Lots of help today....

...putting the Christmas dec's around - we had quite a crowd to help and here they are taking a tea break courtesy of jenny and Roy who brought chocolate cake too.  Marie and patty made paper chains, pat sorted the baubles, not sure about the others but they did enjoy the cake!

Trip to the shopping centre...

Anne, Marie and Peggy visited the Victoria centre, tunbridge wells today for some festive fun... We visited Santa in his grotto, had a look around the Anne summers shop had lunch at McDonald's and were given makeovers at the beauty counters in fenwicks! 

Shopaholic in town...!

Peggy went to town with katarina today for a spot of Christmas shopping - looks like she was treating herself (and why not!) and enjoying it too!

Christmas is coming...

Iris is getting in the festive spirit - she's written her cards and now it's time to dress the tree for her room...

Christmas is coming....

Making Christmas decorations today- had lots of help but there's a lot more to do!  Roy provided the tea, jenny made the cakes and volunteer Christina washed the paintbrushes !  Marie and iris, pat and Mary, Anne and Joan - all worked hard today and produced some lovely things....

we remembered them....

at 11am on the 11th November, with two minutes silence, poppies, poems and images from the Tower of London poppy display.

What a day !

An Interesting start to the week... Karen announced that MEH won two accolades at the great british care awards on sat night - Georgina for best newcomer and Amanda won the prize for nutrition and hydration !  ...::..

The CQC sent a contingent of three inspectors who arrived unannounced to begin their evaluation of life at MEH and....deputy manager Mandy was back after a long period of sick leave; happy to report she is fit and well and on top form!

This afternoon residents were treated to an illustrated talk about sue's holiday in Borneo and katerina showed patty, Joan, Anne and iris how to decorate tea lights and make

some more cards for our Xmas fayre.  

Xmas fayre this week !

After the relatives meeting on Thursday13th  nov we invite everyone to attend our Christmas fayre- gifts, cards, decorations, raffle and refreshments

Please come along -  2-4 pm

Autumn stroll in the grounds

After the monsoon conditions yesterday all was calm sunny and beautiful today and Anne took advantage of the break in the weather to stroll in the garden....

A very happy 101 year old!

That's patty, who can't believe she's that old !  It certainly seems like the past year has flown by since we celebrated

her 100th birthday.

Pattys family came for lunch yesterday and today we held a tea party in the lounge with bunting and balloons, a cake and lots of cards and presents.  

Trick or treat

We celebrated Halloween today with music, treats, decorations and a Halloween supper to finish....but no scary  

monsters!

    

In memory of Pat Knight

Karen was very taken with Alice!

Today we gathered in the lounge after variety hour for afternoon tea, complete with fruit cake, mini pastries and fancy cakes.  We were joined by Pat Knights family and Alice the puppy !  It was a lovely afternoon and good to remember her- she loved afternoon tea and after she passed away the family donated funds for us to purchase a tea  trolley , vintage china and the trappings to make afternoon tea a special event.  We are carrying on the tradition and I'm sure she would have approved.

Christmas Fayre

These are addictive ...

Active minds - art painting packs - love them!  Even our volunteer Christiane joined in this afternoon !

Magic painting

Love these new painting packs by active minds - Jean here trying one out!  They are so relaxing to do.....

Today...

Guess what we got up to....

Happy birthday Sheila, Diana and Anne

Quite a day for the birthday girls today !  Anne had lots of visitors, lunch in the library and presents flowers and cards.  

Sheila and Di had to work this morning and Diane in the laundry made sure everyone knew it was their birthday by making sure they wore big pink birthday badges !!  They joined in with the choir this afternoon and the residents all sang a rousing 'happy birthday ' ... Good job they've had lots of practise with their singing ...

Autumn splendour at Burrswood

National Award for Mount Ephraim House

Mount Ephraim House........
Winners of Residential Care Provider at the LaingBuisson Independent Healthcare Awards 2014
We would like to thank all of our fantastic team for making MEH a vibrant, homely  and happy place to live and work.
Well Done Everybody

KC

shocking news!!!!

 we were a bit shocked to read there is another care home like MEH.... could it be true??? !!!  

Jan Millward reports on a SHOCKING expose of life in a care home in rural Dorset!

A member of staff has exposed what it is like to be a resident in Care home in Dorset...... in a series of reports which may SHOCK!!!!! and change peoples pe...rceptions....

Several reports of staff showing extreme kindness and care have been leaked out by an unnamed member of staff....

Reports of residents dancing the conga in the corridor have yet to be confirmed....

.... but our insider says this is a regular occurrence, and staff actively join in with the laughing and singing....

During the summer, residents were spotted being taken out into the garden where they were seen picking and smelling roses and then having tea and cake....

One group of residents were taken on a mini bus to Weymouth and were seen eating fish and chips on the beach....

Our mole suggests that staff accompany them on regular trips and actively encourage merriment!!!!!!

This doesn’t end there. Over the last year the local community have also been involved with many charity events and there have been signs of HAPPINESS AND ENJOYMENT ALL SUMMER.....

Donkeys and birds of prey as well as a python have all visited the home and the retired beach donkey was even encouraged into individual’s rooms.....

Management are fully aware of the situation and they even arranged for a 90 plus year old lady to go first class to an award gala earlier this year....

The lady in question has failed to stop talking about the event ever since!

Several staff have had to face a panel of judges recently as they were nominated to represent the South West region for the Great British care awards.....

If they continue to behave as they do, they will be asked to attend interviews in London for the national finals...

...One memorable afternoon a member of staff was seen to switch off the Jeremy Kyle show which had been accidentally left on and take the resident out for tea and cake.

Another occurrence was when a member of staff stayed with a dying resident for 2 hours after her shift had ended so that she wasn’t alone...

. She was spotted holding the residents hand, giving mouth care and talking gently to her....

This type of care which goes above and beyond expectations seems to be rife in the care industry and as yet has not received much exposure...

... Thousands of care homes up and down the country are subjecting their residents to similar situations.

The public need to be made aware of what really happens in the majority of care homes and it is about time these homes stood up and were counted....

John Baker RN (Clinical Nurse Specialist in Dementia Care) after finding this news report on the Web is reported to have said. .... "I am in total shock! This situation needs to be highlighted"

He continues. ."I will be surprised if this is an issolated case. ... I think that if you scratched below the surface you will find the that this is just the tip of the iceberg. ...

.... I suspect that there are other staff that care about the people in their care!! and I suspect that there may be some very, very nice homes out there....

Karen, age 49 and a relative of a person with dementia, said, " The present and past govements have done all they can to stop this type of thing happening in care homes. .. I am in total shock. .. you would think that government underfunding and stigmatising care home staff would put a stop to this type of thing. ... and yet good care still seems to happen in care homes. .."

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