Home Instead York newsletter
elder THE
June 2021
A helping hand post-lockdown There is no doubting the last year has been difficult for everyone, but it has been especially so for our elderly population. The covid-19 pandemic and resulting months of lockdown restrictions have brought with it increased cases of loneliness and isolation and confidence in leaving the home alone, is lower than ever before. Here at Home Instead York, we want to play our part in helping our clients regain their confidence. To coincide with expected easing of lockdown measures in June, we will be running a summer campaign to encourage them to get back out into the community once more. Throughout the months of July, August and September, we will be offering a special promotional rate for any additional hours of our companionship service. With the accompaniment of one of our CAREGivers, we hope that our clients will be much more open to navigating life post lockdown and take advantage of our
summer campaign. To give you an idea of what they could expect from our companionship service, here is what some of our clients have got up to previously: • Trips to a local garden centre • Drive to the coast • A couple of hours shopping in York • Stately home visits • Coffee and cake in a local cafe • Fish, chips and a pint at the village pub • Rainy day walk around a museum or art gallery • Accompanied to the church • Travelling to visit friends • A stroll around the local park If you would like to book in one, or a series of companionship visits at any time throughout our summer campaign, or have any questions you’d like to ask, just give us a call on 01904 690884, or send an email to: info@hiscyork.co.uk. Book in early to avoid missing out!
App of the Month Diabetes Week 2021 will be happening from 14 - 20 June, so we thought we’d make our ORCHA recommended ‘App of The Month’ for June;
MyWay Diabetes Developer description: MyWay diabetes has been designed for people with diabetes as a holistic service to support self-management. Our technology is designed to be user friendly and to encourage users to understand their condition in order to take charge of their health and choices which relate to it. Components include: • An open access site with over 200 multimedia resources including several languages and material for health care professionals. • A suite of accredited eLearning courses which cover the breadth of diabetes care. Accreditation means users are assured of their quality and the NHS teams can code them for reporting purposes • Access to your primary care data in carefully designed dashboards The combination of these elements means data are used to personalise the information and education recommendations to users. User surveys show high satisfaction and benefit rates: • 90% feel it helps them make better use of their consultation • 88 % feel it helps them manage their diabetes better • 90% feel it improves their diabetes knowledge • 89% feel it improves their motivation • 87% feel it reminds them of things discussed in the consultation For the NHS this is translated into health improvements which lead to expected cost savings of about £5 for every £1 spent. Note – this enhances the effectiveness of care interactions, and so is not a replacement for usual care via NHS teams.
Farewell to Lorna Home Instead York are sad to announce that Care Manager, Lorna Hoegh will be leaving the organisation in June. Lorna has worked for Home Instead for nearly six years, fulfilling a range of different roles after originally starting as a parttime CAREGiver back in 2015. In her role as Care Manager, she played a key part in the organisation being awarded a CQC outstanding rating in September 2018. We would like to wish Lorna all the best with her future and thank her for all her hard work over the years, you will be missed by all the team. Lorna had the following to say, about her upcoming departure: “The time has come for me to reassess my life and so, for that reason, I am taking some time out from working. I plan to devote more time to my children, myself and the things that bring me joy in life. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my clients and their families and wish you all the very best for the future.”
Thank you! A huge thank you to everyone who has attended one of our virtual ‘Dementia Awareness Sessions’, which Karen Leaf, our Training & Development Coordinator ran to coincide with Dementia Action Week from 17th – 23rd May. It was wonderful to see so many of you eager to attend the programme, in total we helped to create over 20 new dementia friends, who can now use their new knowledge gained to help make the UK a dementia-friendly place to live! If you didn’t get a chance to attend a session virtually, don’t worry, we will be looking at organising some further events later on in the year, or you can visit the link below, to book on a session through the Alzheimer’s society directly. www.dementiafriends.org.uk/ WEBArticle?page= become-dementia-friend We’ve also created this handy infographic with our top tips when caring for a person with dementia.
Recommended Read Dementia is a little understood and currently incurable illness, but much can be done to maximise the quality of life for people with the condition. Contented Dementia - by clinical psychologist and bestselling author Oliver James - outlines a groundbreaking and practical method for managing dementia that will allow both sufferer and carer to maintain the highest possible quality of life, throughout every stage of the illness. A person with dementia will experience random and increasingly frequent memory blanks relating to recent events.
Feelings, however, remain intact, as do memories of past events and both can be used in a special way to substitute for more recent information that has been lost. The SPECAL method (Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer’s) outlined in this book works by creating links between past memories and the routine activities of daily life in the present. Drawing on real-life examples and user-friendly tried-andtested methods, Contented Dementia provides essential information and guidance for carers, relatives and professionals.
Sunflower seed progress report In April we were encouraging all our clients to get out and enjoy the spring sunshine, by including a packet of sunflower seeds for them to plant in with our April edition of ‘The Elder’.
It has been great to see so many client’s already getting involved, here’s just a selection of the pictures we’ve had sent in so far, we can’t wait to see more updates over the next couple of months.
Photo by Pourya Sharifi on Unsplash
Home Instead 10 Clifton Moor Business Village James Nicolson Link, Clifton Moor York YO30 4XG Telephone: 01904 690884 Email: info@hiscyork.co.uk Web: www.homeinstead.co.uk/york
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