Engaging Activities Archive at Manor House

A welcome return for our relative’s meeting

At long last we have been able to welcome relatives into The Manor House for a relative’s meeting! The last couple of years have been testing for everyone as the priority has and indeed remains keeping everyone safe from Covid-19. As such we have been unable to host group relative’s meetings. We have spoken with people individually, held Teams meetings and of course offered visiting in a safe manor when guidelines have allowed us to, but nothing quite beats getting friends and family all together for a chat.

It was great to see so many people join us in The Hub on Wednesday 23^rd March to have a catch up over tea and biscuits and talk about everything that’s happening at The Manor House.

These relative’s meetings are the perfect forum for people to ask questions, talk to the team, find out about our plans and what’s coming up for activities, any changes in personnel and really feel close and involved with the care. But more importantly, it’s a chance to make friends, and meet other people who have a family member or close friend living at The Manor House.

Jodie McVay, Managing Director says, “it’s wonderful to get everyone together like this to discuss everything happening at The Manor House and provide a platform for relatives to have conversations and talk openly to us. We fully understand that the decision to move a relative into a permanent Nursing Home is not easy, and that relatives miss their loved one therefore to be able to make friends and meet people who are experiencing the same feelings and spend time with the team here helps, and we want to provide a service whereby people can talk to us and each other – our care is for a whole family and we do everything we can to support both our residents and their loved ones through this journey.”

We look forward to seeing even more relatives at our next group meeting.

Graduation Day

Huge congratulations to Martin Pedley and Jyoti Sodhi who have recently graduated their NVQ level 2 course in Health and Social Care.

Martin, a Senior Care Assistant and Jyoti, Acting Senior Care Assistant attended the graduation ceremony in October along with Managing Director Jodie to receive their certificates.

Both are now going on to work towards their level 3. Jayne Wood, Director of Nursing commented, “we are very proud of Martin and Jyoti, both approach their work and their studies with incredible commitment and determination. Having the right training and qualifications to support career progression and ensure staff have the necessary skills to complete their jobs well is essential, and at The Manor House Nursing Home we support our staff through their studies through hands on training and advice and knowledge sharing from more experienced members of the team.”

If you would like to find out about job opportunities at The Manor House, please click here or call us on 01785 250600.

Happy Birthday Ian

This Sunday marked a very special occasion here at the Manor House as the family of one of our residents, Ian, were able to join him for a Birthday Party here in The Hub.

It’s no secret that the last 17 months have been tough on everyone due to limitations on visiting due to Covid-19. To be able to see families together like this at The Manor House made this an extra special day – I think it’s safe to say there was a lot of emotion from both the family and the staff.

Thank you to Ian’s family for reaching out to us to allow us to make the necessary arrangements for you to be able to hold this party in The Hub. We understand families want to be together and to see Ian, surrounded by family, back with his wife Joyce who was a former resident at the Manor House but has recently been able to move home was truly joyous.

Ian’s daughters said

“We just wanted to thank everyone involved in organising our birthday party for Dad yesterday. We all had a really lovely time, and the high tea was amazing!

Dad really enjoyed his party and clapped along when we all sang Happy Birthday to him. We also made a playlist of a lot of his favourite songs, and he loved that. Mum also got emotional when she saw so many of us there.

It was a great afternoon, thank you all so much”

Feedback like this means everything to us. We will always do everything we can to accommodate your requests and if we can support a family reunion like this, we most certainly will!

Birthday celebrations at the manor house nursing home — Ian shares his birthday with his family

manor house birthday party

Congratulations Martin!

Senior Care Assistant Martin Pedley’s hard work and determination has been recognised with an award from Stafford College.

Martin, who joined the Manor House in August 2015 has completed his NVQ2 in HSC and is now working towards level 3 including Medication Management, will attend a prestigious ceremony at Stafford County Showground in September to receive the award.

Glenys Green, Health & Social Care Assessor/IQA from Newcastle and Stafford college Group said, “The senior management team have organised a Celebration Awards night to celebrate those that have gone above and beyond during their course, particularly with the year and half we have had with regards to Covid, because as I am sure you know it has not been easy for anyone.

As staff we were asked to nominate someone who we felt was a worthy candidate for these awards and although I have a lot of worthy candidates, I just felt that Martin had the edge due to what he has experienced, the challenges he has come across with his own learning barriers and how much he has developed during the course. I am delighted that he has won an award!”

Jayne Wood, Registered Manager at the Manor House said, “he is a worthy winner, and he should be proud of what he has achieved. Martin puts the same dedication and commitment to is studies as he does here at the Nursing Home. He doesn’t let having dyslexia hold him back and he has grown from strength to strength. Well done Martin! We are very much looking forward to joining you at the award ceremony in September.”

Jodie McVay, Managing Director added, “supporting our staff through their studies is something we are very passionate about at the Manor House, and to see one of our staff receive such very well-deserved recognition is wonderful. We thank Stafford College for acknowledging Martin’s hard work”

Thank you Liz!

Liz, a member of the Care Staff Team here at The Manor House recently took part in a guess how many Jellybeans in the jar competition organised by Karisa Healthcare, promoting Dementia Action Week. Liz won and very kindly brought in the amazing price which consisted of a hamper full of books and activities, and of course the jar of jellybeans – which our residents have thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you, Liz, for donating your prize to us!

Member of the care team donates

The front exterior of Manor House displaying a charming brick building with a striking blue entrance labelled 'Main Reception', flanked by flowering plants in large pots, creating a welcoming atmosphere for residents and visitors.

Our new monthly online relatives’ meeting

We’ve just launched our first ever online relatives’ meeting. This is a chance for relatives to all meet, online and catch up with the management team at The Manor House. As the feedback has been very positive, we will be holding these monthly from now on. All relatives will get the chance to submit items for the agenda in advance of the meeting.

As well as discussing anything of importance to you, we can give relatives updates about what is happening at The Manor House, tell you any plans for events, changes for visiting in line with Government Guidelines for Covid-19 and everything else it is important for our relatives to know. The meeting is also a chance for a relative to share their thoughts, we know it isn’t easy for relatives having someone they love reside in a Care Home, and hopefully seeing faces and talking with other people offers some level of support.

For any more personal questions that relatives would not wish to discuss in an open forum our phones are always manned so there is never a need to wait for a meeting for any questions you may have; we are always here and happy to talk.

Labelling clothes

When someone comes into The Manor House Nursing Home, we always recommend that all items of their clothing are labelled. We ensure our residents clothes are cleaned in our laundry regularly and we want to ensure all clothes are returned to their rightful owner.

Please don’t panic that you need to spend hours sewing in labels like once was the only option. If sewing in pre-made name labels is your go to choice then there is no denying they usually serve the test of time and multiple washes, However, there are now a number of quick and easy ways of labelling clothes.

Here’s our guide to labelling with a few links for where you can buy….

Iron on – you can order your iron-on labels which come printed with a full name, simply peel them off and iron-on to the clothes or clothes label. They can be a bit fiddly and make sure you take extra care with the iron, but they come out looking very clear and last well. You can also get stick on labels which work exactly the same way as a sticker if you’d rather not use the iron, however they don’t tend to last as long and can begin to peel at the edges.

Laundry pen – a permanent maker laundry pen like a Sharpie you can pick up in places like Asda and Tesco or order online from amazon is ideal for quickly writing names onto labels, but watch out as on some clothes labels the ink can bleed and become very difficult to read.

Button on – a bit of an unknown product in the labelling world is the reusable button name tags which are laser etched with the name you require and applied in one-click to the garments care tag. They are secure and do not tend to fade in the wash and can be reusable if required with a new back.

So, there you have it – lots of choice in the art of labelling! As with everything if you have any questions, please call us.

Activities