“It’s OK to not be OK”
As a nation, lockdown is having a tremendous impact on our daily lives and naturally our mental health. Our staff and residents are no exception to this roller-coaster of emotions. We’ve learnt more than ever, that it’s Ok to say ‘I’m not Ok’ and to ask for help from our colleagues on days when life just feels so not normal.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and we are continuing to supporting our staff with their mental health with regular one-to-ones, approachable line managers, and having managers in the building 7 days a week to provide that support. We are a listening ear to personal and work emotions and supporting our staff through this pandemic is critical to ensuring our residents keep well.
Our activity team is busy engaging our residents in activities and 1:1 time as well as helping to keep them connected with their loved ones through regular telephone calls, skype, and zoom video calling. It’s good to talk.
Family Meeting – WOW!
Normally we meet the families of our residents on a monthly basis, and due to families living away, working and other commitments we may see around 8 families at these meetings. In these changing times, we needed a new way of communicating with families and decided to try a ‘Zoom’ meeting with our families. As we logged on, we were hoping that a few would work out how to use Zoom, for the first time in most cases. We were blown away, that 25 family members logged on, for what was our best Family meeting we have ever had!
The meeting was a great opportunity to share with our families, the safety measures we have in place, as well as bring them up to speed and talk through new developments in the home. Finally, we ensured plenty of time was allowed for a Question and Answer session, which all attendees joined in with and moved us to tears with their upmost thanks and gratitude. We loved being able to ‘see’ everyone and look forward to when we can do this in person. However, for now, this was just brilliant.
CQC- COVID Management assessment
Now more than ever, safety remains a priority for Health and Social Care. Due to the lockdown, CQC is not carrying out routine inspections and has launched an emergency support framework. Our registered manager, Angela Hawes, had an in-depth and lengthy conversation with our inspector as part of the new framework which covers the following four areas:
- Safe care and treatment
- Staffing arrangements
- Protection from abuse
- Assurance processes, monitoring, and risk management
We passed all areas with flying colours. You can view our report here.
We are proud that our hard work and dedication to keeping staff and residents safe has received such positive recognition from the CQC.
Thank you
The support of our local community continues to touch us and lift our spirits. Thanks go to Gill who made us this delightfully cute Senior Care Worker Bear!
Our team were also surprised to receive a hamper of scrumptious treats from the Calico Exec team to say, ‘Thank You’ to our frontline staff’.
It’s these small acts of kindness that make a big difference to us. Thank you.
