Westgate Healthcare Homes Celebrate Care Home Open Week 2021
At Westgate Healthcare we celebrated Care Home Open Week 2021 by hosting virtual events across our homes. The week-long virtual celebration was in support of Championing Social Care, and gave each of our homes the opportunity to showcase their modern facilities, elegant interiors and Westgate’s range of wellbeing & lifestyle initiatives available to residents. Local groups, primary schools and businesses also showed their support by taking part in virtual events such as sing-alongs with some of our residents, and offering raffle prize donations.
Kingfisher Nursing Home organised for their residents to virtually connect with local schools, and children sent gifts for residents to enjoy. The home organised a beach-themed celebration, which was made complete with a visit from the local ice cream van! Home Manager, Rosie said “We are so thankful to Bright Horizons Nursery who made beautiful decorations and cards for us. The residents really enjoyed looking at everything the children had made, particularly as some residents haven’t been able to see their grandchildren due to visiting restrictions. We also received some very generous donations from local businesses such as Jim’s Funeral Directors, Next, Tesco, and Wimpy, which we used in our raffle. It was so moving to see our community come together to show their support for social care, and the day was made complete with a visit from our local ice cream van!”
At St Pauls Care Centre, which is currently rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC, the team hosted a live-streamed video on Facebook, offering viewers a virtual tour of the home, as well as information about the range of lifestyle initiatives the home provides its residents. Activities Lead, Beth said “As we couldn’t invite the community into our home, we decided to bring our home to the community! Care Home Open Week gave us the opportunity to virtually open our doors, and showcase the amazing facilities we offer here at St Pauls. We were also able to promote the vast range of activities that have continued behind closed doors throughout COVID. Our residents spent a fantastic day using the ‘Chatterbox’ initiative, which is designed to initiate conversations, and we all learned some very interesting facts about each other!”
Care Home Open Week also provided an opportunity for us to celebrate our outstanding workforce and their invaluable contribution to social care. At Westgate House Care Centre in Ware, staff were awarded ‘Recognition Cards’ at an awards ceremony organised by Home Manager, Nancy; “I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate and thank our wonderful staff team who make such a significant contribution to social care and to the lives of our residents. It is so important for them to continue to feel valued, recognised and rewarded.”
Byron House and Ashview Nursing Home also hosted some impressive events during the week. While Ashview hosted a ‘Texan-themed BBQ’ for staff and residents, Byron House chose a vintage tea-themed celebration and finished off the week with a raffle which raised a staggering £213 to go towards the Byron Resident Fund.
We ended the week by launching the second phase of our ‘Big Wish’ campaign. The campaign aims to celebrate our employees and support the wellbeing of residents across the group, by granting wishes twice a year.
In January, Ancuta, a Registered Nurse at St Pauls Care Centre, won an iPad to support her daughter’s home learning. In the same month, Mr Shadbolt, a resident at Westgate House Care Centre was granted a live-stream virtual tour of the local area via drone footage. We have promised to continue the ‘Big Wish’ initiative to show our gratitude to the Westgate Healthcare workforce, and to promote the wellbeing of our residents.
