Arches Care Home

Friday 16^th June marked Care Home Open Day, a day that actively encourages people in the local community to pop into their local care home and find out what’s going on.

The theme for this year’s open day was friendship, and Four Seasons homes and their local community certainly forged some long lasting friendships with their local communities through a variety of different events.

The events included:

• The Prince’s Trust heading into Kingsmead Care Home in Swindon sprucing up the garden
  
• Ty Eirin Care Home in Port welcomed in local school children and councillors for a fun filled afternoon
  
• A Jazz band kept everyone entertained in Pontypridd at Ty Gwynno Care Home
  
• It was a more sleepy affair at Whittington Care Home in Chesterfield as the team turned up for work in the PJs before having lots of fun with residents, relatives and visitors to the home
  
• Music and dancing was definitely on the cards for many of our homes as Benarty View Care Home in Kelty, Gotton Manor Care Home in Taunton, Benholm Care Home in Forfar and Laurels Lodge Care Home in Woodside, all had musical entertainment (and an assortment of other activities) for their guests
  
• Campsie View Care Home in Glasgow had their own petting zoo for everyone to enjoy
  
• The Laurels Care Home in Hetton-le-Hole held a country and western themed day which everyone thoroughly enjoyed
  
• Jazz was the music of choice at The Cedars and Larches Care Home in Ilkeston’s festivities.
  
• Redwell Hills Care Home in Consett, remembered the friends they’d sadly lost and released some balloons with messages in their honour.

The photos you can see above are just a snap shot of what happened at our homes during Care Home Open Day. It’s great to see from the pictures that everyone had lots of fun.

The National Learning Disabilities and Autism Awards are a prestigious event in the calendar. They celebrate excellence in the support for people with learning disabilities and aim to pay tribute to those individuals or organisations who excel in providing quality care.

The 2017 awards take place in Birmingham on 14^th July and this year we are delighted to have three finalists from the Arches Care Home in Belfast.

The care team at the home provide specialist care to almost 30 residents who live with a learning disability in Belfast. They are a finalist in the category of “Supporting Older People with Learning Disabilities Award”. The trio of Suzanne Johnston, Catherine McCallister & Paul Lundy are finalists in the prestigious Learning Disability Nurse of the Year Award. Finally, Home Manager Judy Brown is a finalist in the Manager Award.

The Arches have made the finalists because of their commitment to improving the care their residents receive. The team have demonstrated significant improvements in key performance indicators as well as increased levels of resident, relative, visiting professional and colleague satisfaction. What makes the Arches stand out is their willingness to take positive risk to make the lives of their residents better.

Following feedback from the residents, relatives & colleagues it was noted that residents at the Arches did not have the opportunity to regularly “go on holiday”. Employing a ‘can-do’ approach – the Arches have taken different residents on three different holidays this past 12 months: Euro Disney in Paris, Blackpool & Strangford in Northern Ireland.

The feedback from residents has been very powerful. With one resident stating “I have never been happier in my life”. Another gentleman has carried a small airplane in his pocket every day since he returned. The impact of these excursions has changed the culture at the Arches. Now it is more than a culture of care – it is a culture of living.

Good luck to the Arches Care Home at the National Awards in July.

Are you looking for a care home in Belfast? The Arches offers support for all types of care including respite care and specialist care.

We’ll be launching the 2017 Four Seasons Care Awards in the summer. In the meantime, we thought it would be nice to catch up with some of the winners of last year’s awards, to see what it’s been like since they’ve gone back to the floor.

This week we’ll be focusing on Lorraine Kirkpatrick, Regional Manager for Belfast who won the Regional Manager accolade.

Lorraine is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to helping people with mental health issues. Her passion for helping people stemmed from having a family member who suffered from Schizophrenia.

“All I ever wanted was for him to have a better life,” Lorraine told us. “I strongly believe that people with mental illnesses should be encouraged and enabled to live as full lives as possible. I want to do my utmost to help as many people as I can do this.”

Everyone in Northern Ireland celebrated when Lorraine won the prestigious accolade. Lorraine herself was very happy, not only for herself but for all of the teams that she works with. “It was a little bit of recognition for the teams continued respectfulness, being caring and trusting nature which ultimately makes a difference to the people in our care. Which is something I strive to do,” said Lorraine

Since winning the award, Lorraine has been busy developing Four Seasons Mental Health Framework. She’s also visited the Regional Team and homes based in the North East of England sharing best practice and assisting them with regards to the setting up and running of specialised units.

Lorraine added: “I’m not one for the limelight, so being able to go back to work and continue to help my teams and other Four Seasons colleagues to continue to make a difference to the lives of the people we care for is something that makes me very proud to work for this company.”

Information about Four Seasons Care Awards 2016 is available on the awards section of our website.