Brenda Durrington, manager of Lyncroft Care Home, explains why she thinks a care home is the best place for elderly people at the moment. She also tells us how they’re maintaining the wellbeing of their residents, and how they’re helping residents stay in touch virtually with family and friends.
Q: What can a care home offer elderly people at the moment?
A: At this time, with a lot of elderly people isolated at home on their own, residents in care homes are benefitting from daily social interaction, both with other residents and staff. Of course, the most important advantage to living in a care home is round-the-clock care – families can achieve peace of mind knowing that their relative is being looked after day in, day out.
Care homes can offer an inspiring and stimulating environment; residents may benefit from purpose-built homes with amazing facilities. Furthermore, many care homes provide a varied activity schedule, which also contributes to their wellbeing.
Q: What is Lyncroft Care Home doing to keep residents safe?
A: To date, we have not had any cases of COVID-19. We feel very thankful and lucky for this, as we’ve worked hard to keep the virus out of our home through diligence, sensible working practices and rigorous infection control.
Over the past month we have tested all staff and residents for both current and previous cases of the disease and to be on the safe side will be testing our staff members every two weeks, regardless of symptoms. We are fully stocked with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and have a guaranteed supply for at least the next 6 months.
Our staff have all undertaken Infection Control Training and completed COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) and are all aware of following the correct procedures to keep everyone in the home safe. We are in regular contact with families to keep them updated about their loved ones and as a company we have a 24-hour dedicated COVID-19 telephone helpline and email address for family members and staff assistance.
Q: How are you looking after the resident’s mental and physical health?
A: Lyncroft Care Home has recently been renovated, providing incredible facilities such as a library, hair salon, relaxation room and even a pub on-site for the residents to take advantage of. As well as this, residents can enjoy spending time in our expansive garden, where we even host garden parties and BBQ’s.
It is unfortunate that residents are not able to be visited by family and friends, and that we can’t take them out on day trips.
However, we are keeping up our varied activity schedule, offering residents a different activity twice daily to keep them moving and busy.
To keep up communication with family members and give them peace of mind we have installed tablets so residents can catch up over video chat. We’ve also introduced our ‘Pen Pal Scheme’ where residents keep in touch with family the old- fashioned way via a postcard. As well as that, we’re posting regular updates on our Facebook page (@lyncroftcarehome) which is keeping everyone up to date with every day laughs in the home.
Healthy food is especially instrumental in maintaining the health and wellbeing of our residents. Our chef serves restaurant-worthy food, with residents involved in the development of their daily menu. We also have a cosy café on-site where fresh cakes and coffee are available.
A special thank you goes out to the wider community who have recently come together with friends and family to send us their singing and music videos for our residents entertainment during lockdown – it put a big smile on their faces.
For more information visit www.countrycourtcare.co or contact laura.mills@countrycourtcare.com or 01945 475 229.
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