AUDIT
Supporting care homes to garden
Photo: pre-covid care home demonstration
The days of visiting care homes to run hands-on activity demonstrations with staff and residents seem a very distant memory. And for the residents who have been so isolated from friends and family during the last eight months, this must be felt acutely.
At Trellis, however we have found new ways to stay in touch – from sending activity parcels by post with simple ‘how to’ instructions, to running live demonstrations online. We even managed to run an in-person demonstration at a care setting prior to the Tier System restrictions.
Thanks to some emergency funding, we purchased a gazebo, screens and visors and set off to give some much-needed inspiration to care home staff. It might have been raining, but our hearts were full of sunshine to see the staff so engaged in the activity and keen to try it with their residents when the opportunity arose. Shortly after this demo, the Tier system came into place and work resumed online.
To date we have hosted 3 live demonstrations online with more planned into the new year, funding permitting. We have had staff from hospitals, care settings, nurseries and dementia support groups attend, amongst others. One practitioner from Alzheimer’s Scotland had signed up for the Bulb Lasagne session so that she could repeat it with people in her care living at home. Many care staff have joined in to find new ideas for activities to do with their residents during the colder winter months and often because they have no gardening experience themselves. We’ve also had attendees from far and wide including Shetland, which just goes to show that perhaps online services have an important role to play now and in the future for remote communities.
We hope that our next newsletter might bring some good news of activities planned in care settings again.
“Thank you so much for sending the Jingle Bulb set. The residents really enjoyed decorating & making their pots. We are all looking forward to seeing them flower.”Zoe, Activity Co-ordinator, Haylie House Care Home