The Companion Festive Edition (Home Instead newsletter)

Home Instead

York & Ryedale newsletter

companion Merry Christmas THE

Check out our website: www.caregiver support.co.uk

The office team would like to take this opportunity to wish all our wonderful CAREGivers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for all your hard work over the past 12 months, it really is appreciated by us, and most importantly by our clients. Enjoy the festive period with family and friends and here’s to 2017!!

With a little help from her friend Our CAREGiver Carol, has been very productive with her client Mrs Clarke, this month. Together they have made a beautiful festive wreath and later they will be making candle holders together. Carol only recently joined Home Instead, but she says this is the reason she joined us, to make a difference to our clients’ lives.

Festive Edition 2016

Generous donation of Twiddlemuffs Christmas Jumper Day 16th December was national Christmas Jumper Day. Thank you to all those who sported their best festive jumper, some great ones! We were collecting donations for our charity – The Bring Joy Foundation.

Thanks to all those who donated, the money is going to a great cause. The Bring Joy Foundation aim to bring the fun and joy back into ageing. The charity has a clear vision, to fund the little things that can make a big difference to older people’s lives.

Through one of our CAREGivers Gail, we were generously donated a number of ‘Twiddlemuffs’ to distribute to our clients – ‘Twiddlemuffs’ are ideal for clients with dementia who are likely to be anxious and tend to fiddle with buttons, blankets etc.

Knitted from wool the muffs have items such as buttons, bells and ribbons attached so that a patient with dementia can twiddle them in their hands. People with dementia often have restless hands and like to have something to keep their hands occupied.

The muffs provide visual, tactile and sensory stimulation as well as having the added benefit of keeping hands warm!

They have been in high demand for our clients so it is likely another order will be placed sometime soon.

A day in the life of… Andy

An average weekday…

sees me up and about between 6.30 and 7.00am. I’m an early riser and like to get into the office once I’ve polished off my fresh orange and Marmite on toast!

Once in the office I work my way through my emails and check my calendar for the week/day ahead. I take pride in my role as Head of CAREGiver Experience. I value the work our team of CAREGivers provide to their clients and fully respect the work they do, having worked in the social care sector for over eight years. I have worked for different organisations in the sector but believe in the Home Instead ethos. That was one of the major factors which influenced my decision to join the company, as well as working with Carol!

My weekends are very busy with my two children Josh (10) and Ellie (8). Football is a big part of my life. I coach my son’s team on a Saturday and Sunday morning and we go to watch York City FC when they are playing at home, as me and Josh are both season ticket holders. As well as drama and Irish dancing, Ellie is a keen equestrian and has her own pony which she takes great pride in, so when possible I like to watch her ride.

Saturday night is our movie night. It’s a good time to sit together and watch a film, just the three of us – after much debate. Choosing can sometimes take longer than the actual watching!

New CAREGivers

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Office opening hours

Over the festive period the office will be open as usual until 4pm on Friday 23rd December, we then reopen on Wednesday 28th December. Over New Year we close on Friday 30th December and reopen on Tuesday 3rd January. Remember though, we have the emergency on call service available if required, 24 hours a day.

We held a very successful CAREGiver induction training at the end of November with five new ladies, ready to join the team. Keep an eye out for them shadowing in the near future, and please, make them feel as welcome as possible!

Cold weather driving tips Use the main and busiest roads where possible as they are most likely to be gritted and better maintained.

When driving in snow, get your speed right – not too fast so that you risk losing control, but not so slow that you risk losing momentum when you need it – and brake, steer and accelerate as smoothly as possible.

Start gently and don’t over rev. Stay in a higher gear for better control.

Triple your distance between you and the car in front. If it’s icy then your stopping distance will be greatly increased.

Drive so that you do not rely on your brakes to be able to stop – on an icy surface they simply may not do that for you!

If you do find yourself skidding leave the pedals alone and concentrate on steering to correct yourself.

An idea to help sight loss If someone you care for is having difficulties around a loss of vision, then this might help. If it becomes too tricky to read labels on food cans you could try marking them physically using things like an elastic band.

For example, wrap a single band around cans of beans whilst using two to mark a can of tomatoes. You can also find sticky bumps which can be stuck on all sorts of food packages. As long as the person knows what each band or sticker represents they should be able to find what they need.

Bike to work scheme January’s the time for getting fit after all that festive partying so why not think about getting a bike through our bike to work scheme? You can find details of the scheme on the CAREGiver support website.

On average people will lose 13lbs in their first year of cycling to work. There are over 20 million bike owners in the UK and over one billion world-wide so you will be joining a big club. York has a good range of cycle paths so there are lots of opportunities to cycle off road and away from the traffic. To find out more about routes around the city go to www.itravelyork. Don’t forget to wear a helmet and follow road safety rules.

Last anti-fraud presentation of the year Karen has been incredibly busy over the course of the last year conducting regular presentations on Senior Fraud Protection. This month she did her final presentation of the year for 36 retired gentlemen at their Retired Men’s Forum in Heworth, York.

Over the course of the year, Karen has presented to over 350 people, at 33 different locations, including residential living

accommodations, care homes and local community centres in the York & Ryedale area.

The aim of Karen’s Senior Fraud Presentations is to raise awareness of the risks facing older people so that we can do everything we can to prevent the growing incidents of scams involving seniors which put them at risk, by threatening to strip them of their assets, their independence and their trust.

Christmas Raffle From the 12th December onwards we have been holding our annual CAREGiver Christmas raffle. We see the raffle as a great opportunity to thank you for all your hard work over the course of the year and to receive a little Christmas gift from us. Those who have yet to call in the office, please make sure you make it in before the 23rd, remember everyone’s a winner!!

Here’s a selection of our winners so far…

Home Instead Senior Care 10 Clifton Moor Business Village James Nicolson Link, Clifton Moor York YO30 4XG Telephone: 01904 690884 Email: info@hiscyork.co.uk Web: www.homeinstead.co.uk/york

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www.facebook.com/homeinsteadyork @homeinsteadyork www.instagram.com/homeinsteadyork www.youtube.com/YorkHomeInstead “Each Home Instead Senior Care® franchise office is independently owned and operated.”