Westwood Whisperer

Inside this issue

YCR rating

Barchester Care awards

St George’s Day

Relatives meeting

Open Day 21st

April

Don’t Dine Alone

Coffee afternoons

Hello and Welcome! I hope that everyone has had a lovely Easter and that we will now the beautiful spring weather arrive. We have recently purchased some new garden furniture which looks lovely and comfortable and I for one look forward to going out into the garden in the good weather. I am delighted to announce that our ‘Your Care Rating’ results are in and we have scored 829/1000. Thank you all very much for submitting your comments and feedback. It is helpful as we can then identify the areas that we need to address. Our Barchester Care award nominations are now open. Last year Robert won the Regional Nomination and it would be lovely to see somebody else for Westwood win again. All of the staff work very hard here and ideally they would win the prestigious award! The forms are at reception and the closing date is 7th May 2018. Our next relatives meeting is on Friday 25th May 6.00-8.00pm. Please do join us as we have a few newer families who I am sure would appreciate meeting other families. If your loved one would also like to join us they are very welcome.

Westwood House Care Home

9 Westwood Hill, Sydenham, London SE26 6BQ

Tel: 0208 776 7065 • www.barchester.com

General Manager

Stella Bernatek

News in and around Westwood

Irish Dancing

On St Patrick’s Day we welcomed the Conor Academy of Irish Dance with Bridie Willis. I am sure those who saw it enjoyed it as much as we did. The dancing was fantastic. I am hoping that they will be able to return again throughout the year so watch this space for more details! We also saw from that display how much our residents enjoyed it, watching the young children dancing. I am currently trying to arrange a children’s session once a week if possible where local mums will bring in their young children to spend time with the residents here. I am also in contact with some local nurseries who are keen to either invite our residents to them, or to come and join us here. If anyone knows of local Mums who would like to get involved, or nurseries or schools who would like to get involved with this project I would absolutely love to her from them.

Don’t Dine Alone As you hopefully already know we welcome Members of the community into the home to join us for a meal. This is aimed at those who may be living alone and may enjoy some company and a good quality nutritious, comforting meal. If you know anybody in your local community who you think may benefit from this invitation please ask them to call us or let me have their contact details, if they are happy with that, and I can arrange for them to come and join us. Thank you.

St George’s Day

To celebrate St George’s day on Monday 23rd April we will be enjoying a lovely fish & chip lunch direct from the takeaway! I know that this is a popular day and a very welcome treat that you all enjoy so let’s all enjoy the day. Coffee afternoons Please join us at our coffee afternoons-the last Friday of every month-we would love to see more of you joining us all!

News in and around Westwood

Your Care Rating

100th Birthday Celebration On Thursday 12th April, at 3.00pm Pat will be celebrating her 100th Birthday. Lizzie is hosting this very special birthday party and would like to invite staff and other friends and relatives to join them. Most residents and relatives here know both Pat & Lizzie so do come along and join us.

Resident Forum

Our next forum is on the Friday 27th April. Please all join us as it is really lovely meeting and it is really good to hear your feedback –good or not so good-so that we can make changes. We will be meeting in the ground floor dining room at 2.30pm so please join us. Families and friends are also always to welcome to join us and enjoy some refreshments at the same time. Our trips out will soon be commencing and Eve will be telling us more about this on the day.

We are delighted to announce that our home scored 829/1000 in the most recent Your Care Rating survey, a national survey of care home residents’ opinions on the services they receive. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey or who supported a relative to do so. We highly value all feedback received on the services we offer and the findings of the most recent Your Care Rating survey will be used to help us to improve even more.

News in and around Westwood

At Westwood we really value the hard work that the Emergency Services do for all of us. Be it responding to a 999 call or transferring residents to and from hospital appointments they always do it with a smile on their face. We usually invite them in for a break and a ‘cuppa and a cake’ if they so wish. This has been really well received by them so please help us to spread the word and if you see anyone looking like they could do with a break, please feel free to direct them to the coffee bar where they can help themselves.

We have planned some trips out over the next few months. Some are to the local parks and areas and other are to the coast. Eve will discuss these trips with your relative and yourselves closer to the time so that everyone knows what is happening. I hope you continue to enjoy these trips and if you have any suggestions of other places to visit please let Eve know.

The national care awards for Barchester are out again. Last year we were delighted that Robert won our regional title but was sadly pipped to the post for the divisional title by another very deserving host. Please do take the time to nominate somebody as it has such a huge impact on everybody here and the winner receives a lovely prize and gets to enjoy the celebration awards.

Barchester Care awards

Trips out! Emergency Services Visits

A few words from Barchester…

Follow us on social media! Keep up-to-date with the latest news and stories from us and see pictures of life at Barchester homes by following us on Twitter and Facebook:

@Barchester_Care

/BarchesterHealthcare

Barchester Care Awards Nominations will soon be open for the 2018 Barchester Care Awards – our annual celebration of the special people working and volunteering in our homes and hospitals.

There will be a range of categories, so if you know a Barchester staff member who does an outstanding job and goes above and beyond their normal day-to-day duties to help residents, patients and their loved ones, please do let us know!

To nominate a member of staff, please complete the form on our website or pick up a paper form from any Barchester care home once nominations open.

Carehome.co.uk is the UK’s leading care home website. It’s the care industry’s equivalent of Trip Advisor. If you are pleased with the care you or a loved one are receiving at a Barchester home, please consider sharing your experience with others who are looking for good quality care by submitting a review. You can pick up a review card to fill in at any Barchester care home or you can go to www.carehome.co.uk to submit a review online.

Carehome.co.uk

A big thank you to our volunteers Our volunteers are wonderful people who give up their free time to improve the lives of others, which no small thing, and the difference it makes is profound! 20th April is Volunteer Recognition Day, so Barchester would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to every single one of our volunteers. If you would like to volunteer or find out more about what you could do to help, please speak to the General Manager at your nearest Barchester home or hospital or visit: www.barchester.com/our-people/volunteers