The importance of community engagement

It’s vital for people to continue to feel engaged with their local community when they live in a care service for a number of reasons.

It’s vital for people to continue to feel engaged with their local community when they live in a care service for a number of reasons.

It supports people to feel part of the wider community, promotes choice and independence, encourages people to take part in their hobbies and interests, and introduces people to new experiences and social interactions.

At Exemplar Health Care, we’re committed to ensuring that everyone who lives in one of our homes feels empowered and supported to take part in their local community if they wish.

Here, we introduce our approach to community engagement and share some of the meaningful activities our service users have taken part in, in their local communities, over the past few months.

Community engagement toolkit

To support this, we introduced a ‘Community engagement toolkit’ which gives practical ideas and examples of community engagement across Exemplar Health Care under three themes.

1. Service user outcomes: making every day better for the people we support

Through effective community engagement, we will:

• support people to integrate into their community and contribute to society

• utilise community engagement to achieve better outcomes for people.

2. Recruitment

Through effective community engagement, we will:

• raise the profile of our homes and Exemplar Health Care in the wider community

• recruit new people into our workforce.

3. Families and friends

Through effective community engagement, we will:

• maintain and enhance connections and engagement with families and friends

• ensure that family and friends feel a valued and integral part of our homes.

Bringing back memories

Ron, who lives at Bennett Court in Pontefract, recently visited Bradford City Football Club – a club close to his heart from his childhood.

Ron has incredible memories of some of the players at Bradford City Football Club who played with his own father and uncle back in the 1920s.

The day out was organised by Life Skills Coordinator, Alison, after overhearing Ron talk about his love of the club. Ron was given a grand tour around the grounds before visiting the changing rooms and sitting in the VIP seats. The day was topped off with a brand new cap for Ron to take home as a memory of his day out.

Alison said, “It was such a special day visiting the football grounds – as this was such a key part of Ron’s upbringing and he has so much knowledge about former players from the club.

“At Exemplar Health Care, we support residents to pursue activities they’re passionate about, and this was a great way for Ron to enjoy an activity whilst also reminiscing on memories from his childhood.”

Ron added, “It was a great day out. It was so good to see the pitch looking so good!”

Taking a tour behind the scenes of Emmerdale Emmerdale fan, Linda, and the Activities Team at Wykewood in Bradford ventured into the Yorkshire Dales for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Emmerdale village (pictured on page 70).

Linda is a big fan of the show, never missing an episode! She had a brilliant day walking in the footsteps of her favourite characters and enjoying a lager in front of the log fire.

The team even got to pull their own pints behind the bar of The Woolpack.

Emma, Activities Coordinator, shared: “It’s safe to say, we all had a fabulous afternoon!”

Connecting through writing

Janet (pictured below), who lives at Longley Park View in Sheffield, loves receiving postcards through the Postcards of Kindness initiative.

The initiative encourages people to write and send postcards to residents of care homes across the UK, with the aim of combatting loneliness.

The team at Longley Park View have been involved in the initiative since it started in 2018, and Janet loves writing back to the connections she’s made.

Earlier in April, she had a busy afternoon writing Easter cards for her friends, before venturing out to buy stamps and post the letters.

After all of her hard work, they stopped in local pub, The Devonshire Arms, for a quick drink on the way home.

About Exemplar Health Care

Exemplar Health Care is a leading provider of specialist nursing care for adults living with complex and high acuity needs. We have over 40 complex care services across England and growing.

Visit our website to read more - www.exemplarhc.com