Newsletter Autumn 2010

Hyne Town House Newsletter

Autumn Edition 2010

http://www.hynetownhouse.co.uk/

We have had a busy summer of activities at Hyne Town House which I hope you have all enjoyed.

The Marie Curie Tea Party was a big success and our Summer Garden Party proved to be a fun afternoon for all despite it clashing with the England Football game. The Dementia Awareness talk, held in The Village Hall, was well supported with over 20 people attending.

Marie Curie Tea Party

 

                Specialist Activity Workshops

Our specialist activity workshops will be starting in late September. We will be designing stimulating activities, tailored to each person’s individual needs, with the aim of improving their quality of life and encouraging independence. This will help to reduce confusion, encourage social interaction, restore self esteem, regain basic life skills and generally have fun.

Helen Drury, who is taking on the role of Activities co-ordinator, was a Community Psychiatric Nurse In her previous life. Helen is, therefore, well qualified to make sure the activities are tailored to the resident’s needs.

                        Christmas Shopping

Hard to believe I know but our focus is now turning to Christmas!

We thought the residents’ families might like some ideas for Christmas presents and Jean has given me a shopping list of useful suggestions:

Bath robes, nightwear (it is advisable to get a size larger than normally worn as it is less intrusive when someone is helping to dress) soap, toilet bags, costume jewellery and scarves. A portable DVD player with favourite films or music or CD player with talking books or favourite music.

Books of interest, whether it be a previous hobby, about an area they lived or a person they admired. It is best to contain a small amount of text and lots of pictures.

What can be really helpful both for the residents and carers are multi- picture photo frames with the photos labelled or a digital photo frame. This  provides a conversation point for the carer. Similarly a book containing messages and photos from the family, perhaps including drawings from grandchildren is a very personal gift.

A life history of the person, put together by the family, is a special gift as it provides many happy memories for the resident to be shared with carers and family alike. 

Planning Application

They say everything comes to he who waits, and boy did we have to wait for our planning application to finally get approval. However, nearly 2 years after submitting it we finally got approval early in September.

Our plan is to build 9 new bedrooms above the ground floor west wing which runs parallel to the driveway. Because we are required to provide a minimum of 4.1M2 of communal space per resident, a couple of existing bedrooms will be converted into a new lounge/activities room on the 1^st floor, overlooking the sea.

We are also taking the opportunity to upgrade the existing facilities within the home for the benefit of all. These include:

1. All bedrooms will have en-suite facilities
2. All bedrooms will exceed the requirements of the Care Standards Act 2000
3. Upgrading the heating system throughout.
4. Installing a pressurised hot water system in main building
5. Widening the entrance and re-aligning the slope to make wheelchair access easier
6. Increasing the size of the entrance hall.
7. Increasing the size of the laundry
8. Creating a new medication room.
9. Creating a new shower room on the 2^nd floor.
10. Upgrading the wet room on the ground floor, etc etc

The net result will be that the home’s maximum number of residents will increase from 33 to 38.

Inevitably there will be some disruption during the project but we will do our best to keep this to a minimum. We have deliberately kept rooms empty to allow us to temporarily move residents to areas away from the building work ensuring they remain in a safe and comfortable environment.

We hope to commence the work in January 2011 and, if anyone is interested, we would be delighted to show them the plans and to discuss the project in detail.

It has always been our ambition for Hyne Town House to be the best care home in Devon and these improvements will go a long way to help us achieve that goal.

Forthcoming Events

First Thursday every month                   Music Concert with Neil from True Care

Tuesday 26^th October 3pm                      “A Trip Down Memory Lane “

                                                                        Musical Entertainment with Martyn Paddon.

Afternoon Tea and Raffle.

Monday 20^th December 3pm                   Christmas Concert

Wednesday 22^nd December 3pm           Christmas Party.

Sherry, mince pies and musical entertainment

                                                                         All friends and families welcome.

As always we will have a full diary of entertainment throughout December.

Happy Birthday To you….

Phyll Cudd                           27^th October

Phyllis Teage                      22^nd November

Paddy Davis                        26^th November

Patricia Cannon                 15^th December

Staff

Lynne Turner                      5^th October

Mal Thomas                        12^th October         

Jean White                          15^th October

Penelope Foster                17^th October

Shirley Friend                    11^th November

Scott Caple                         11^th November

Samson Esplago               15^th November

Gemma Caple                      4^th December

Cheralyn Owens                 9^th December

Finally………

Phyllis Teage wanted to share this with you…

The Thoughts of a Gold Fish

As I wander around my bowl many thoughts cloud my tiny brain.

Errrr……now then what was I saying again?  (By Andrew Jagger.)

The next Newsletter will be the winter edition which will be published early in January. If you would like anything included please leave it in the office marked for my attention.

Yvonne Mould