgens. They all generously donated prizes for our Raffle! Also thanks to our heroic staff! They even brought in their own whacky outfits! We had Alice in Wonderland playing in our outdoor cinema, and a stunning themed cake created in house! Thanks to all our relatives that joined – even getting hats for their pets to wear! What a day!

Relatives and friends of Lime Tree House were able to join for a virtual cup of coffee for their Macmillan Morning. Their fabulous chef, Toby, made coconut and jam, Victoria sponge, carrot cake and Laura, our new activities coordinator made her oh-so-fabulous ginger cake!

Grasmere also managed to raise over £100 while also managing to work their way through an assortment of beautiful homemade cakes! They had a quiz, and even a jolly good game of beerpong (minus the beer though)!

A selection of sweet sponges to delight and tempt made their way onto the cake table at Heatherdene’s Coffee Morning. We are so grateful for the enthusiasm from our residents, staff, family and friends who not only raised the roof but managed to raise over £100 towards the charity. Thank you all for making our coffee morning such a sweet success!

Freshford Cottage’s Macmillan Coffee Morning was also a great success! You can see pictures and find out more details by visiting their Facebook page.

20/10/2021 / by Amber

Summer Olympics for Freshford Residents

To mark the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Freshford Cottage have started their own tournaments! Our contestants were well-trained and kept staff on their toes! There were plenty of lively activities and even some water sports during the spell of hot weather we had.

Our first round included balloon-tennis and darts. Residents certainly gave staff a run for their money! Balloon tennis was full of laughter and enjoyed by both staff and residents. We also had a darts tournament which really put staff in the hands of residents as Velcro balls were launched at the target (held by a brave member of staff).

Two of our residents enjoying balloon tennis with a diligent umpire helping out.

The day finished with ‘clay pigeon’ shooting… well, rubber duck shooting in our case… with water guns but the concentration levels and competitive spirits were certainly just as high. The sun even made an appearance and residents even braved the pool for our diving competition! Only joking, no diving in paddling pools. But, if there was a competition for relaxing in a paddling pool, though, our residents would certainly get gold! our big Olympic tournament was a grand success, and we can’t wait until next time!

Everyone enjoyed reminiscing over childhood memories and good times in the sun as well as remembering fun times with their children and grandchildren. We can’t wait until the weather gets better again and we can enjoy some more fun in the sun!

23/08/2021 / by Amber

Pedalling with Passion along the Prom

Freshford Cottage were next up for the Living Our Values Challenge and their take had some amazing results. They focused on our second value, passion. Here’s what it means for us at Southcare:

VALUE 2: PASSION
Love and enthusiasm are at the heart of Southcare Homes– it’s the driving force behind our high-quality care.

Passion, pedals, a pilot, and a pair plucky residents were the ingredients for a cracking day out for Freshford Cottage, thanks to their recent partnership with Cycling Without Age. Freshford Cottage was next up for the Living Our Values Challenge and their passionate act involved something called a ‘trishaw’. What is a ‘trishaw’, you say? Read on to find out.

A ’trishaw’ is a motorised three-wheeled taxi-cab specifically designed and provided for by Cycling Without Age, an organisation focused on increasing the mobility opportunities for the elderly as well as their sense of freedom. Their provision of these ‘trishaws’ are a fun and free way for our residents to meet new people, and feel the wind in their hair once more!

**The trishaw trio!**
Teresa (activities coordinator) piloting two residents, Jean and Pat, along the front.

‘I have never been on holiday, never flown on a plane, nor had a ride on a boat, but the ‘trishaw’ has given me a taste of how fun it is to travel! I would now like to try a boat trip’.

Jean, resident, Freshford Cottage

Both ladies were so thankful for the afternoon and are looking forward to another trip out. Jean expressed her thanks: ‘I have never been on holiday, never flown on a plane, nor had a ride on a boat, but the ‘trishaw’ has given me a taste of how fun it is to travel! I would now like to try a boat trip’. So watch this space, we’re talking with our local boating company to make Jean’s wish for her and her daughters come true!
It’s truly amazing to see how our team’s passion and living our values helps motivate and inspire our residents to try new things and open up even more opportunities for them in the future.

30/08/2019 / by Amber

Lime Tree teaches tech-savvy residents to Skype!

First up to take on the Living our Values or LOV Challenge is Lime Tree House, our residential home in Ringmer. They decided to focus on our third value, attention. The box below tells you what this value means to us at Southcare Homes. So how did they do? Read on to find out.

VALUE 3: ATTENTION
The little things can go a long way, so we make every effort to meet the needs of our residents – no matter how small

Our more tech-savvy residents wanted a way to contact their relatives that couldn’t visit them as often as they would have liked to. Residents are free to use the phone at any time – some even having phones in their own rooms – but we know how important the little things are to our residents, so we went one step further and set up a resident’s computer with video-calling features – Skype!
As with all new things, the use of Skype will have it’s teething stage but all the staff are happy to help out and we’re encouraging our residents to use it as often as they wish and keep them and their relatives in touch.
It’s been great to get the ball rolling on the Living Our Values Challenge! This has really meant a lot to all of us at Lime Tree House.

What is the Living Our Values Challenge?
It’s where we practise what we preach. One of our homes highlights an instance where they turned one of our company values in an action to make a difference to our residents’ lives. Our five values are support, passion, attention, dedication & empathy.

13/05/2019 / by Amber

Category: Living Our Values