Westwood Whisperer

Inside this issue

• Open day-Saturday 27th January 12-4pm St Valentine’s party Wednesday 14th February. • Coffee afternoons-last Friday of every month! Resident Forum dates Family & Friend meeting Dates Long service Awards.

Hello and Welcome! I would like to wish everybody a very happy new year and hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas festivities! As you can see our WOW refurbishment programme is speeding ahead really well. I think you would all agree that they are doing a great job and that the team are working with us all very well to cause as little disruption to you all as possible. I would like to thank you all for your cooperation and understanding during this time as it can be frustrating. We are now on the last stretch and are aiming to be completed by the end of January. To thank you all for putting up with the whole process we are having a party on Wednesday 14th February which we would love you all to attend if possible. We are also having an Open day on Saturday 27th January form 12-4 if you would like a look around-please feel free to pop in then too if you would like to.

Westwood House Care Home

9 Westwood Hill, Sydenham, London SE26 6BQ

Tel: 0208 776 7065 • www.barchester.com

General Manager

Stella Bernatek

News in and around Westwood

We would like to welcome our new staff who have recently commenced with us. The following ing staff have now joined our team: Ebun-Staff Nurse-Days Abosede-staff Nurse-Nights Jane-Bank carer Sujata-Bank carer Patricia- General assistant Pauline-Bank Carer Rajan-second chef Ninti-General assistant We would also like to welcome the following new residents who have chosen to come and live with us here at Westwood House: Charles Audrey Mavis

We wish them a happy stay and look forward to providing a good quality of care for each and every one of them.

Please see dates for our Resident Forums and Relative Meetings: Resident Forums: I have combined these with the coffee afternoons as that worked really well last month: Friday 26th January 2018 at 2pm. Friday 23rd February 2018 at 2pm Friday 30th March 2018 at 2pm. Friday 27th April 2018 at 2pm. Family & Friends Meetings: (and cheese & wine/ refreshments) Friday 23rd February 2018 6-8pm Friday 25th May 2018 6-8pm Friday 31st August 2018 6-8pm Friday 30th November 2018 6-8pm Please do come and meet other families and catch up on what happening at Westwood!

Dates for your Diary: Welcome to new staff and residents.

Long service Awards At Barchester our staff who have completed long service receive recognition in the form of a voucher and a badge or ornament to keep. Our recent staff who attained this are: Funmi-10 years’ service. Celebrating in the next few months will be: Roger-15 years and Adora-15 years.

News in and around Westwood

Birthday or party We have celebrated two special birthdays recently-John’s 60th birthday and Jean’s 90th. John was taken out for a lovely pub lunch which he thoroughly enjoyed as a ‘lad’s day out’ with Robert & Ken joining him and Jean was visited by her family who enjoyed her day with lots of lovely nibbles that she really enjoyed. Happy birthday to them both!

Resident Forums We hold monthly Residents forums here which is a chance for us to talk to the residents and find out what they think about our services and act on them. The last one went really well as we had combined it with our coffee afternoon so I think we will continue it the same way-so each of our forums will be on the last Friday of every month alongside our coffee afternoons. We would also like to welcome you, as relatives, to join us on these occasion if you would like to as it was lovely to have you there too. We will also be having separate family & friend meetings too-please see dates above.

Happy New Year!! We wish you all a very healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year from all of us here at Westwood House.

A few words from Barchester…

Residents & Relatives Survey We would like to thank everyone who participated in our residents and relatives’ survey – we’re always keen to hear your feedback on the care, services and facilities that we provide. We look forward to sharing the survey results with you in early 2018.

Forest Hill has been rated ‘Outstanding’

Following an inspection by the CQC on 15th August 2017, Forest Hill Care Home in Worksop was rated as ‘Outstanding’, which is detailed in a report that was published on 22nd November 2017. The home received an ‘Outstanding’ in two of the five categories – Caring and Response – and a ‘Good’ in Safe, Effective and Well-led. Forest Hill is the second Barchester home to be rated ‘Outstanding’ after Lucerne House – well done to everyone responsible!

Follow us on social media! Keep up-to-date with the latest news and stories from us and see pictures of life at Barchester homes by following us on Twitter and Facebook:

@Barchester_Care

/BarchesterHealthcare

Michael Butler, Activities Coordinator at Hollyfields Care Home in Kidderminster, was at the forefront of a wonderful scheme to unite two generations. His ‘Pen Pal Scheme’ aimed to encourage pupils from a local primary school and residents at Hollyfields to communicate by writing letters to each other and becoming pen pals. The primary school pupils liked receiving letters just as much as the residents. The significant age gap between the generations didn’t seem to be a problem – and the correspondents seem to have successfully reignited the lost art of letter writing. The story was such a huge hit, in fact, that it was even picked up by the BBC and appeared on BBC Breakfast, inspiring lots of other care homes and schools to follow suit.

Uniting the Generations

Happy New Year from all at Barchester Healthcare!