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Colten Care carol singers light up forest of Christmas cheer

More than 30 residents from six of our care homes joined forces to sing carols and entertain visitors at a church Christmas tree festival.
Performers from our homes across the New Forest and Christchurch were in fine voice amid the seasonal fun at St Thomas Church in Lymington.

Under the direction of our Music and Arts Partner, professional musician Fiona Pritchard, the choir sang ten carols, adding the gift of Yuletide music to complement a display that numbered more than 60 Christmas trees.

Fiona said: “It was so lovely to be able to bring all the homes together to sing. They rehearse individually and when they come together, the sound is magical.”

Jack Phillips, a resident at Kingfishers in New Milton, said: “It was a great afternoon, I just had the best day.”

As well as Kingfishers, the singers came from Woodpeckers in Brockenhurst, Avon Reach in Mudeford and the Lymington homes Belmore Lodge, Court Lodge and Linden House.

The festival, organised as an annual fundraiser by the Friends of St Thomas, ran over five days this year with Colten Care once again one of the partners alongside other businesses, organisations and charities.

As well as the opportunity to sing in public, several of our homes organised arts and crafts sessions in the run-up to the festival so that residents could make decorations for some of the trees on display.
“We are proud to support the festival here in Lymington, especially as three of our homes are just minutes away from the church,” said Laura Davis, Marketing and Communications Manager for Colten Care. “The logistics of bringing six homes together to perform is no mean feat, so hats off to all involved.

“Residents told us just how wonderful the day was, how the relatives were there to support and join in, and how the public were wowed by the fact there were so many residents there and how lovely it was to hear them sing. Everyone was joining in. It’s something people will go out and talk about.

“The residents and relatives had a wonderful afternoon and that is at the heart of why we take part.”
Involvement in the St Thomas Church festival is just one of the many ways our residents are celebrating Christmas this year.

A choir representing five of our homes is singing at a public service at St Peter’s Church in Bournemouth in aid of the disability charity Diverse Abilities. They are Fernhill in Longham, Amberwood House in Ferndown and the Poole homes Bourne View, Canford Chase and The Aldbury.

Bourne View is the venue for a separate rooftop carol concert with residents, families and friends from Amberwood House coming along to join in.

Also in the comfort of their own surroundings, residents at Bourne View, Avon Reach and Kingfishers will welcome visits by fellow carol singers on a ‘road trip’ from the Julia’s House hospice charity.

Children from a nearby day nursery will likewise entertain residents at St Catherines View in Winchester with carols.

At Braemar Lodge in Salisbury, residents and staff created a seasonal wreath tree to feature in an annual tree festival at the city’s St Thomas Church which is traditionally attended by thousands of visitors each year.

Across our 21 homes, residents will also enjoy Christmas fetes and fayres, live music, pantomimes, gala lunches and dinners, and a host of festive games and competitions.

Colten Care teams up to share the gift of hearing

COLTEN CARE HAS BECOME THE FIRST UK CARE HOME PROVIDER TO PARTNER WITH A NATIONAL ORGANISATION AIMING TO RECOVER, REPURPOSE AND REUSE NO-LONGER-NEEDED HEARING AIDS.
Our 21 homes in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and West Sussex have been made collection points for people to drop off hearing aids and avoid them going to landfill.

It follows a partnership agreed with newly-established campaign group Hearing Technology, Hear Today, Hear Tomorrow (HT).

Based in Oxfordshire, HT upcycles pre-loved hearing aids and donates them to people in need in the UK, the developing world and Eastern Europe.
Founder Zoe Fawcett-Eustace began to lose her hearing aged just 14.

“I am so thankful to have had access to hearing aids,” she said. “I know that my life would have been drastically different without them but at the same time I was disheartened to be told to keep my older aids for spares or to throw them away. With hundreds of millions of deaf people around the world without access to hearing technology that just seemed completely unacceptable. I knew I had to try and do something.
“We’re so grateful for Colten Care’s support. We have been working to establish a network of collection centres. There’s no doubt that there are many, many UK hearing aids going to waste each year. We need as many collection centres as possible to make it easy for people to donate theirs or their loved ones’ hearing aids.

“Colten Care are our first partnership with care homes. For them to have embraced the initiative and to have included all 21 of their homes is truly fantastic for us. We are so incredibly grateful and humbled by how many lives we hope to improve through access to better hearing care.”

To complement the growth of collection centres, HT is building links with product and parts manufacturers and retailers so that the devices dropped off can then be refurbished and redistributed.
Elaine Farrer, Colten Cares Chief Operating Officer, said: “We share HT’s sustainable ambitions to recycle and repurpose hearing aids and send them to where they are most needed in the UK and around the world.
“We know from our own experience in the care sector that many old hearing aids are simply junked which is bad for the environment and a waste of resource.

“That’s why we are partnering with HT and offering all 21 of our homes across the south as drop-off points where people can come to and hand in hearing aids.”

Colten Care is rolling out the initiative having trialled a collection point at its Abbey View home in Sherborne, Dorset.

 

Residents get a taste of their very own beer at brewery visit

Three of our homes have been putting their very own brewed beer to the taste test
Our residents and the residents of The Aldbury and Amberwood House visited Poole Hill Brewery to taste beer they had named in a Colten-wide competition.

During the summer, residents from all of our 21 homes were invited to take part in a beer tasting session with beers from the local brewer Southbourne Ales.

The aim to was to collectively choose a great tasting beer that would become ‘The Colten Beer’.

Three beers were sampled and scored for taste and appearance and residents then suggested names go with each one.
Elaine Farrer, Chief Operating Officer for Colten Care said: “We knew our residents loved their beer, but few could predict how many would enjoy this activity and how many brilliant names they would come up with.
“In fact, we had so many great names to choose from, we decided to go with three differently-named beers from three different homes: The ‘Crafty Colten’ chosen by the residents of Avon Reach, Frothy Pop chosen by residents of The Aldbury  and the ominously-named Residents’ Revenge, which was given its moniker by Amberwood House.”

[caption id="attachment_4795" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Pictured: Amberwood House residents Len Fowler and Jim Smith and their Colten Companion Kirsty Richmond-Cole (centre)[/caption]

The beer was brewed by Poole Hill Brewery inn Bournemouth and six representatives from across the three homes were hosted by the owner of the brewery, Jennifer Tingay, for a tour of her premises and a final tasting of their newly-bottled beers, labelled with their winning names.
Abdul ‘Hobi’ Sabih from The Aldbury said: “Our beer tastes great. I have already drunk all mine!”

His fellow resident Frank McCord agreed: “It’s been fascinating to visit the brewery and to learn more about the brewing process.
We are definitely looking forward to drinking more Frothy Pop at The Aldbury.”
Jim Smith, a resident of Amberwood House, said: “I was very interested to learn about the history of beer and brewing. Jennifer is a very good host and of course the tasting of our Residents’ Revenge was a highlight!”

Jennifer said: “It was lovely to host all the Colten residents. We had a quiz and they asked some really good questions about brewing before enjoying a tour and of course their tasting.

“The designs for the three different beer bottles which have been created by Colten’s own designers are wonderful. Some of the best I have seen.
“We are pleased to know the residents from Colten Care can now enjoy their own crafted local beers having played such an enthusiastic part in the process.”

‘Give not take’ as Avon Reach champions community advent

Avon Reach put a community-minded twist on advent, turning the traditional day-by-day Christmas countdown into prompts for 24 acts of kindness
Staff and residents transformed the seasonal message of goodwill into practical action in and out of the home.

Among their initiatives, our team members joined volunteers from a range of businesses and organisations to help with a community litter pick around Mudeford Quay.

We continued our year-long support for families in need by collecting and donating tinned and dried food for both the Christchurch Food Bank and Hope for Food in Bournemouth.

Staff donated old towels to local animal rescue centres and shelters, left thank-you notes and flowers around the neighbourhood and made and delivered Christmas cards to local schools.

Our Clinical Lead Jacqui Williams dressed up as a Christmas cracker and handed out sweets to passing locals at a Christmas lights switch-on she attended with home residents.

And colleagues and residents held a Christmas jumper day with donations going to Save the Children.

To keep residents’ spirits up, staff also arranged for Nelly the chihuahua, a popular visitor, to make a surprise seasonal appearance.

Other acts of kindness featured on our advent calendar included making up and presenting hampers to local emergency services and a 25-mile sponsored walk around the home with staff and residents taking it in turns to lead the way.

Residents praised the idea of a whole month of acts of kindness.
Doreen Walls said: “It’s such a lovely idea to bring kindness to the community and we have enjoyed getting involved.”
Pam Eggerdon said: “It was especially lovely to see old towels going to an animals’ shelter and not going to waste.”

Home Manager Jess Brolan, who was involved in many of the activities including the community litter pick, said: “We wanted to do something different with the concept of an advent calendar. Supporting the community is the best way to give something back. It’s all about giving not taking.”

Residents and staff unleash their ‘inner elves’ to help fight dementia    

An army of Christmas elves have been pricking up their pointy ears and jingling from head to toe to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society
Our team members – including, of course, ‘elfcare’ assistants – dressed up as Santa’s helpers for a day of fun with the serious aim of helping people and families affected by dementia.

Residents were invited to go festive too with activities such as visiting a ‘cheeky elves’ market, taking part in quizzes and games, sampling ‘elf cakes’ and designing an elf hat to wear.

Residents enjoyed inputting their real names into an ‘elf name generator’, which returned an elf-style moniker based on a spelling combination.

The outcome was residents being renamed as such bizarre characters as ‘Snowflake Sledingham’, ‘Sugarkin Frostington’ and ‘Twinkle Winterville’.

Among those unleashing their ‘inner elf’ was resident Margaret Johnson, who said: “The staff were amazing in putting all this on. It was a jolly good idea.”

Chloe Akam, our home’s Companionship Team leader, said: “We held a full day of themed activities which everyone loved.”

“It was a great way to spread some festive cheer while supporting the essential work of the Alzheimer’s Society in helping people who live with dementia and their families.”

Other Colten Care homes staging elf days in support of the Alzheimer’s Society included Amberwood House in Ferndown and Fernhill in Longham near Bournemouth.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, there are more than 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK.

Because of our ageing population, the figure is widely accepted to rise significantly with some estimates claiming it will more than double over the next 20 years.

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