Activities at Laurel Bank Care Home

Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together at Laurel Bank Care Home to enjoy a Summer Fete that was held in the home’s grounds on Thursday 20th August.

Although families and friends of the home were unable to attend due to Covid restrictions, staff felt that the least they could for the residents after such a tough year was to throw a big party to celebrate the success of Laurel Bank over the past 6 months.

Laurel Bank hosted a variety of activities throughout the day, including a seaside sing-along, a Punch & Judy Show, beach picnic food including candy floss and ice cream, and a free promise raffle for all of the residents. The larger prizes involved promises from the different departments and staff members, including Afternoon Tea with the Manager Lyndsay Scott, a pampering afternoon with the Activity Department and a full Spring clean from the Housekeepers.

Staff at Laurel Bank in Lancaster were delighted when Lois Crowe and Rosie Hallat completed their training to become a Care Practitioner, a new role which will enable them to support nurses in the home.

The Care Practitioner role has been introduced by Barchester Healthcare, the organisation that runs the home, in order to further develop talented care staff and enable them to give more support to the nurses working at the home.

Lois and Rosie are the most recent staff members at the home to complete the course and they are already making a big difference to maintaining and developing its standard of care.

If only the gym was this much fun!   Resident’s thoroughly enjoyed a recent chair based exercise class at Laurel Bank when the parachute came out!  Making exercise fun encourages everybody to get involved and this certainly did the trick, with howls of laughter every time a staff member ran underneath the parachute. Keeping active and healthy is as important as ever at the moment, and the classes are always a good laugh!

Laurel Bank resident Joan celebrated her 95th birthday this month and had a wonderful time. Her family visited her in the garden in the morning and then had a lovely birthday sing-along to all the classics from the 1930’s and ‘40’s with other residents in the afternoon. Joan said “I never thought I’d enjoy my 95th birthday so much , especially with everything that’s going on at the moment. However, my family spoiled me to bits and the staff went all out to make it special, so I’d like to thank them all!” Happy Birthday Joan!”

New chef, Chris Richardson has been cooking up a storm at Laurel Bank with a brand new menu for the summer season. Dishes include new takes on old favourites, such as the delicious Bread and Butter Pudding pictured, and some completely new ideas to keep the food varied and interesting, such as this Tuna Steak served with Dauphinoise Potatoes, Blanched Green Beans and a Hand Cut Salsa. Delicious!

Congratulations to Jamie Hodgson, who has been named as a Divisional Winner in the 2020 Barchester Care Awards. Jamie is a finalist in the Activities Coordinator of the Year category and has been invited to attend a virtual awards ceremony on 8th October, where he will find out if he has won overall.