Activities at Derham House Care Home

We are Christmas ready at Derham House!

We have finally switched our Christmas lights on. A big thank you to Derek who switched the lights on during his last night of respite stay with us before heading home.

We have been very fortunate this year with the support that has come from the local community. We have had builders donating Christmas trees, local residents donating decorations, a local artist painted our windows, Branfil primary school sent us cards and artwork for our walls, our residents helped create Memory trees and our Activities Team hand-built the wooden Nutcracker soldiers.

Most importantly, everyone has pulled together to make Derham House look fantastic this year! Make sure you check out the videos we have posted on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BarchesterDerhamHouse

This week saw the return of some live entertainment to Derham House.

Utilising our new Covid-secure room to invite Carly Callaghan in to entertain the residents with a medley of songs including Christmas tunes. Carly has been a favourite of the residents from past performances and we very pleased to have her back again.

The Covid-secure room will allow a range of entertainers to visit and bring joy to the home.

The first visit in our designated visiting suite has finally occurred.

Smiles, tears and laughter for residents and their loved ones as they finally get to use the visiting suite at Derham House. This fantastic facility will allow longed for visits to start again.

It was Elf Day at Derham House and the team did not disappoint! 

There were a dozen elves throughout the home getting up to all sorts of antics and generally bringing a smile to the faces of our residents. One resident insisted on being right in the middle of it all to show his family how much of a good laugh the day has been. 

Elf Day is a national event organised by Alzheimer’s UK. 

Lest We Forget.

Remembrance Day at Derham House was honoured in a different way this year. Whilst we were unable to attend the services being held locally, we were still able to watch the national events and hold our two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour. 

Our residents also reminisced with staff about Remembrance Day events of their past, as well as remembering the some of the key conflicts of the last century. 

Residents are overjoyed at Derham House care home in Upminster, as Barchester Healthcare has implemented an indoor visiting suite for residents to continue to spend time with their loved ones in the upcoming months.  

There has been much careful planning and preparation for this moment. The visiting suite has been designed with both comfort and safety in mind, and has been recently adapted from a room which is accessible internally by residents and externally by visitors. The room is similar to a living room with comfortable furnishings, and heated to create a welcoming and warm environment, and has an intercom system fitted, so residents can clearly communicate, and engage in conversation, whilst being able to see their friends and family through a Perspex glass divider, fitted for safety to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Infection control protocols and safe social distancing are in place for every visit, including a hand sanitizer station before entry. Cleaning at Derham House care home will take place after each visit to ensure chairs, seats, hard surfaces including windowsills, and the Perspex glass divider are wiped down appropriately.

Crina Lee, General Manager, said: “The visiting suite has been a much welcomed development for our residents at Derham House to continue to receive much looked forward to visits from their loved ones, as the weather changes. The indoor visiting suite visits are well organised, and a lot of safety measures have been put in place to ensure they are Covid-secure. It will be wonderful to see how happy it makes the residents and their relatives in a warm and cosy environment.”

The visiting suite is expected to go live later this week with the families of residents being contacted via letter and email to explain the new online booking system.