Season’s GreetingsIt is that time of year again and our homes have been very busy preparing for Christmas. We have lots of exciting, festive activities planned for our residents this year. Preparations for our Christmas parties are well underway and staff and residents at the homes have already started decorating for Christmas. We also have lots of day trips and activities planned over the festive period including visits to see the festive lights, Christmas meals, coff ee mornings, Christmas bingo and much more.

Our resident’s Christmas parties are going to be held on Friday 18th December at Spencefi eld Grange and Tuesday 22nd December at Meadow’s Court. Our staff at both homes have been busy rehearsing for their Christmas performances where we will be singing, dancing and dressing up to provide some festive entertainment for the residents. We would like to invite all families and friends of our residents to join us for these Christmas celebrations to help make Christmas even more special for our residents.

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a wonderful Christmas and prosperous new year! We would like to thank everyone for all your continued support over the past year, we hope to see you in the New Year!

Coff ee Mornings At Goodwood Church

It has become a regular outing for our resident’s at Spencefi eld Grange to attend Coff ee mornings at the local Goodwood Evangelical Church. Over the past few weeks, Spencefi eld Grange have been strengthening their friendship bonds in their local neighbourhood. This has been a wonderful experience for our residents who have thoroughly enjoyed embracing and integrating with their local community.

Rememberance Day: Never Forget Remembrance Day is a poignant occasion for us all and at Hicare we always like to acknowledge and remember those that have fallen. Our staff and residents wore their poppies with pride as they took part in the two minutes silence.

This is always a time of recognition and reminiscence for our residents and many of them remember their own families and war time memories.

Quality Assurance Survey Results 2015

Hospitality Very Good

Helpfulness of Staff Very Good

Information Provided on Arrival Very Good

Atmosphere of the HomeVery Good

Cleanliness Very Good

General Condition of the Home Very Good

Security of Home Excellent

Hospitality and Service of Staff Excellent

Staff Response Call Very Good

Quality of Food Very Good

Entertainment Very Good

Quality of FurnishingsVery Good

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Refurbishments In The HomesAs usual, our homes have been very busy refurbishing and refi ning their facilities. Spencefi eld Grange has been undergoing a massive revamp in the reception area which has now been completed. This has given us a much bigger Medication Room and relocated our seniors offi ce which helps us continue our goal of improving our services.

Our hardworking Maintenance team have also been decorating the rooms at both Meadow’s Court and Spencefi eld Grange to maintain the high standards we expect at Hicare.

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Bonfi re Night Celebrations Bonfi re night (or Guy Fawkes Night) is a British tradition over four hundred years old. It originates from the infamous “Gunpowder Plot” of 1605 which was a failed attempt at assassinating King James I of England. The public celebrated the king’s survival with bonfi res and social events.

Meadow’s Court hosted a lovely fi rework display for residents this bonfi re night. Residents and staff made a Guy Fawkes together prior to Bonfi re Night to get into the community spirit. We then all gathered together on the night to enjoy watching some fi reworks whilst tucking into homemade hotdogs and delicious toff ee apples. It was a delightful evening for all our residents who all commented how “lovely” they thought it was.

Spencefi eld Grange decorated the home in bonfi re night styled decorations. Staff and residents enjoyed making their own Guy Fawkes and placed him on display in the homes reception.

Atmosphere of the HomeVery Good

Entertainment Very Good

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Halloween At Hicare Homes This year, Halloween was a bone rattling bonanza at our homes. We decorated them with witches, bats, cobwebs and much, much more which created a fangtastic atmosphere. Residents enjoyed engaging in a variety of spooktacular Halloween activities and games, including Halloween hangman, pumpkin carving and a Halloween sing along.

We were impressed with all the imaginative costumes that our staff dressed up in. Some of our favourites were Trevor from our maintenance team who dressed up as a butcher, Javed a Senior Care Assistant from Spencefi eld Grange who dressed up as demon and Wendy a Carer from Meadow’s Court who dressed up as a spooky clown. Our residents from both homes enjoyed watching staff perform the monster mash dance and other Halloween inspired dances. Meadow’s Court were also joined by a magician who performed an assortment of magic tricks to entertain the residents.

Halloween was a terrorifi c day and we all had a lot of fun embracing and participating in this.

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All Saints’ Day Church CelebrationsStaff and residents of Meadow’s Court visited their local church, St Andrews to listen to the Evensong for All Saints’ Day. This is celebrated the day after Halloween and held in honour of all the saints in heaven. We were invited by the church as they were focusing their sermon on community saints and care in the community.

We all enjoyed a short stroll to the church before listening to the sermon. We were very proud of our Assistant Manager, Kate who read a passage from Hebrews 11:3 for the service. To fi nish a lovely afternoon, we were treated to a tipple of sherry before heading back home.

Eid MubarakEid-ul-Adha (or Eid for short) is an Islamic religious holiday and is one of the main Islamic festivals. It is celebrated globally by Muslims all over the world to show gratitude for their blessings and as part of this a donation is given to the poor and less fortunate.

At Hicare, we pride ourselves on embracing various faiths and cultures so we couldn’t resist this opportunity to celebrate Eid. Our homes put on a variety of décor, food and entertainment. We were joined by the Leicester City Contracting Team, who participated in our bhangra lessons with the residents. Our staff dressed in traditional south Asian clothing which was a wonderful fi nishing touch to this fabulous day.

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We had a fantastic time at Hicare celebrating Diwali, the biggest and the brightest festival in India. Our staff dressed up in authentic south Asian clothing such as sarees and suits. We also took part in a traditional Indian dance, known as Dandiya Raas, with the staff and residents.

Diwali is seen by many as the celebration of the victory of light over darkness and the homecoming of Rama and Sita after Rama’s victory over the Demon Ravana. This was refl ected in our homes which were both traditionally decorated by staff and residents adding to the exotic theme and atmosphere. We also served Indian food and snacks, which was a wonderful fi nishing touch to this fantastic day.

Outside of India, the biggest Diwali celebrations are in our very own Leicester City. We were very proud to be part of this and took our residents to see the lights and celebrations in Leicester. Our residents really enjoyed engaging and embracing this tradition. A job well done to all involved!

Please visit www.hicare.co.uk to view all our fantastic pictures!

Hicare Celebrates The Festival Of Lights

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Pet TherapyThere have been many studies suggesting the long term health benefi ts pets can provide to individuals. There is even evidence to support that having animals around can provide stress relief and increase the volumes of the ‘happy’ hormone, serotonin in us.

Anyone who owns a pet, knows the feeling of companionship and love that having a pet can off er. This can be especially benefi cial to those with Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. People living with these conditions can often have feelings of loneliness, isolation and low mood. Having a pet around can alleviate some of these feelings.

At Hicare, we recognise these benefi ts and like to bring in animals and our own pets regularly for our residents to enjoy. We have seen fi rst-hand the positive eff ects of bringing animals into our homes and the enjoyment our residents experience from interacting with the animals. Often, our residents do not want the animals to leave.

As part of our continued support of pet therapy, we have a bird aviary installed at Meadow’s Court with a variety of birds (including chickens) for our residents to engage with and look after. We also have multiple “animal days” where we bring in all types of animals in for our residents. This has become a much loved tradition at Hicare Homes which we hope to continue for many years to come!

For more information, or if you would like to bring your pets to our homes, please contact victoria@hicare.co.uk

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Member of:

Recent & Future Events of 2015/16Events Diary

“For further information on events held at the homes, please contact our activities co-ordinators. Please also confi rm dates and times of the events scheduled with the home, prior to attending as they may be subject to change.”

Staff Christmas PerformanceSpencefi eld Grange

Christmas Treasure HuntSpencefi eld Grange

Christmas Lights TripSpencefi eld Grange & Meadow’s Court

Church Coff ee MorningSpencefi eld Grange

Pub MealMeadow’s Court

Christmas PartySpencefi eld Grange

Christmas Nativity PlaySpencefi eld Grange

New Years EveSpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

New Years DaySpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

Boxing DaySpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

Christmas DaySpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

Christmas EveSpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

Christmas PartyMeadow’s Court

Bank Holiday MondaySpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

December

17th

December

16th

December

1st

Church Coff ee MorningSpencefi eld Grange

December

17th

December

8th

December

17th

December

December

10th

December

25th

Boxing DaySpencefi eld Grange &

Meadow’s Court

December

26th

December

22nd

December

December

24th

December

28st

December

31st

January

1st

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