Activities at Collingtree Park Care Home

Our monthly dementia friendly café for residents as well as members of the local community takes place on the first Wednesday of each month. To celebrate National 'Playday' this month's community café focused on the importance of 'play' as a child, and in later life.

We marked the occasion with a selection of interactive games for guests to play and afternoon tea to enjoy. Joined by VIP guests; Mayor of Northampton, Cllr Paul Joyce and Mayoress, Mylissa our café was a welcoming space for carers in the community and their loved ones who may be living with dementia to play retro games and take time to reminisce about 'playtime' with friends.

Cllr Paul Joyce and Mylissa fully immersed themselves in all activities, leading the ‘Play Your Cards Right’ game and trying all the other games on offer with residents, staff and guests. Mayoress, Mylissa was a master at ‘5-Jacks’ and the smell of ‘Play-Doh’ took us all down memory lane as we chatted together about life at school, and how our residents would keep their children entertained during the holidays.

During the afternoon the amazing Sparky & Sprite Entertainment singing duo had everyone up and dancing to songs from the Past to Present day. Attendees enjoyed a complimentary afternoon tea with homemade refreshments courtesy of Chef Jennifer and the homes hospitality team.

General Manager Rosalyn James said: “Today’s café was full of brew-tea-full fun and energy that our VIP guests made even more special. The power of play with friends at its best! One of our residents; Betty had a special conversation with the Mayor and Mayoress about growing up and living in Northampton that absolutely made her day!”

Dedicated to our residents and members of our local community who are carers for loved ones who are living with dementia, our next café will take place on Wednesday 4th September between 2.30-4pm.

Two of our amazing Care Assistants have this month received their prestigious Long Service Awards in celebration of working at Barchester Healthcare for a combined 30 years! Rowena Crisostomo and Widya Lilley joined the Barchester family at Collingtree Park as Care Assistants in August 2004, and 2014 respectively. Both have worked with residents and their relatives to ensure that their needs have been met over the years.

Adele Keenan, Employee Services Director at Barchester said: “I’m always pleased to hear stories about the long service of Barchester staff and am delighted Rowena has achieved this 20-year milestone, and Widya her 10-year service award. It is dedication like this that ensures our residents are provided with a happy place to live.”

General Manager, Roz said: “We’re so proud to have these wonderful ladies part of the Collingtree Park care team, their knowledge, experience and loyalty to our home and its residents year after year has been exemplary. I speak for all of us here at Collingtree Park when I say that I’m looking forward to many more years of working with them both!”

Our second birthday girl today was the fabulous Freda, who was joined in the sunny Collingtree Park gardens by her loved ones and presented with her freshly baked celebration cake by Chef Jennifer.

Happy birthday from everyone at Collingtree Park, we hope you enjoyed your special day.

Please join us in saying Happy Birthday to the beautiful Betty who enjoyed tea, cake and a selection of sing-a-long songs with her fellow residents and staff. Betty loved watching everyone dancing saying... "All this fuss is nothing to do with me!"

We hope you've had the happiest of birthday's Betty.

We've been celebrating our CQC success following a recent Care Quality Commission inspection, we received an overall ‘Good’ rating after being praised for operating a safe, effective, responsive and well-led service.

The CQC published its report in July and rated the home, run by Barchester Healthcare, as ‘Good’ overall. https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-125855782

The report stated that residents at the home received good quality person-centred care and were supported by kind, caring staff who helped them live as independently as possible. A staff member commented: “We use a whole team approach which means staff are flexibly deployed across the home, everyone is fully trained and staff help each other out.

Staff gathered together in the homes beautiful gardens to party, and celebrated with FREE pizza courtesy of their friends at Tops Pizza Northampton.

Residents reported that they were very happy living at the home, comments included: “There are lots of choices, we can make our own decisions and keep our independence."

Relatives were very complimentary about the home and the staff, comments included: “The staff are fantastic, they will do anything for my relative and they are very good at telling me what is happening.” Another relative said: “We are very happy with the service, there are lots of opportunities for feedback.”

Rosalyn James, General Manager at Collingtree Park Care Home said: “We are absolutely thrilled that Collingtree Park has been rated ‘Good’ following the CQC’s most recent inspection.

It is fantastic to have the hard work and dedication of everyone here recognised, we have a wonderful team here and I am incredibly proud of each and every one of them.”

What an amazing day!

Staff and residents from Collingtree Park joined a convoy of Barchester minibuses bringing residents, family members and friends together at Chacombe Park Care Home - Barchester Healthcare in Oxfordshire to enjoy their first Regional Community BBQ held in the home’s grounds on Tuesday 30th July, 2024.

The event; brainchild of Hannah Boscott, Divisional Activities Lead required military precision to organise. With activity, hospitality and maintenance teams working together from a total of 9 Barchester care homes across the Central division.

Each care home had their particular provision to bring, from the well-stocked Tiki bar to the various garden games, delicious side dishes, puddings and entertainers.

Guests included friends and family to the residents and staff from each home. Everyone enjoyed a morning of poetry reading, mingling with residents from other homes, playing games with children and even soaking some senior members of the team in the stocks!

For lunch, there were a selection of cocktails, a BBQ and the obligatory Ice Cream van to keep everyone nice and cool in the summer sun. After lunch, everyone swung and sang out to local Saxophonist Alan Hook.

Collingtree Park Resident Ambassadors; Pam and Nannette were over the moon and so pleased with the entire day. Pam said "It was wonderful to meet everyone from the other homes, everyone was so kind and helpful".