“Going above and beyond is something that comes naturally to the staff team at Bupa’s Chilton Meadows Care Home in Stowmarket Suffolk,” says Home Manager, Tania Thompson, who has been nursing for three decades and working at the care home for the last three years.
“The team’s priority is keeping residents safe and secure” said Tania.
The home took the difficult but important decision in March, to restrict visitors into the home, knowing the restriction would keep residents protected from the outbreak but separate them from their loved ones.
At the same time, some of the staff took their own difficult decision to self-isolate, knowing they’d be apart from residents with whom they have formed a close bond with, whilst also putting additional pressure on their team and friends.
“What we experienced was a reaction from the team we couldn’t have anticipated. Everyone pulled together doing extra shifts and the camaraderie and atmosphere increased further knowing we were doing something extra special to ensure residents were safe and happy in these challenging times.”
Tania recently chose to work a longer shift to provide extra support to staff and to ensure residents continue to receive the high standards of care Chilton Meadows provides. “We wanted to work a twilight shift to support both the team and our residents. We slept there overnight and then helped again the next morning.
Tania continued, “It’s a vocation, not only are we here to support residents and staff but it’s important we lead by example in the community and live our values to ensure everybody is staying home, protecting the NHS and saving lives.
Chilton Meadows knows the importance of family. When restrictions were first put in place, the team quickly set up several new communication channels to enable loved ones to celebrate Mother’s Day with residents and help communicate with each other virtually in the future on Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook. “Everyone has been extremely supportive, said Tania, describing the lovely gifts, cards and letters the team continue to receive from families and the community.
“There is a close bond between residents and staff. Everyone chose to have a picnic in the grounds at 2pm on Thursday so we all could be available to carry out a celebration of our own as part of the #clapforcarers initiative.”