Activities at North Park Care Home

Across our services, Residents enjoyed a fantastic virtual tour of the Donkey Sanctuary Manchester.  Residents were thrilled to meet the lovely herd of donkeys, including Henry and his best friend Tiny Tim and to learn more about their every day care.  They were introduced to the sanctuary’s work and the impact they make to the lives of donkeys in need worldwide.  The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all.

Brian Jolley of North Park Care Centre in Darlington has received a prestigious Fifteen Year Service Award in celebration of his work for the Royal British Legion.  Brian served as a Sargent in the Royal Corps of Signals, in Aden, Yemen and Germany before finishing his 22 year service at Catterick before moving to Darlington. Brian went to the monthly meetings at The Royal Signals Association in Darlington where he began selling poppies in conjunction with the Royal British Legion.  Brian and his wife of 58 years Barbara, who also sold poppies with him, were presented with their certificates of achievement by John Findlay and Stephen Brown of the Royal British Legion in front of family members’ and residents at North Park Care Centre.

Residents at North Park are designing their own memory boxes to keep items which are precious and meaningful to them.  Using shoe boxes that were brought in by team members, residents are using different types of media to perfect their own creations while having lots of fun.

North Park Care Centre on I’Anson Street in Darlington passed a recent Care Quality Commission inspection with an overall “Good” rating after being praised for a responsive, safe, effective, caring and well-led service.  The CQC inspected the home on 14/09/2022 (the report was released on 05/10/2022 and rated the home, run by Barchester Healthcare, as “Good” overall.

The report stated that there were, “There were systems in place for communicating with people, their relatives and staff regarding peoples care and support. The environment was clean, safe and maintained to a good standard. It was also adapted to people’s needs with individualised risk assessments in place to ensure people could take risks safely.”

Residents and staff at North Park care Centre in Darlington got together on Sunday 2nd October to watch the thousands of brave runners taking part in the 2022 London Marathon and to see if they could spot any familiar faces or creative costumes amongst the competitors.  Marathon fans North Park Care Centre were delighted to watch staff join in the fun by linking virtually to the marathon and taking part themselves using a treadmill.   Residents and family members got together to form a cheer squad encouraging Team North Park on their journey.

Lisa Frame, General Manager at the home, said: “Residents have loved watching the marathon this year, it is such a brilliant event and a feat of endurance.  We have amazing staff here who always try to go that one step further engaging with residents and having a good laugh with them – it all adds to the fun!”

Our homes enjoyed a wonderful virtual tour of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with Community Engagement Manager, Charlotte Walker, and Botanic Cottage Operations Co-ordinator, Laura Gallagher.

The residents were thrilled to learn more about the history of the beautiful Garden, which is now a home to an impressive plant collection from around the world.

Charlotte and Laura also gave a demonstration of making fresh herbal tea and were happy to answer our questions.  The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all who joined.