Autumn/Winter 2018

Deerhurst Newsletter

Inside this issue:

Managers update Award winners

Roving Reporter update A new filming project

Plus much more!

We have had a great few months as

always, and by the time this goes to

print, we will have had many more

successes I’m sure!

In our last edition I mentioned our

various award nominations and I am so

happy to share the following news.

Our wonderful volunteer Clive won the

Volunteer of 2018 category at the Care

and Support West Awards on the 20th

October.

We were also nominated as finalists for

our End of Life care team and our

Dementia Wellbeing team, as well as

Jocelyn being a finalist for the Good

Nurse Award. Sadly, we didn’t win but

we did have a fantastic time at the

Bristol City ground!

As a result of Clive’s win at the Care

and Support West Awards, he was

then put forward as a finalist at the

Great British South West Care Awards

2018 on the 16th November.

There he joined our other nominated

finalists:

Grace Kenway, Homemaker

‘Care Home Activity Organiser

Award’

Erin Taylor, Care Assistant

‘The Care Assessor/Care Planner

Award’

Karolina Nowadczyk, Unit Care

Leader

‘Dignity in Care Award’

Over 400 of the very best in social care

attend a glittering awards ceremony at

Aston Gate Stadium in Bristol for the

finals of the Great South West Care

Awards, where category winners were

announced.

Clive was

the Unpaid

Carers

Award

Winner –

amazing! As

his

nominator, I was asked to say a few

words:

“Clive’s connection with Deerhurst

was born in the foundations of the

building. His mother was one of the

first people to live in the home and

since 1997 he has been a volunteer

Manager update…

part of a larger group of volunteers.

He is a constant presence and his

enthusiasm to offer support to

anyone who comes into contact

with him is plain to see. In this tight

financial climate volunteers can

make or break a care home.

Clive is such a positive addition to

the care home I have never met

another volunteer anywhere near as

devoted. Often your contribution is

only judged by the hole you leave

when gone. I can’t envisage

Deerhurst without that smile and

greeting from Clive.”

Erin was our other

winner for the Care

Assessor/Care

Planner Award –

fantastic! The judges’

comments say it all:

“Erin is a young lady

with an exceptional attitude to care.

Her knowledge and value base was

outstanding. She should be very

proud of what she has achieved.”

We were shortlisted as a

finalist for the ‘Best

Dementia Care Team’

award category at the

National Dementia Care Awards 2018.

The awards ceremony took place on

the 8th November in Brighton. Sadly we

did not win, but I would like to take this

opportunity to say that just being

nominated as a finalist is a huge

honour and recognition for all of the

hard work we do to make Deerhurst

the great place that it is.

We are incredibly privileged to be

partnered with ALD Motors, who are

based in Emerson Green.

They have been fantastic in offering us

support with many activities such as

gardening, crafts, making the home

Christmas ready with lots of lovely

decorations and much more.

Did any of you see

Deerhurst on BBC

Points West talking

about the benefits

of having the flu jab for staff and

residents?

We actively encourage our staff to

have the flu jab to protect the people

we care for. So, if you are in doubt and

need encouragement please do read

the leaflets and speak to either myself,

Jocelyn or any of the nurses.

Our current training

courses for staff and

volunteers (and any

family members who

would like to join us) are Dementia

Care and Fire Safety.

We are also currently updating all of

our Nurses clinical skills! As I have

mentioned before, we never rest with

continuous improvement always being

at the forefront of our focus.

Thank you all for your continued

support and a very special thank you to

all of our residents and families that

enable us to do what we do.

Best wishes to you all and a very Merry

Christmas,

Lesley Hobbs (Deerhurst Manager)

In October we celebrated the Harvest

Festival over two days!

The first day of celebrations was

hosted by those on the Butterfly Trail.

The second day of celebrations was

hosted by those on Bluebell Rise.

Both events were very well attended.

Harvest festival

In reply to being asked “Why

does it take so long to answer

when the bell is rung from your

room?” it is worth considering

whether the care team are

attending to another resident.

If another call is happening

which is urgent, it could take

them even longer.

Remember, there 20 residents to

each section of the home.

Roving Reporter update

Following a

recent

refurbishment of

some of the

kitchens, it is

great to see that

there is more

room for food

preparation and

storage too.

They have been finished in shades of

blue and green and really do look

attractive.

A special thanks and congratulations

must go to the Deerhurst team on how

they managed to keep everyone happy

whilst the refurbishments were taking

place.

We are incredibly

proud to be able to

say that we have

received the

Dementia Care Matters Quality of Life

accreditation for the 5th year running!

The accreditation that we have

received is of the highest level; in fact

the auditor said “you are Level 1

PLUS”! This is a huge sigh of relief and

celebration!

Our very popular

second chef Callum

is taking his fantastic

skills over the pond

to Australia! He will

be warmly welcomed

there, I am sure.

From everyone at

Deerhurst, we wish

you the very best of

luck! Keep in good health and look

after yourself!

Fatoumata Diop – Registered Nurse

My name is

Fatoumata, my

family and friends

call me Fama.

I am from Senegal, a

small country in

West Africa. In Senegal we speak

French as well as a few African

dialects.

I have been living in England for 13

years now with my husband and our

two children, who were both born in the

UK.

I have been a Registered Nurse for

three 3 years now and I absolutely love

New kitchens G’day mate

Dementia Care Matters

Staff profile

nursing. My first job was a kitchen

assistant in the BRI and I used to

spend my breaks talking to the patients

and admiring the nurses, so I applied

to do my training.

I worked in the BRI as a nurse until

recently joining Brunelcare. I chose

Deerhurst for the excellent,

personalised care that they provide

and I wanted to be part of that.

Anne Davies – Registered Nurse

Anne was born in

Bristol in 1962. She

spent her younger

days at Ashton Gate

School and then went

onto St Mary

Redcliffe. When she

left school, Anne went to College to

start her nursing career. She

previously worked at St Peters Hospice

for 16 years (wow!) and has done

many other nursing roles including

being a specialist Lymphedema Nurse

and a care home Manager before

eventually coming to join us as a

Registered Nurse here at Deerhurst.

Welcome Anne!

Melissa Wilkey – Care Assistant

Melissa was born in

Bristol in 2001. She

has two brothers.

Melissa went to

school in Bristol and

then went on to study

at the Brunel

Academy. Melissa came to work at

Deerhurst as an apprentice this year

and she brings a ray of sunshine with

her wherever she goes.

Patala Mumvadi –

Care Assistant

Patala was born in

London in 1996. She

has three sisters and

one brother. Patala is

a student paramedic

at the University of the West of

England (UWE). She was a volunteer

for three years in a care home that was

local to her when she lived in London.

Celine now works with us here at

Deerhurst and we extend to her a very

warm welcome.

Alan Bruton

Resident Reporter

Welcome to the team!

A sad farewell to wonderful Alan, our Roving

Reporter

The lights have dimmed in the editorial

office. We pay tribute to the lovely Alan

who was known to everyone that lived,

worked and visited Deerhurst.

He had interviewed and done pen

portraits for everyone, he appeared live

on the radio twice, he had a video made

for the NICE website and he spoke at a

conference.

He will be missed by the children of St

Stephens School, who used to shout

“hello Alan” and then race him as he

passed their playground!

He was our shining star, a legend and a

much loved character.

Jamaican Patties by Pat

In our summer issue, we were given

the recipe for Filipino Chicken Adobo

by Nestor.

Now Pat has provided us with a

Caribbean menu, which I am sure will

get your taste buds going. If not, why

not try a calypso Jamaican curry! From

the Caribbean menu, we have

traditional patties.

NB: this recipe can be adjusted to suit

numbers dining

Ingredients:

1 block of puff pastry

500g of minced beef

2tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 red onion

½tbsp tomato purée

½tbsp chilli powder

3tsp curry powder

6ozs (fluid) of water

2tsp of salt

2tsp of black pepper

2tbsp cornflour with 4tpsp water

(to thicken)

2 egg yolks

Method:

Pre heat the oven 180 degrees

In a pan, heat the oil, garlic, onion,

chilli and mince, leave to soften and

gently brown

Add the curry powder, tomato puree,

salt and black pepper, plus the water

As and when needed, add the

cornflour mix to thicken the sauce

Add 1 dessert spoon of curry powder

to the block of pastry; roll out to make

each pattie about the size of a saucer

Fill each pattie with 1½ tbsp. of the

mince mix

Seal and glaze with the egg yolk

Boiled fruit cake by Lindsay

The following recipe has been provided

by Lindsay Brown who is one of our

Catering Assistants

Ingredients:

6ozs margarine

6ozs castor sugar

10ozs sultanas or other mixed fruit

Recipe corner

10ozs self-raising flour

½ pint milk

2 eggs

2tsp mixed spice

1tsp bicarbonate soda

Method:

Heat the margarine, sugar, sultanas (or

fruit of choice), milk and mixed spice in

a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Add the bicarbonate of soda (it will

foam)

Allow to cool.

Once cooled, add the flour and eggs

Bake in a lined tin at 180 degrees for

45 minutes to an hour (check after 45

minutes)

We recently held our annual (and ever

popular) ‘Got No Talent’ show.

We had five

spectacular talent

acts take part –

including family,

residents, care home

employees and

friends.

Audience participation was running at

a high level too.

A special mention goes to Bethany

who very bravely sung “Have yourself

a merry little Christmas” as a solo act.

We would also like to thank thank our

Deerhurst friend Ashley Belsen, who

came along and took part as one of our

judges.

The winners were the singing and

dancing group “Filipino Take Away”,

singing 'All I want for Christmas is you'.

Congratulations, and we think

everyone was a winner!

Deerhurst’s ‘Got No

Talent’

Things British people can’t believe:

How cold it is.

How dark it is.

How quickly the year has gone.

How it’s nearly Christmas.

The price of a Freddo.

We are

currently

collaborating

with Bristol

University

who are

working on a

small funded project with The Diversity

Trust to create a webpage of learning

resources for care home staff and

managers on LGBT+ inclusion in care

home environments. The resource will

be targeted at care homes for older

adults in England and Wales.

Bristol University are working with a

local media company to produce 2-4

short educational films and some

accompanying learning materials and

they have asked us to be involved,

which is a great opportunity.

We have already

had our filming

session and look

forward to being

invited to the

launch of the

films in April ‘19.

Thank you to those staff who were kind

enough to offer their thoughts and

experiences to help put the film

together.

On Tuesday 4th December we

attended the annual Brunelcare

Christmas Carol service at Christ the

Servant Church in Stockwood.

Everyone at the

service was treated

to a buffet tea, and

were especially

delighted to meet

and chat with the

Deputy Lord Mayor of Bristol,

Councillor Lesley Alexander, who also

attended the service and bravely

agreed to take part in Brunelcare’s

‘Christmas selfie photo frame’ fun!

Kevin Fairman, Brunelcare’s CEO said:

“We thank Reverend Gwyn Owen for

enthusiastically leading the service for

us and welcoming us once again to his

church. This

service is an

annual highlight -

having a good sing-

a-long to Christmas

carols means a

great deal to our residents and tenants!

It has been good to see over 200

people here today.

Thank you to everyone who made it

possible for our residents to attend the

event.

New filming project Christmas Carol Service