October 2021

16 Buckden Roundabout October 2021 don ’ t allow any non - essential visitors into the home (hence why we ’ re sitting in the garden for this interview). Residents are allowed to have visitors in the conservatory provided they book in advance and have a negative lateral flow test. Only relatives of those that are unable to get out of bed or end of life are allowed into a resident ’ s room. Residents are now able go out of the home for the day to visit family but only in an outdoor setting and anyone they ’ re going to mix with has to have had a negative lateral flow test result. From a staffing perspective we still have the same focus on infection control with a huge emphasis on hygiene, hand wash- ing mask wearing etc. I can ’ t see us moving away from PPE anytime soon as apart from protecting against COVID we ’ ve seen a massive reduction in illnesses across the board. The toughest thing is the social/community side of things as we used to do so much but now, we ’ re really limited as to what we can do socially. Tell me about some of the social/community activities that you used to do that you can ’ t now? Wow there was so much … we used to have Buckden school come in every week to hold lessons in the home. The residents would help the children with their reading and tell them stories about their life experiences – this was such a lovely experience for the residents. We had a community outreach day every Tuesday where we would invite people into the home from the local community that perhaps didn ’ t have a lot of social interaction in their lives. We ’ d go and pick them up in the minibus and provide lunch and entertainment. It was a lovely social experience for all involved and was a nice introduction to Hardwick Dene for people that would potentially need residential care in the near future. We have a link with the Buckden junior football team and would do various things with them. People from the church would come in regularly. We ’ d have all sorts of day trips in the minibus to see shows or go to the seaside. The run up to Xmas would be packed with activities whether it be trips to the pan- tomime or the local Beavers coming in to sing carols. It really was a jam - packed schedule with a great balance of visitors coming into the home and trips out and about. How are things now in comparison? We still have a monthly activity calendar where we do as much as we can. There ’ s lots of inhouse activities that have been unaffected like bingo, live music in the garden etc and we still go out in the mini bus even if its just for a drive. We ’ re really fortunate to have a big garden out the front so that ’ s enabled us to get creative with some outdoor, socially distanced activities over the summer. We ’ ve had the Raptor Foundation here showing some of their birds, plenty of sum- mer BBQs with the residents and we had a socially distanced award ceremony for the junior football team. That ’ s been great to give the residents some outside interaction albeit not quite the same as before. The biggest challenge will be as we move into winter as naturally the weather will make everything a little trickier. The challenges of COVID for you are clear to see but do you feel there have been any positives? I ’ d say it brought us all closer as a team and also closer to the residents as we ’ ve been their main source of company for the last 18 months. I think the increased use of tech has been good as well as that ’ s given residents a new way of communi- cating with their loved ones that perhaps they wouldn ’ t have thought to try previously. Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future? It ’ s hard to plan too far ahead at this point as we don ’ t know what changes there might be in government guidance or how the pandemic is going to go from here. We ’ re assuming there won ’ t be any major changes in the way we ’ re operating for the foreseeable so it ’ s a case of continuing to be creative with ide- as to keep a strong activity calendar running for the residents. Like a lot of people, we ’ re taking the opportunity now while we have the time to make improvements to the home, we ’ re re- furbing a lot of the rooms. Changing communal areas to hard flooring to help with infection control and upgrading things like the kitchen and laundry facilities so we ’ re better equipped and more efficient. Can you tell me about the process of becoming a resident at Hardwick Dene? It ’ s not one size fits all and its changed a lot since COVID as we used to do the community days and lots of visits either to peo- ple in their homes or them coming to us. Generally now though the process will involve an initial assessment meeting, this may involve the resident themselves or could just be a family member depending on their situation. The assessment looks at things like dependency levels and suit- ability to our setup such as the fact we ’ re an open home which isn ’ t the best option for everyone. Dependency wise we need to ensure we have the staffing levels to give any new residents the care they need. We ’ re a residential home as opposed to a nursing home, the latter having a higher number of carers at any one time to look after those that need more assistance. Provided both parties feel Hardwick Dene is a good match, then there is either the option of making the move full time or we offer respite stays which are a temporary stay of a mini- mum of four weeks to come and experience the home before committing fully. Is there anything you would like to say to or ask of the local Buckden community? We ’ ve always had a strong reliance on volunteers, especially when it comes to doing things like day trips in the mini bus. For obvious reasons we don ’ t have as much call for people at the moment but there are still opportunities to get involved in the right circumstances. So, if anyone has any ideas or talents that they feel could be of interest to our residents and can be shared in a socially distant, outdoor setting then please get in touch. We love to give the residents as much variety as possi- ble so we ’ d welcome any ideas/suggestions people might have. (Continued from page 13) Support Buckden Businesses