With the ongoing restrictions in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, we have had to be creative in finding other ways to connect with care home residents and support staff. Here are some of things we've been up to:
Sensory Knitted Aquariums
This is a great opportunity for the local community to bring joy to care home residents during this challenging season and let them know that we have not forgotten them. We are creating colourful, sensory knitted aquariums for local care homes, so if you enjoy knitting or crochet and want to get involved do get in touch.
Helping residents stay connected
We understand that this is a time of heart ache for residents and loved ones who can no longer spend physical time together. At the start of the pandemic, with a grant from Richmond Parish Lands Charity, we were able to distribute 20 Android tablets to care homes across the Borough of Richmond, to help enable residents to stay connected with their loved ones, with the help of staff. Some of our volunteers are also able to connect with residents through online games like Word with Friends, or letter writing. One care home wrote:
"The tablets that arrived have become such a life line in these difficult times. All of our residents now have video calls with their relatives weekly, and some more than that. These calls are made with the help of our activities team and they have become an activity that all the residents look forward to."
"The tablets that arrived have become such a life line in these difficult times. All of our residents now have video calls with their relatives weekly, and some more than that. These calls are made with the help of our activities team and they have become an activity that all the residents look forward to."
Using Alexa devices
We wanted to do more to enable residents and their loved ones to connect. It's time consuming for staff to supervise video calls, so inevitably they are limited. We heard about relatives using Alexa devices to "drop in" on their loved ones in care homes, without the need for staff to supervise each call. We did some crowdfunding and raised £1,800 to buy some devices, which are now in the process of distributing...
