Care Homes

Furry friends at Blackwood

We’ve had an unusual group of new friends arrive, in the form of our ‘Champion Pets’. These are very life-like cats and dogs, which are being used as a form of pet therapy for our residents.

The theory is to explore their use as a means of reducing the need for anti-psychotic medication for people with dementia, and the idea arose from Vikki Somerville’s ongoing Assistant Practitioner studies. Should a resident become agitated, we trial interaction with a pet to see whether this alleviates their level of distress.

It’s still early days but we have already seen notable improvement in welfare, so watch this space.

Each person has a choice of pet, so its Callington name regularly changes of course – the team are great at going along with this, if a little confusing at times!

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Congratulations are due to Vikki. She has recently become the Registered Manager at Blackwood, having been the Care Manager since April last year. Prior to that, she spent seven years at our Mountford home in Truro, and has in fact worked in the care sector since leaving college aged 18.

She tells us the process with CQC is a tough one! Recently I undertook the ‘ t person’ interview with CQC to determine if I had the skills and knowledge to be the Registered Manager. This was successful and ” I am thrilled to be working alongside my Business Manager, Annette and our amazing team. I am so excited to see what the future holds for all of us at Blackwood.

All change at Cedar Grange

We’re in the midst of much change. We have welcomed Bev Robinson as our Registered Care Manager, joining us from the same role at Chyvarhas. And Kate Langdown-Smith, formerly of the Community Services team, is our brand new Business Manager. They will share news of their future plans in the next issue.

Bev and Kate have also welcomed Anneka Sneddon as their Assistant, and Alison Kendall as Clinical Lead, completing the senior team line-up.

Meanwhile, it’s not all new – in fact quite the opposite in terms of our lovely Pauline Wallis. She has been with Cornwall Care a whopping 26 years, all of them spent at Cedar Grange and Miller House (our location before this purpose-built building existed).

After 23 years as a carer, Pauline moved to a housekeeping role and from there into the laundry. So what has kept her here all this time? She says it’s the atmosphere and the way that everyone supports each other. Her trade secret is that you need good footwear...

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You have to get used to the heat, including under- oor. ” Trainers will make your feet and ankles swell – and I once walked 5 miles in a shift!

Pauline is one of our ‘Long-serving Legends’ As a bona de ‘Long-serving Legend’, we asked “who is your legend or hero, and why?” Truro My grandad, Grandpa Charlie. When I was young, I visited him in a home – he had Alzheimer’s. ” As I held his hand I remember thinking ‘I want to do care’.

Well Pauline, care you did. Clearly you were destined for this path – congratulations on your remarkable service, and thank you.

Creative fun at Chyvarhas

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On the night shift a few months back, we noticed that some residents prefer a quiet cuppa and biscuit in the early hours rather than the hustle and bustle of the day. So we thought it would be fun to arrange pastimes for those who are night owls and prefer to stay up late.

Our latest activities have produced a vibrant, giant collage showing our ‘dreams of summer’. It’s proudly displayed in the dining room. The night-time creative sessions have given our residents something to focus on and enjoy, and the night sta have got to know them much better.

Our team have found it particularly bene cial for their wellbeing, after the many extra challenges they have faced during the pandemic.

This is the second transformation of the main area in our home, following the rst, spring-themed display. We have further plans for the rest of the year – but they’re a closely guarded secret; we love to keep an element of surprise for everyone walking through the door. We are looking forward to seeing their faces after our next reveal!

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Flying high at Headlands

Well what can we say... we had a busy June, with the G7 Summit happening on our Carbis Bay doorstep!

Although it made things hectic and involved a whole lot of preparation, it was truly magical and something that none of us will likely experience again.

We were lucky to have Stuart and Warren, two Engagement O cers supporting us throughout the event – a big thank you to them for looking after us. The streets were lined with police o cers, and every single one who walked by said “hello” (‘ello ‘ello...) and waved to our residents through the window. Truro The mist had cleared to beautiful blue sky and sunshine, so we had really great views as you can see. This was such a highlight for everybody – one of our residents actually thanked our home manager, Julia for organising the y-over, thinking she’d arranged it especially for Headlands!

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The atmosphere was fantastic that week and it’s a memory we will treasure forever.

Celebrations included a ‘Summit BBQ’ which Brian, our fabulous chef and his kitchen team organised on the Friday – a delicious spread! And we had front row seats to watch the red arrows y over the bay the following day.

Mountford achieves Platinum!

We were absolutely thrilled to achieve our Gold Standards Framework Platinum home status recently. The re-accreditation process is a tough one based on NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines, and we have to provide substantial evidence of our good practice to earn it. But our e orts have paid o and we can now publicise our GSF badge with pride! We focus on putting individuals at the heart of our care plans, and listen to what they and their families want. Through these conversations we can then understand people’s wishes and do our very best to make them reality.

Some residents have a bucket list which we help them to work through – for example, one lady surfed into her seventies so we arranged for her to go to the beach and watch some surfers enjoying the waves. She really enjoyed herself.

Having this GSF recognition helps set us apart from other providers as a home of choice in Cornwall. And beyond that, it has provided all of the team with some much needed joy during these particularly challenging times.

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Waxing lyrical at Penberthy

There’s been lots going on at our home, from entertainment to beauty and birthdays!

Weekly hairdressing appointments with Gill are back. Hooray – she works her magic to make our residents feel suitably special. And there’s magic of a di erent kind, thanks to local children Phoebe and Mason Nelmes, whose fantastic fundraising e orts have allowed for the purchase of an interactive ‘magic table’. Their mum, Trish is an HCA3 at Penberthy, and we are so grateful for this incredible support. This piece of kit will bring wonderful bene ts to those we care for.

Speaking of fundraising, we hosted a sponsored wax where four of our male sta bravely put their lives on the line(!) being waxed by their female colleagues. We’re delighted that this event raised £270 for our home.

We’ve also enjoyed a vocal duo entertaining everyone from in the garden. And of course, along with the rest of the country, we made a fuss for the Euro 2020 footie nal. Banners and bunting brought atmosphere to the lounge and everyone had a really good time – despite the nal result. Well done, England.

Finally, to celebrations. Pauline, one of our lovely residents with a July birthday wished to host a little do in her bedroom. So we organised a party in the room – with banners and balloons for some sparkle, a private bu et, and a steady ow of sta throughout the day. It’s fair to say that Pauline enjoyed being the “hostess with the mostest”! Topped o with a beautiful cake made by chef Pete, she had a truly memorable day.

And lastly (but by no means leastly) our Deputy Manager, Kay recently had her Cornwall Care birthday. She’s celebrating a whopping 22 years of service! Congratulations Kay, from the entire team.

Pitch perfect at Pengover

What lovely weather we have been having at time of writing, the perfect opportunity for us to make the most of our outdoor space! Katy from the Fundraising team arranged for the Forget-me-not Chorus*, who hail from Wales, to come and perform in the garden for our residents in late July. It was a super hot day, so our team did an excellent job in setting up a gazebo to provide some necessary shade.

Kate, chief singer and CEO managed to get lots of our residents involved in singing along, waving, bending and all Carbis sorts – even the ones who were quiet to

Bay start with. Fabulous fun was had by all. There was an exceptionally memorable moment with one of our gentlemen... John was initially quite shy, but with encouragement from Kate he soon came out of his shell. And my, he had a beautiful voice! We discovered that he used to be in the army and sang… a lot… all over the world. He was even able to sing in Welsh, which he did alongside Kate. It was a real goosebump moment, and truly wonderful to be there to witness this. All good things must come to an end. But not before Katy had sat with a lovely lady called Pam, the two of them enjoying a sing-song and holding hands to wave along to the music. This whole experience was brilliant for our residents, yes, but also an emotional and moving,

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positive experience for the rest of us who were present.

* The Forget-me-not Chorus (FMNC) supports people with dementia and their families through weekly singing sessions. Learn more at

www.forgetmenotchorus.com

Redannick remembers

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Well, it’s summertime, so let’s talk gardens! We had a resident, Marian who was with us for 11 years and an avid gardener. When she passed away, her brother made a generous donation to help us revamp Red Wing Garden, which her room had looked out over. Thanks to some brilliant help from the Eden Project’s David Aynsley this is now complete, with a vast range of plants that have grown well and spread out. We are grateful also to Truro Lions Club for donating a sum which we used to buy a pretty new bird table for the centrepiece.

Says Angie Bray (Activities and Fundraising)

This has more than achieved my hope of enhancing the lives of the wonderful people we care for, giving them a space in which to relax and enjoy the fresh air, colours and wildlife. At the start of our fete in September, we will have an opening ceremony and formally ” change the name to ‘Marian’s Garden’. At Eden, David runs the Game Changer programme, helping young people into gardening and landscaping.

I‘m so appreciative of the work that he and they have done for us; none of this would have been possible without all his help and support. To say a big thank you, I did present him with one of my famous hampers – themed with the items he ” had whenever we o tin of soup! ered lunch and drinks, hence the

St Breock summer vibes

Wow, what fantastic weather when summer well and truly – nally – arrived!

And how did we choose to make the most of the wonderful sunny spell? By getting out and about in the garden of course!

Thanks to the practical talents of Graham the gardener, we have installed some brand new handrails. This means that our residents are able to spend more time outside, supporting themselves safely around the gently sloped grass area.

We love to see them enjoying this little space, taking in the natural surroundings which are so bene cial for health and wellbeing. We turned up the summer vibes further, by throwing some delicious fruit smoothies and ice creams into the mix. They help everyone to stay hydrated and keep cool in the heat, and have been very well received.

Thank you to our brilliant kitchen team for whizzing up some wonders, and to our managers for their supermarket hauls with lollies by the trolley-load.

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St Martin’s Truro magical mission

We are currently on a mission to raise £7,000 in order to purchase a Mobii interactive sensory table for our home.

This ‘magic table’ will provide residents at all stages of dementia with opportunities to interact, socialise, move and relax, and will be fully portable so that everyone can bene t from it. We also have a new seating area for everyone to enjoy, thanks to our caretaker John Bulley and some of our Kickstart team. It’s really attractive and is pretty comfortable too!

Since the start of the year we have managed to raise a whopping £4,650 which is absolutely fantastic!

Our Activity Coordinators and the Fundraising team have helped make this happen by organising a variety of events, including a golf day at

Gwel-an-Mor and a 100-mile sponsored walk.

A massive thank you for all of their hard work – and to everybody who has supported them. We’re looking forward to our garden party on 11 September in celebration of Cornwall Care’s 25th Anniversary year and the grand opening of our new and improved gardens.

We will have everything you could wish for from a garden fete, including a tombola, ra e, cake stall, lucky dip and plenty of refreshments to keep everyone fed and watered. It should be a really lovely afternoon and will provide a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our special community – we hope to have some photos to share with you next issue.

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Celebrations at The Green

The Green team made sure there were plenty of ‘Happy Birthday’ decorations, and the kitchen sta created a wonderful cake for her to enjoy – dare we mention the amount of double cream?

Mary had a fabulous day with our sta and her daughter, Shirley – who of course was thrilled that she got to spend this day with her mum.

She truly enjoyed seeing Mary so happy with the little (and bigger) touches we’d made.

We love making a big fuss of birthdays here at The Green, and in June we had extra special reason to do just that... Mary Lillie turned 103! That’s de nitely cause for a celebration.

A happy day of celebrating, and what a mighty age to reach!

YEARS YOUNG YEARS YOUNG

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Trengrouse’s Irene and the Queen

Our longest serving member of sta , night carer Irene has had an exceptional year. She and her friend, fellow carer, Sarah caught COVID-19 in January, as did their husbands.

Sarah’s husband Steve, also one of our team, remains o sick with long COVID. Irene’s husband Malcolm, a much-loved local driver for the 111 out of hours service, passed away mid-February.

The last time I saw him alive was when he reluctantly agreed to go to hospital because of breathing problems. I wish ” I could have been there with him, but we weren’t allowed to visit. In June, Irene found herself talking to the Queen as part of a specially invited audience at the Eden Project.

I had a lovely surprise, Head O ce phoned and said there was an event they’d like me to go to, something nice. ” A gentleman came to pick me up, I didn’t know where I was going.

Irene was in fact going to a special ‘Big Lunch’ at Eden, held to celebrate community, and coinciding with the G7 Summit. In attendance were no less than three generations of royal ladies – Princess Kate, Duchess of Cornwall Camilla, and the Queen herself.

She was so lovely and caring; we spoke about COVID and she asked how I coped, I told her we were both in the same boat having recently been widowed. Meeting her was amazing – I couldn’t ” help imagining Malcolm looking down and being a bit jealous.

Irene pictured with Her Majesty The Queen and Eden Project and Cornwall Care Director, Peter Stewart. thebiglunch.com

Along with her four children and eight grandchildren, Irene’s friendship with Sarah has really kept her going – as has the support they’re both getting from their colleagues. She says Trengrouse is a close-knit team and that’s been so important.

Trevarna’s trolley treats

We recently welcomed our new Activity Coordinator, Natalie Trott and we are all thoroughly enjoying the activities she has introduced.

We now have Spa Monday, Tea & Cake Tuesday and Beer Club Friday, as well as entertainers coming into our gardens.

One of her rst features to come about was a regular ‘ice cream round’. The idea arose from the need to provide stimulation for a resident who had previously worked as an HGV driver. He would get up every day and look for his keys and truck, often becoming agitated when unable to nd them.

Natalie appointed this gent as the new ‘ice cream man’ and he was provided with a hat, apron and trolley complete with a wipe-clean tablecloth. The icing on the cake – or should we say the ake in the ‘99 – was an iPad placed at the front of the trolley, playing ice cream van tunes to alert the residents when it’s on its way.

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We have found this to be incredibly bene cial, not only to the speci c gentleman who enjoys being able to do deliveries again, but to all of the residents in our home.

Soon they began to recognise the sound of the songs and what this meant. They now get up in search of the trolley, eager to make their choice. In fact, we even have people asking for the ice cream delivery!

One lady resident, who refuses to eat, sees the trolley coming and – with a big smile – says:

”Oh can I have vanilla please, I love this day!

Musical memories at Trevern

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We’ve been creating some wonderful memories and topping up our fundraising pot, through a variety of initiatives and events that our Activity Coordinators have organised...

Recently, Hannah Jones and Jack Hill organised a virtual music gig for everyone to enjoy, with a special online fundraising page for friends and family to donate from across the country. The event was our rst o cial fundraiser as a home, so we are extremely proud of the £400 we raised. Special thanks go to Hannah for her huge e orts in making it such a success!

We are lucky to have a privileged partnership with the RNLI team at local Gyllyngvase Beach. A few years back, Sharon Bennion, who is super passionate about residents’ wellbeing, organised for members of their team to come and help our care sta escort some of our residents down to the beach to enjoy the sea air, a paddle and in one lady’s case an actual swim! Sharon is working with the same team to organise another trip so that our current residents can bene t from the same great experience.

Sharon has used her powers of persuasion and keen networking knack to establish more great relationships to bene t our home. Norman McNamara from Purple Angel has kindly donated iPods and headsets as part of music therapy for our residents with dementia. We create tailored playlists based on people’s care packages, so that when they listen to their music it triggers happy memories and a sense of enjoyment.

She has also managed to secure her friend, Rebecca Dale (who just happens to be a professional classical soprano) to sing at our garden party on 11 September in celebration of Cornwall Care’s 25th Anniversary. Sharon and her team mates are busy preparing a tting set for Rebecca’s performance – we can’t wait!

Re ections at Trewartha

In 2020, we began work on a Garden of Re ection in memory of those residents who had passed away. We wanted to create a space for current residents, sta and families to enjoy; a place to sit, re ect and remember loved ones.

We had a great deal of support with our venture – thanks to the lovely Jan from our Fundraising team, and some wonderful sta from the Eden Project who helped us with the design. The Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, Colonel Bolitho was kind enough to send supportive letters during our COVID-19 outbreak, and has said he would like to come and perform a small but meaningful garden opening ceremony.

One family donated a owering cherry tree, as their Mum had one in her garden and used to make jam from the fruit. Our sta bought a yellow rose to commemorate another lady for whom it was a favourite shade. Despite the progression of her dementia she associated more and more with this colour, even favouring yellow food and drink.

We now have electrical points in the garden so that we can have music playing outside, which will be a real plus when we have our fetes and tea parties again. We are excitedly waiting for a fantastic water feature to be installed; a six-foot waterfall with lights! It will provide a wonderful sensory experience for both residents and sta .

We had fun marking the Euros, Wimbledon and National Cream Tea Day – sadly no pics of our tasty cream teas as they were devoured so quickly!

With the slight relaxation around visiting, our outdoor tea room is coming back into its own as it is being used for family visits, which is so lovely to see.

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Carbis Bay Truro

Woodland’s song and superheroes

Capes and out ts at the ready... we have been planning a special ‘Super Heroes’ party for our residents and sta to enjoy.

It has been postponed a couple of times, due to the need for some sta to self-isolate, but we’re party-ready and hoping to be able to hold the event within the next few weeks. The idea behind this is to celebrate the team of everyday heroes at Woodland, led by our home manager Emma Kent. A way to say ‘thank you’ to our sta and to give everyone – residents included – a boost after such a di cult 18 months.

Activity Coordinator, Leanne Masters is our o cial party planner and has created themed invitations and posters.

She has organised games, a piñata, karaoke and a range of awards, which will recognise extraordinary e orts such as ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ and ‘Going Above and Beyond.’

Our chef and the rest of the kitchen team are prepped and ready to wow with their party picks and a two-tiered cake. So now it’s just a case of awaiting the green light. Looking back, last month the Forget-me-not Chorus joined us in the garden and we had a really lovely time. They’re a wonderful charity group, based in Wales, who use the power of song to support those living with and alongside dementia.

They aim to bring joy, laughter and respite through their work – something which in our experience they absolutely achieve.