Chalmers Court Day Centre By Ruth Hearn
What we’ve been up to! Chalmers Court Day Centre was set up by Age UK Hertfordshire to provide a safe, caring and stimulating environment for older people with dementia in and around Rickmansworth. Over the last year things have been changing in the centre including me, Ruth Hearn, becoming the latest supervisor of the Centre. I have been a staff member at Chalmers Court for eight years. Everyone at the centre is like my extended family. The centre staff are at the heart of everything we do. Shirley, who has been there for a gold medal worthy seventeen years, and three new staff members, Carole-Ann, Linda and Anne are all valuable and enthusiastic members of our team. As well as staff members, the volunteers are also crucial, giving their precious time to help out – Jean, Shelia, Adam, Steve and Deannah are very special to us, their commitment and dedication to Chalmers Court is valued greatly. Our days are made much easier and the members’ lives are much fuller with their company. November 2018 brought the inspectors into Chalmers Court. They came to carry out their yearly monitoring visit – and awarded the centre with a solid ‘100%’ across every aspect measured,
1 4 | WINTER 2 0 19
and ‘Excellent’ across the board. 2018-2019 was an eventful year filled with lots of activities and guests to the centre. During the winter months we had our annual outing to Camelot, where everyone got to dig into a Christmas Lunch and raffle – we do this every December and we can’t wait for this year’s trip! The festive activities didn’t stop there. Many clients took part in picture painting, a wonderful visit from Dave Knight who delivered a football exercise session and there
was as magical appearance from Tricky Nikki, who travels across Hertfordshire doing magic shows for lots of different groups. Members also got the chance to try out the new Walkers Crisps flavours during the festive period, including Turkey & Stuffing, Pigs in Blankets, Cheese and Cranberry – even the Brussel Sprout flavour went down well! As the spring months came along, we went on several visits to The Reach Free School in Rickmansworth, where we were
Information and Advice Tel: 030 0 345 34 46
