Activities at Elm Bank Care Home

The wonderful young students Hall Meadow Primary School marked Mental Health Awareness Week by creating some beautiful kindness cards for the residents at Elm Bank.

This year’s theme is anxiety and how it can get out of control and become a mental health problem. The delivery of these brightly designed cards with hand written words of kindness certainly lifted the sprits of our residents and staff.

General Manager, Katie Hudson, said: “Mental Health Awareness Week is a really worthwhile initiative. Our activities team and staff have spent time with our residents to read the kind words from the children.

We thank them for thinking of us and continuing to find ways to stay connected, and look forward to their next visit. Hopefully this will be the start of a regular PenPal scheme with our residents already starting to write back."

What a wonderful performance by the Starlight Dance & Musical Theatre School in Kettering; CLUEDOWHODOH!

Resident; Norma had a marvellous time on Saturday night being part of the audience watching the young Starlight performers in this high energy production based around everyone’s favourite board games including Monopoly, Cluedo and even Buckeroo!

It was Norma’s wish to attend a show after meeting Activities Assistant; Emily’s daughter Lacey and talking to her about her Dance school last summer.

Norma absolutely loves it when local children visit the home and dance for our residents, always commenting “it reminds me of when I used to dance”.

We’d like to send a big THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to the performers’ Starlight Kettering for putting on such a super show, choreographed and directed by Jacc Batch BA(hons).

On Monday 15th May 2023, staff and residents at Elm Bank care home in Kettering marked the launch of ‘Dementia Action Week’ alongside Mayor of Kettering; Cllr Keli Watts with the opening of our monthly Dementia Friendly Community Café. 

Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning – thinking, remembering, reasoning – which can affect a person’s day to day life and activities. Functions that can be impacted are memory, language skills, visual perception, problem solving, self-management and the ability to focus and pay attention. The number of people living with dementia in the UK is forecast to increase to over 1m.

Joined by Cllr Keli Watts on what would be her final Mayoral engagement for the year. Residents, staff and guests enjoyed playing games and chatting together over café snacks prepared by Sophie and the home’s hospitality team.

During the fun-filled day Cllr Watts had the opportunity to meet with Elm Bank’s oldest female resident; the wonderful Doris who, at 102 years-young happens to have the same birthday as Mayor Keli!

General Manager, Katie Hudson, said: “We want to thank Cllr Watts and everyone who joined us launch Dementia Action Week and support our efforts in turning Kettering Blue by wearing blue in recognition of all those living with dementia and donated to the cause by purchasing cakes from our pop-up stall.

We know the importance of supporting our local community, the café is fully complimentary and a great way to relax, make new friends and find out information about Alzheimer’s and dementia from our specially trained staff and guest speakers.

Save the date of next months café in your diary 19/06/23; we look forward to welcoming you.”

In 2023, the theme for International Nurses’ Day is... Our Nurses. Our Future. 

International Nurses’ Day is a day to give thanks for the dedication of care givers everywhere, who go above and beyond the call of duty to deliver extraordinary care and support.

On Friday 12th May, in celebration of Florence Nightingale’s birthday and founder of modern nursing our General Manager; Katie Hudson had the opportunity to meet some wonderful nurses across the local community, nurses who provide support to our residents and countless others in and around Kettering.

Everyone at Elm Bank care home sends you the biggest thank you on International Nurses Day. We all hope you enjoy the home-made cakes and goodies.

The Residents and staff at Elm Bank care home marked the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in style by throwing a 1940s afternoon tea party to remember.

The home was decorated in red, white and blue and residents and staff dressed up in their 1940s-inspired glad rags and enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment courtesy of singing sensation; Fiona Harrison - A Voice in a Million

We all observed the national two minute silence and our residents reminisced about their memories of VE Day. Among the hundreds paying their respects across the country was Elm Bank resident and Second World War veteran 95-year-old Bill Gristwood.

Mr Gristwood joined the Navy at the age of 16 years and 9 months. He saw 6 months’ war service, spending VE Day in Malta and VJ Day in Sydney. The day meant a lot to Bill, many residents were singing along to war time songs, including Bill who knew the words perfectly!

Head chef, Sharntelle Hall whipped up a delicious selection of freshly-baked biscuits, sandwiches, cakes and pastries for the occasion, all washed down with pots of tea and a celebratory glass of fizz to mark the occasion.

Katie Hudson, General Manager at Elm Bank said: “Many of our residents can remember the end of the war and we all know what it meant for our country so we wanted to celebrate the date and listen to our residents’ memories of the war and the experiences they lived through.”

What a wonderful Coronation Weekend we had to celebrate King Charles III.

Saturday was spent watching the Coronation on TV and reminiscing with friends. On Sunday we invited our families along for a Coronation Picnic, with live entertainment from Steve Carmel, a Coronation Quiz and Coronation Bingo.

Thank you to all the families who came along and to the staff for all their hard work and dedication over the weekend.

We hope you all had a great weekend too.