Although the pandemic has introduced many challenges and hurdles to overcome, especially in the care sector, we have also seen some wonderful schemes and ideas come out of it. With visitation limited to the homes, relatives and loved ones have been finding innovative ways to stay in touch with their family. This has been in the form of letters, video calls and more recently in our partitioned visiting suites.
At Rheola Care Home, Phyllis’ granddaughter came up with a way to surprise and delight her from a distance, each day in the lead up to Christmas. To do this, she created a personal advent calendar for Phyllis to open each day.
25 marked envelopes made up the calendar, one for each day of the month. Inside each of the envelopes were pictures and photographs from moments throughout her life and places they visited together. This helped Phyllis to feel closer to her family each day and recall some special moments from her past.
Phyllis was also delighted to see that her granddaughter had put a chocolate in each of the envelopes for her to enjoy every day.
Each day in December, a team member sat with Phyllis as she opened her advent calendar. This gave her the opportunity to talk about the memories contained in each picture.
It was a wonderful idea that certainly brightened each day in December for Phyllis.