On Tuesday 20th October, we hosted our first virtual open day! This provided relatives, their families and those currently considering a care home the opportunity to have a look around, get a peek inside life at the homes, meet those working in them and experience some of the entertainment the residents enjoy.
Care home open days are held annually and have always been welcoming events full of family fun, guided viewings and interaction between residents, team members and our guests. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances regarding the current pandemic, our usual open day format was not able to be followed this year. Instead, the decision was taken to host it virtually so we could still open up our homes and showcase life inside the Excelcare family.
We’re pleased to say that this first virtual open day was a huge success. There were many lovely highlights and some wonderful responses to the activities and events we hosted. Please see below for some of the memorable moments from the day.
Virtual viewings of all our 33 care homes launched at 9am so relatives who may not have visited their loved ones could have look around the home they live in. Some loving comments and praise were shared, especially in response to the viewing of Etheldred House. Take a look here.
Residents in homes across the group also shared their experiences of life within the home, as well as the things they enjoy about being a part of the Excelcare family. There were some lovely comments about the staff and environments, including a touching testament from a resident at Stanley Wilson Lodge named Keith. Watch it here.
Those working in our homes also introduced themselves in short videos, so people could meet our teams and find out more about those who care for their loved ones. The team members at Park Avenue enjoyed being a part of this – meet the full team here.
Virtual entertainment was delivered by one of the residents’ favourite performers, Alex Southgate. Alex has been hosting virtual performances via livestream throughout the pandemic to keep everyone in good spirits and singing along to some of their favourite tunes. In usual times, he would host these sessions live at the homes, but this isn’t currently possible. His virtual sessions have helped to maintain wellbeing and happiness across the group – watch a segment of his performance here.
To end the day, a webinar was hosted with Samantha Crawley, Excelcare’s Head of Business Improvement, which gave people the opportunity to have their questions answered and learn a bit more about the care home industry in this current climate. If you didn’t manage to join this, you can catch up and watch the full stream here.
As well as all of these wonderful highlights, we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for virtual open day and got involved with the many events and activities.
We hope you enjoyed taking a look inside life at Excelcare and wish you will all be able to join us in person next year!