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Newsletter - No.2 - December 2002 issue
Introduction
Barbara's Diary
Trips Out
Activities and Entertainment
My Room 33 with a View
Gossip on the Hill
Beauty in Sound
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LIVE IN CARE
SERVICE
A carer can live with and care for you in your own home.
Our sample menus can be seen here
Introduction
Since publication of our first Newsletter back in May, significant changes
have taken place over the last few months, both in terms of Staff and
the way in which we now operate. As you may be aware the New Care Standards
Act came into effect as of April of this year which has meant a lot of
work to bring us into line with their new directives.
A very big thank you must go to Sandy George, who has been our acting General Manager over the last few months, and who has been instrumental in getting us up to date with all of the new rules and regulations, and putting us in a position whereby we now comply.
Sandy, as an accredited trainer, has done a lot of invaluable training with our staff: Moving and Handling, Health and Safety, and Fire Safety. Sandy has now secured herself a position with another Group of Care Homes as a Regional Manager. We will all be sorry to see her go, apart from her experience and enthusiasm she is also a very nice person to work with and for. Our very best wishes to you Sandy on your new appointment, but please come back to visit when you can!!
In the meantime, we have been fortunate in recruiting Colleen Messenger to be our permanent General Manager. Colleen and her family moved from Canada this year and are now living in Shipton on Stour in Warwickshire. Colleen comes to us with a wealth of experience in the Care Sector and is set to carry on the good work in maintaining and, where necessary, making improvements to the way in which we deliver care and operate within the Nursing Home. I am sure that you will all join us in welcoming Colleen to our Home. Most of you will already have met her and know what a caring and nice person she is.
Mary Hyam who I am sure you already know has been working here for the past 15 months, and has been appointed Deputy Manager/Clinical Nurse. Mary, and who along with Bill Voyiagis form part of the Nursing Home's Management Team. Our very best wishes to Mary on her new appointment.
All of our Residents now have a named nurse and a key worker (named Care Assistant). This will enable residents or relatives to direct any queries they may have to these people in the first instance.
There are now regular Residents Meetings at which you are encouraged to air any complaints may have, or suggestions for change or indeed words of praise in a relaxed and informal atmosphere - over a cup of tea and a biscuit!!! At the last Meeting held a few days ago, Residents were asked to put forward their suggestions on how to re-vamp the supper menu. All suggestions are most welcome and will be given consideration. Minutes of all of these meetings are available from Colleen's office.
Thank you all for taking the time to complete the Residents Satisfaction Surveys; a summary will be published in the next Newsletter.
Julie, Colleen and Maura will be meeting next week to review the current menus - and there will be changes afoot - watch this space!!
Our new brochure has gone to print at last and will be available very shortly.
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Barbara's Diary
The Jubilee Day Celebrations in London were magnificent - do you remember the crowds, the firework display and the concerts in Buckingham Palace Gardens - they were absolutely wonderful!!
We, too, at Cleeve Hill had a lot of fun. The lounges were decked with Royal paraphernalia - red, white and blue streamers, flags, and a large Royal collage. Relatives were invited to join us for pre-lunch drinks and to take part in a raffle. It was well attended and we raised the first few pounds for the new Residents Fund.
Julie and Mike put on a fantastic spread and presented our Residents with a fabulously tasty cold buffet that was admired and enjoyed by everyone.
The afternoon's entertainment comprised the Bold Baladiers who entertained us with their Victorian Music Hall. Michael, the Tenor has a wonderfully powerful voice, and the musicians too were excellent. The event was so well attended - it was standing room only for many of us! Hopefully we will see more of them probably towards the end of the year.
To complete the afternoon's entertainment, Alma's daughters, Jennie and Charlotte arrived to give a splendid display of twirling (majorette style) - they too were fantastic and received a hearty applause - as did Alma for having the patience in sewing on all of those thousands of sequins that went to make up their costumes.
We also hosted a coffee morning in aid of Winston's Wish, a children's charity. We raised over £30 by way of a plant sale and a competition to name a Teddy. Dr Mike won the competition by naming the bear "Harry". Lucy Bramley, Lilian's granddaughter was a great help at this event, serving up the coffees and biscuits - all part of her work experience - well done Lucy!
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Trips Out
Since I have learned to drive the mini bus we have been out on lots of
trips, enjoying the fresh air and change of scenery. We have also been
extremely lucky with the weather - most of the time, as only one trip
had to be postponed.
The trips have ranged from visiting specific places to round trips into
the countryside if the weather wasn't too good.
Our very first trip was to Toddington Garden Centre where Nora, Phyllis, Mrs Rand and Marjorie helped select pots and seeds for planting in our garden.
Another of our first visits was to see the Gardens in Cheltenham whilst the judging of the Britain in Bloom competition was in progress - you can imagine how lovely they must have looked at that time. We also went to the Imperial Gardens in Cheltenham to see the outdoor art exhibition on a gloriously hot day where we enjoyed eating our ice cream cornets whilst admiring the artwork.
We have also been to Bourton on the Water and watched the children paddling in the water, and to Tewkesbury to sit by the River, whilst enjoying our cups of tea and biscuits.
We have had a couple of trips to Pam Brookes garden. Pam is Nora's daughter, and she made us most welcome when we visited her small, but very beautiful garden. There was so much to look at whilst sitting under the apple tree eating our home made scones with strawberries and cream, drinking our cups of tea, and enjoying the sun.
The Fozel Theatre came in June and performed their We'll Meet Again production
and later, Rob Dee entertained us with his rendition of some of the Golden
Greats.
We have recently been introduced to Tony Harrison, who has now been here
twice to play his "all singing, all dancing" electric organ
- he plays the piano beautifully too! I believe he has been a big hit
with you and is now booked on a monthly basis until Christmas.
Beetle Drives, Quizzes, Flower Arranging, Bingo are still part of our activities schedule and are enjoyed by many.
Hazel Locke continues to host the Arts and Crafts session held in the dining room every Wednesday. To add to the craft activities, Maura has ordered two quick and easy rug making kits for our Residents to make up.
Unfortunately for us, although I'm sure Avril would not agree, we have lost her Exercises to Music slot on a Friday, as she has upped and left for sunnier climes - Spain, in fact. She has a son there who has built a house for her and her husband to live in. We wish them good luck and every good fortune in their new home!
Some of you have been paramount in helping Roger to make our gardens look glorious this summer, albeit we were beginning to wonder whether we would have any show at all with the bad weather at the beginning. However, the sun finally came out, and our summer bedding began to flourish and has given us a great show of colour throughout. Our thanks go to you and, in particular, Floria, who so carefully nurtured the young seedlings and ensured they had plenty of water.
We now belong to the Gloucestershire Home link (Library) Service who visit us every two months to provide us with library books, talking books, large print books. Please let me know if you are interested in using this service.
At the moment Maura is trying to source new entertainers and other forms of activities to vary our existing programme - we'll keep you posted!!
Stop Press!! Don't forget our Cheese and Wine Evening on Thursday, 19 September at 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Relatives are invited to join our Residents for an informal evening. Tony Harrison will be providing some musical entertainment - please try to come along!
Barbara Tarren
My Room 33 With A View
By Tony Dale
I have been travelling up and down since the 1930s and one of my earliest memories is of an Army Convoy from Nottingham to Bournemouth in the spring of 1940 when we spent the night in Winchcombe Workhouse and came over the hill in a hailstorm. The army lorries of those days had no windscreens and the only protection was a canvas sheet to hide behind but left your face open to the elements. After we came to live in Cutsdean in 1969 all our visits to Cheltenham came past the Nursing Home and occasional stops were made at the View Point.
So it was not until I became a resident at the Cleeve Hill Nursing Home that I realised how much more there is to see out west. I knew that Malvern, Tewkesbury and May Hill were all visible, but with a pair of binoculars much more appears!
The view: Starting to the north west The Malverns are obvious and in front of them Tewkesbury Abbey stands on its island. Then, moving south there are the low hills of Red Marley D'Abitot and the hill above Ledbury. Then one of the most interesting is Hay Bluff on the Brecon Beacons and the Welsh border. Another dip at Newent and then May Hill with its crown of trees. Lastly in the southern distance the Forest of Dean and Micheldean. In very clear weather Abergavenny and its Sugar Loaf appear in the dim distance. Cheltenham and Gloucester are hidden behind trees and at night car traffic lights coming through Newent show up.
Night lights: At night the lights of Bishops Cleeve make a pretty pattern as if someone has thrown a handful of stars from the top of Cleeve Common. Most obvious are the flood lights at the Walton Cardiff Golf Range and scattered all round are the various towns and villages as well as the outskirts of Cheltenham and Gloucester, and the Jardiniere Plant Centre (now Blooms) is as obvious as by daylight.
Nearby: On the right of us is Nottingham Hill with its scrub of hawthorn and seasonal flowers during the year and, of course, our own grass terraces with cowslips now having intensive treatment for moss by Roger - the cowslips could in due course cover the down slops entirely.
Aren't we lucky.
Barbara and her daughter raised £200 when they took part in the 24 mile circular walk, although a little worse for wear at the finish where she found that after banging her toes on the stiles, she was sporting two blackened toe nails. Barbara believes they scrambled over nearly one hundred stiles in order to raise the money for the Cleeve Rotary Charities. Well done Barbara - it was all for a good cause!!
In July all staff were invited to a Skittles night which was held at the Cleeve Golf Club. I am happy to say that it was well attended and everyone had a good time. The food and drink were in abundance as was the laughter and heckling when it came to play. A bottle of champagne was the prize for the person with the highest score. There were some novices who enjoyed surprisingly good luck with their scores, considering they were playing with seasoned professionals, or so they said! Among the novices was Nomsa who played magnificently and eventually went on to win the bottle of champagne. She also delighted us with snippets of songs sung in Khosa, a South African language. What a night!
Heather confided that she was going abroad, to Ibiza, for the first time in her life! I am very happy to say that she came back refreshed, and looked gorgeous with her intense suntan after a fantastic time in Ibiza.
Lyn has recently become a grandmother (for the first time) to Joshua born to her son David and daughter in law, Lucy. Congratulations to them all. In addition, Lyn is now the proud owner of Finn, her family's new pet labrador. When shown Finn for the first time, he reminded me of the toilet roll puppy - such a handsome little face!! Let's hope he will visit us some time in the future.
Nomsa has recently returned from her holiday in South Africa with some surprising news - she is now married and her new husband is a teacher. Congratulations, and we wish you both every happiness, Nomsa.
After a long stint at Cleeve Hill Yvonne Naray has left our employment recently to go to work for Mencap. We wish her every success in her new job.
Jackie Barnes, one of our Night RGNs, has decided to retire to spend more time with her family. A small party was held at Lyrell's house where she was presented with a gift from the staff.
After several attempts at hiring a Handyman to replace Bill, we struck it lucky and recruited Andy Carter who is in between jobs and will probably be with us for a while until the right job comes along. Andy is an experienced care worker who has worked with young people with behavioural problems for many years. He has just started his two week holiday in Turkey with his wife Linda.
Lisa Barrett and Karen Wayeta have recently joined us as Care Assistants and Melissa Relf has joined our Domestic Staff. Welcome on board and we hope you enjoy your work at our Home.
Many of us find that our hearing gets more difficult as the years go by.
When mine got weaker I began to think of the beauty of sound.
One day when passing a school playground the children were out there and I thought there was no other sound on earth quite like this and wrote these few lines:
Beauty in Sound
What in all the world is the most beautiful sound?
Children fleetingly freed in a school playground.
Or the glorious blend of melody in a Cathedral choir
Lifting the roof it seems even higher?
The sound of Beethoven, Handel, Brahms or Mozart
Which moves the mind and flesh or tears the heart?
Perhaps a child's voice as he holds your hand
Or his tinkling laughter as he plays with bucket and sand?
The voice of a loved one returned after endless time
Intoxicating the senses like drinking too much wine
Or the wind in the trees that shows its splendid might
By making music to lull you to sleep at night?
Stanley Dagley-Morris
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I would like to take this opportunity to thank Barbara, Tony and Dagley for their articles published in this Newsletter.
Please don't forget we are more than happy to receive any snippets of information, poems, reminiscences our Residents and Staff may have to be published in our Newsletters.
Maura