Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

In the current circumstances, we couldn’t do all we wanted to do to show our volunteers how much we treasure their visits, but residents made cards and wrote their messages in them and we hope that these brightened both Mandy and Jane’s days when they received them! We are hoping that we will soon be able to show our appreciation properly.

We have been able to sort out Skype to see Annie from time to time and Evelyn Wright the Resident Ambassador awarded her the Volunteer Certificate however, we can’t wait to be feeding Annie her beloved carrots again soon.

Staff and residents at South Chowdene Care Home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear are celebrating their recent Care Quality Commission inspection rating, where they scored an overall ‘Outstanding’ after being reviewed for a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led service.

Currently only 4.3% of England’s care homes, domiciliary care agencies and hospitals have an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating, and South Chowdene has been ranked among the best in the country for the quality of the services it provides during a routine inspection.     The CQC inspected the home on the 18th November 2019 (the report was released on 1st May 2020) and rated the home, run by Barchester Healthcare, as ‘Outstanding” in two key assessment areas (‘Responsive’, and ‘Well-Led’) and ‘Good’ in three areas (‘Caring’, ‘Effective’ and ‘Safe’).

The report stated that the home was rated outstanding because “The level of care is “Outstanding”, not just good. It's like a true family here.”

Residents at South Chowdene were eagerly anticipating this event, having racked their brains for answers to the many biscuit quizzes we had. These brought out a lot of memories – one type of biscuit for after school, one just for birthday parties and those which were only for high days and holidays and very special occasions.

Residents had the opportunity to taste lots of different and often new biscuits (the amaretto was definitely a case of 'love it or loathe it') during the day, but what also had them hooked was that our new friend also came to join in the festivities and made himself part of the South Chowdene family. We're looking forward to lots more fun time with him!

Residents at South Chowdene showed their appreciation to our Nurses by writing them individual messages. Rene Dixon helped design and make a fantastic large card (as we knew there would be a lot to write), inside which, each resident wrote their message of thanks, and were very happy at the opportunity to say a formal thank you to each of the nurses.

VE Day was marked with a street party style decorations around the building. Residents had helped make the bunting and there were flags aplenty to wave.

Throughout the day we listened to songs of the era and chatted about what experiences residents remembered (both good and bad).

Many of the residents watched coverage of the day on telly which also promoted a lot of discussion and memories.

Each resident was quite amused by the ration book given to them in the morning with the menu for the day on it. They were also very relieved that although the dishes were very much in keeping with wartime fare, the amounts weren’t quite as strict as they would have been on the real thing! Phew!!!

In the current circumstances, we couldn’t do all we wanted to do to show our volunteers how much we treasure their visits, but residents made cards and wrote their messages in them and we hope that these brightened both Mandy and Jane’s days when they received them!

We are hoping that we will soon be able to show our appreciation properly and are very happy that we have been able to sort out Skype to see Annie from time to time.