Midlands & North – #stayhomeandstaysafe stories
During these difficult times our teams are doing all they can to support the people within our services in innovative, caring and thoughtful ways. Read more about how our support teams in the Midlands and North are achieving this.
Holland House – Corby, Northamptonshire – PWS Service
Last weekend (9th May), several of our services took part in commemorating the 75th Victory in Europe (VE) day, marking the end of WWII in Europe.
Holland House’s week-long preparations included coloured in bunting and paper chains. As all the ladies love a pie (but don’t get them very often due to their special diets) they went for a good old East End meal of Pie, Mash and Mushy Peas with Gravy. To keep with the traditional British theme, this was followed by a ‘red, white and blue’ trifle for pudding washed down with Rhubarb and Ginger Gin and Lemonade. The supported individuals and the team enjoyed listening to Vera Lynne, George Formby and Flannigan and Allen among other songs from a VE day playlist before rounding the day off playing Bingo in the sunshine!
Our Prader-Willi Syndrome service, Holland House in Corby, recently had a fantastic time celebrating service manager, Lisa Carvell’s, 25 years’ service! The team Coordinator and the rest of the team along with the people we support at Holland House held a surprise party for her which was emotional for all and of course great fun in these challenging times. Congratulations Lisa!
Heatherington House – Northamptonshire – PWS Service
Heatherington House had some fantastic celebrations on Bank Holiday Weekend for VE Day!
All supported individuals spent time over the past weeks, making decorations, hats, masks, medals, ration books and on the day, they helped to set everything up. Throughout the day they played games, charades, had a quiz about WW2, they danced, had a karaoke and hid items in the garden connected with WW2 that the supported individuals where challenged to find.
All supported individuals enjoyed champagne, beer, tea, squash, fish n chips, tuna, cucumber, egg and cheese sandwiches, fairy cakes, dutch cakes, crisps and ice lollies.
Wow! Look at the amazing artwork produced by the team and supported individuals at Heatherington House.
Our Quality Checkers set all the services the task of creating a 5ft structure and to include a Rainbow on it. After giving this lots of thought, one of the staff members at Heatherington, Rebecca Wilkinson, had the fantastic idea of using a fish – because fish is a symbol hope, and at times like these, we certainly need hope. Another staff member, Diane Cowan, also got involved and together these two ladies have worked very hard with the five supported individuals to create this wonderful scene. They have spent many hours together painting, cutting out and sticking on various materials. Wow well done team, this is impressive!
Fieldbrook House – Bolton
Fieldbrook House looking great doing their first Tik Tok video! It’s a thumbs up from us!!
Haydock House – Northamptonshire – PWS Service
The supported individuals at Haydock House, our residential Prader-Willi Syndrome service in Kettering, have been busy completing their first Tik Tok video! How brilliant is this everyone!
Royal House – Manchester
The team at Royal House have been supporting individuals with lots of activities to keep them happy, safe and well during the Coronavirus lock down.
They have been busy making sure people stay connected with their friends and family using technology. The team have also set up a survival shop. Positive praise is given with a golden ticket to the people we support and the staff which can be used at the survival shop.
They have also been working hard in the garden, creating flower bed planters and seating area for everyone to enjoy. The guys have also been helping to sand the wood in preparation for making a garden table and making bird boxes and painting them in their own style.
Heather Holmes – Northamptonshire
Perrywood House – Northamptonshire – PWS Service
Windsor Avenue – Northamptonshire
The teams and individuals at Perrywood House and Windsor Avenue have decorated the front windows in a rainbow theme with the aim of continuing with the ‘spread hope’ theme that we are seeing across the country. Heather Holmes even decorated the patio, doesn’t it look pretty!
Gretton House – Northamptonshire – PWS Service
This week, the support team at Gretton House, have come up with a fantastic and creative way of keeping the individuals in touch with their loved ones. They have been busy making a video for their friends and families to see including wise words of staying safe and a sing along too.
Parvale House – Northamptonshire – PWS Service
The team at Parvale House have been extremely busy celebrating birthdays, making inspiring rainbow banners, baking scones, doing lots of different arts and crafts and spending time in the garden too.
The team at Parvale also work closely with Kettering General Hospital (KGH) to ensure the individuals we support with PWS receive high quality medical care that meets their unique needs, as and when they need it.
In these exceptional times, the team at Parvale House in Kettering were keen to show their support for their fellow keyworkers over at KGH by baking and donating some delicious treats for their staff. Feedback was that these were very gratefully received!!!
Kingarth – Manchester
The supported individuals over at Kingarth in Manchester have been flexing their amazing art skills over the last few weeks to produce some fabulous wall art. They have also been busy making their ‘Kingarth tree’ which contains the hand-prints of all the individuals and colleagues at the service.
The idea behind the tree is to show their togetherness during these hard times. It even includes their favourite cat ‘Bueno’ who visits them every day.
To see all the amazing support our teams are providing, Tik Tok Challenges, our ‘Sing a Rainbow’ challenge in Makaton, together with a whole host of activity ideas, easy read guides and other stories from around the regions, see here.
