Manor House Care Home: Enriching Lives Every Day

Now Open, Coppenhall Unit for adults with complex mental health needs.

We have recently extended our range of services to allow the Manor House to care for adults living with complex mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, personality disorder, and bipolar affective disorder, as well as adults living with mental health conditions brought on by substance misuse.

Our fully equipped and recently refurbished Coppenhall Unit, located within the CDL building, has ensuite bedrooms, lounge and dining areas and access to our secure, beautiful gardens.

Supported by our 24-hour specialist mental health care team, individuals receive a personal care plan; following initial assessment and collaboration with external professionals, including social workers and psychiatric nurses, doctors and, of course, the family, a personal care plan is created for each new resident, creating pathways for positive outcomes for each individual service-user and their needs. From here, and following admission, our team take the time to get further to know the residents, to understand them, and to help them and to support them to live an enriched and fulfilled life, to understand any triggers for challenging behaviours and to create support strategies to help residents manage them.

As with every resident at the Manor House, our service users who reside in Coppenhall still receive everything the home offers that supports their wellbeing, including working with our activities team, who are on hand 365 days a year to offer suitable and varied activities for residents to get involved with from bingo to dancing, crafts to baking or more focussed one to one engaged activities depending on the needs of the individual.

Jayne Woods, Registered Manager & Director of Nursing, said, “we’re really happy to have been able to extend our services to support adults living with complex and at times challenging mental health conditions. The nurses and care assistants based within Coppenhall have a wonderful ability to get to know and take the time to understand the residents and help each of them individually on their journey to allow them to live a happily and safely.

We support our community in Stafford and the surrounding areas by offering a home to people with complex mental health needs and ensuring they are well cared for. We are here to help people in crisis and provide positive behaviour support plans centred around the needs of the individual but also, through offering them a safe environment to live in, we are also supporting their family. We encourage visiting and invite friends and family to come in as often as they can to visit on a one-to-one or join in with our many events.”

You can contact us for further information on 01785 250600

Introducing Doll therapy

We are introducing doll therapy into our suite of activities and support sessions at The Manor House. Research has shown that many people with dementia are soothed and comforted by holding a doll or a soft animal.

We regularly bring in animals and pets for our residents to stroke or hold as this brings both joy and feelings of calm and comfort and now have introduced the use of dolls.

Doll therapy is not ‘playing with dolls’ as it may first appear, as with all of our activities these are provided to offer different types of benefits. The introduction of dolls is a form of therapy that is intended to promote feelings of relaxation and pleasure and can be particularly beneficial to someone feeling anxious.

Holding a doll can be very soothing and often takes people back to a time when they had young children of their own which invokes feelings of content, calm and happiness. As well as holding a dolls, giving residents the chance to care for a doll can give someone with dementia a sense of purpose which impacts their energy levels and mood.

As with all of our activities, they are introduced gradually and appropriately for every resident, we explain why they are there and encourage residents to take part in the activity alongside the Activities Team and Healthcare Assistants.

Jayne Wood, Director of Nursing said, “we’re hoping the introduction of doll therapy will be another activity that can offer improved wellbeing amongst many of our residents in the way we see when we bring in pets and animals. Every new therapy we introduce is backed up by research and evidence to have a positive impact on the overall wellbeing of our residents.”

Meet the team: our Healthcare Assistants

Our Senior Healthcare Assistants

We have a team of Healthcare Assistants and Senior Healthcare Assistants at the Manor House whose role is exactly as the job title suggests – to care. This care covers everything from assisting with washing and dressing, assisting residents in moving around the home, nutrition including meals, drinks and snacks including keeping a comprehensive log of every resident’s consumption, as well as spending time with the residents supporting the activities team, chatting with them, sharing stories and anecdotes, singing and dancing and ensuring their happiness and comfort within the home.

We chatted to two of our Senior Healthcare Assistants to find out a little bit more…

Sarah Evans has worked in care for 27years, having worked with elderly people as a youngster, after her children were grown up, she returned to care and hasn’t looked back. Sarah has worked at several nursing homes in Stafford and joined the Manor House 3 years ago as a Care Assistant on the Mental Health Unit. Sarah has recently been promoted and works on the General Nursing Unit.

Sarah says, “I love looking after people. The people here have in the most part lived a long life and done everything for others or perhaps raised a family, now it is their turn to be looked after and I find it a privilege to spend this time of someone’s life with them. It’s the last and most important thing you can do for someone, and I find it an honour to spend this time with our residents.”

Diane Wright has nearly 40 years’ experience as a carer. Like Sarah she has worked in a number of care and nursing homes across Staffordshire and has been with the Manor House for over 15 years. Diane works on the Mental Health Unit.

Diane says, “doing this job brings a reward that comes from the heart. It’s the kind of job I would do as a volunteer if I could, getting to know our residents and care for them in their hour of need is incredible fulfilling. Also, at the Manor House I feel incredibly supported, we are one family, and this is everything from the comprehensive training to the equipment, for example we all receive manual handling training, and, every room has a hoist we are all trained to use meaning we can move residents in a way that is safe for both them and us.”

Diane and Sarah are both currently undergoing their Level 5 training to become nursing assistants as part of the Manor House’s commitment to ongoing training and development of the team.

If you would like to join the team and discover how rewarding a career in care can be we’d love to hear from you. Our latest vacancies can be found here.

Meet the team: Unit Manager Bertha

Read about Bertha and find out about working life for our Unit Managers

Bertha joined the Manor House nursing home in 2015 as a registered nurse and has since been promoted to Unit Manager.

Bertha is a highly experienced medical professional, having qualified in 2013 from Buckingham University then working with people with specialist needs such as epilepsy in Slough and as a nurse at the Royal Stoke Hospital.

Bertha says of the Manor House,

it feels like a second home coming to work here, it’s such a lovely team who work together to look after each other and everyone who lives here

Bertha has a very varied role and can be found in all units across the home. Bertha’s day typically consists of completing a comprehensive handover, checking in on residents, completing medical rounds, reviewing care plans and any health issues that need to be address such as dressings, taking bloods if required, re-stocking medication and auditing medication, and taking the time to sit with residents. Bertha continues,

my role is really varied, the clinical side always comes first and foremost to ensure all of our residents are cared for, but alongside that is the wonderful time we get to spend alongside the Healthcare assistants with the residents that makes this so much more than a job and why it feels like being in my second home, it’s truly rewarding job and I could never imagine being anywhere else.

If you’d like to join our team, find our current vacancies and apply here.

DanceSing on Demand: Staff Wellbeing

The wellbeing of our team is incredibly important to us which is why as well as launching DanceSing for the team to enjoy with residents, we have also invested in their ‘on Demand’ programme for our staff to use. Every member of our team now has access to a pool of resources they can enjoy at work or at home with their families.

Angela Sands, Director of Operations said, “we are like a family here, we care deeply about our residents and about each other, therefore it’s essential we look after every single member of our team. At the staff launch of DanceSing, the smiles across the team, the feeling of togetherness and the energy from the room was palpable; the launch alone demonstrated the impact on someone’s wellbeing this can have.

We will be actively encouraging the team to use the package available to them now. We’ll seek their feedback throughout the trial and as long as the team find it valuable to them, DanceSing will remain a resource our staff can access on a permanent basis.

Natalie Garry said, “the beauty of DanceSing is it is an inclusive, intergenerational, feel-good wellbeing experience that can be used anytime, anywhere”

Angela added, “We don’t need to run marathons to add physical activity into our lives, and there is a proven link between activity and our overall well-being, our intention is to support our team at work and at home, whenever they need a little boost or as part of a daily routine. The beauty is this programme offers so much variety so everyone should be able to find something that makes them smile”.

Find out more about working at The Manor House Nursing home here.

Well done Connie

Our resident Connie has been working hard alongside our dedicated dieticians to manage her weight and has lost a very impressive 1 stone.

At The Manor House, someone’s diet and nutritional intake is a key part of their care. Whether a resident is struggling to consume proper meals or needs to gain weight following a period of illness or, whether their health would benefit from losing a little weight, our team of experts carefully plan meals to ensure every resident receives what they need as part of their individual care plan.

All meals are made here at The Manor House by our chef in our on-site kitchen. As well as nutritionally balanced meals we can offer fortified build-up shakes, nutritionally balanced finger foods, or meals that need to be pureed to ensure a resident can eat them. We pay close attention to details too, with pureed meals for example, we then re-shape and mould the food to look like the original meal.

Jayne Wood, Director of Nursing said, “Well done Connie! Delivering effective Nursing Care is multi-layered and nutrition plays a vital role in everyone’s wellbeing, which is why we are passionate about ensuring every resident receives exactly what they need to support their health needs. Managing someone’s weight whether sustaining, gaining, or losing requires as much focus as administering medication, our dedicated Nutrition Champion and chefs work really hard to ensure residents receive the food and drinks they need.”

Team Training

As part of The Manor House’s commitment to the ongoing training and development of our team, five carers have recently completed and passed a 3-day course followed by comprehensive assessment in ‘Moving and Handling, Train the Trainers’, meaning they now have the qualifications and knowledge to train other members of the team. We now have a total of 7 members of staff who are qualified to train others in ‘Moving and Handling’.

At The Manor House, every single member of staff must complete ‘Moving and Handling’ as part of their induction which must be completed before they can begin working anywhere within the home. The ability to move a resident carefully and safely, whether it’s helping them to move from a bed to a chair, get dressed, use the bathroom, or walk, it is essential that the person responsible knows the techniques to use to keep the resident comfortable, but also to ensure care is taken to not injure themselves in the process.

Jodie McVay, Managing Director said, “congratulations to all five who passed the course and can now help to train others in this essential safety task within the home.”

This means everything…

This means everything to us…

To all staff, we would like to thank you for all of the love and care that has been given to (name removed for data protection) since he has been with you; this has been the best care home he has been in. We always thought he was well looked after at all times. He settled I this home. Thank you for you care and support given to the family.

To all staff, we are so thankful and grateful for all of the care and compassion you gave.

You are all diamonds.

We regularly receive lovely thank you cards and gifts. And, whilst we do not do this job for the thanks it means the world to the team to know we have helped. For families to take the time during a very tough period to write to us means everything to the team who we always share your cards with.

Every member of our team becomes deeply attached to our residents and their families. We are here to help, and to care. To know that we have helped someone to settle, to be comfortable, well cared for and to support the family through a difficult time is the reason we all come to work every day. To the families of our residents – thank you for trusting us to take care of the people you love so dearly and giving us chance to become part of your family.

Health Care