Southcare Homes Group got into the swing of springtime back in February, celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Day. It’s always lovely to make people smile and it’s beneficial to our mental health, too, when we give to others. Our homes took the opportunity to give back to their community, and here are some highlights.
Our nursing home in Bexhill, Heatherdene, dropped off a personal thank-you card and box of chocolates to the Rose and Crown in Bexhill, a local pub often visited by residents.
The Rose and Crown said how nice it was that the residents have taken the time to consider them: ‘Thank you all so much, we’re so pleased, we work so hard every day to make sure our customers have a great visit.’
Highbury House, in Rottingdean, also visited some local establishments in their community, delivering small gifts and thank-you notes. They stopped off at their local Post Office and Christopher Stringers Funeral Directors. It was lovely to see how such a small token put a smile on their faces.
The home manager of our residential home in Ringmer, Stacey, decided to surprise the staff and residents atLime Tree Housewith a random act of kindness. Stacey spent time handing out decorated cookies with an individual, heartfelt message from her to everyone. Stacey said, “kindness is love made visible – people will never forget how you make them feel.”
And that’s so true. It can make such a difference when we put our love and care into action – even in small ways. And everyone in the Southcare family strives to do that each day.
Southcare Homes Group is proud to be the first UK care home group to partner with Brain+. Brain+ is a leader in digital therapeutics for dementia care. This partnership introduces a new tool called Ayla into our dementia care program. Ayla is an advanced platform specifically designed to support the preparation and delivery of a leading treatment of dementia known as Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST). Firstly, though, what is Cognitive Stimulation Therapy or CST?
What is Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST)?
Cognitive Stimulation Therapy is the most well-researched, non-pharmacological treatment for those with mild to moderate dementia care. It involves structured group sessions that are specially designed for people with dementia. As a result, they help those involved to express their views, learn new things and work with others. Group members will engage in a range of activities in a relaxed environment to stimulate thinking, memory and to connect with others. These activities include, for example:
Singing songs
Listening to music
Taking part in practical activities such as baking
Playing word games
Discussing current news stories
Research has shown that these sessions can improve cognition, quality of life, and communication. Implementing this form of treatment in care homes however comes with its own set of challenges. The staff and resources available to run these sessions, for instance, are limited. That’s where Brain+ and digital dementia care come in.
Understanding Digital Dementia Care
Brain+ are global pioneers of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy and digital dementia care, and they believe in empowering both residents and caregivers to make dementia care better. They have therefore developed Ayla – your CST Assistant to help trained facilitators bring innovative dementia care solutions to residents.
A new digital dementia care tool – Ayla
Ayla provides:
Clinically validated CST sessions that replicate products recommended by NICE and WHO
Integrated modes of therapy. This includes sensory stimulation, reminiscence and music therapy
Measurable outcomes and evidence generation. This allows us to gauge the impact of sessions and share the results with residents’ family members and regulatory bodies.
Enhanced awareness and training that enables care homes to broaden the pool of qualified facilitators and enhance awareness.
Who are Southcare Homes Group?
At Southcare Homes Group, we strive to continually enhance not only our high-quality care but our residents’ experiences and partnership only reinforces our efforts. Two of our homes, Lime Tree House in Ringmer and Grasmere Rest Home in Sutton, will be pioneering Ayla with residents. Staff will receive professional CST accreditation, and this will equip them with the expertise to deliver personalised cognitive therapy.
“We are delighted to partner with Brain+ to introduce Ayla – Your CST Assistant into our care homes. Dementia care is at the heart of what we do, and we are always looking for innovative ways to improve the lives of our residents. The opportunity to integrate digital CST and provide our staff with specialised training ensures that we continue to lead the way in delivering exceptional dementia support.”
– Karim Nanji, Managing Director, Southcare Homes Group
“This partnership with Southcare Homes is a defining moment for Brain+ in the UK, as it validates the potential of Ayla – Your CST Assistant in transforming dementia. The whole ethos of the home is to go above and beyond in giving the best possible care to its residents. You can really see the passion and desire to do things differently from the leadership to the wonderful care managers. We are thrilled to work with such a forward-thinking care provider, and we look forward to expanding our impact in the UK.”
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.
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.
