Our New Clinical Support Lead

Cheryl Kennedy is a Registered Nurse who has joined our Senior Management Team as our Clinical Support Lead. Cheryl completed her nursing training in 2012 and has worked in different roles, including acute care, hospice and elderly medicine. She told us that “I have always had a passion for palliative and end of life care. As nurses we cannot change the outcome but we can affect the journey for our residents and their families. For me, nursing isn’t just a profession – it’s a passion for caring for people. I strive to show the residents the same kindness and compassion I hope others will show to my loved ones.”

Pam Crawley, our Registered Manager added “I am delighted that Cheryl has joined us as part of our senior management team. In her new role Cheryl will be responsible for clinical oversight of the service through both working as a part of the team and through line management responsibilities for our nursing team. She is key to the development of practice across both the care and nursing teams at Charlotte Straker House.”

Ernie celebrates his 91st birthday

Ernie celebrated his 91st birthday recently, with a specially made chocolate birthday cake, cards and presents. Ernie is one of our much loved residents, who is a retired army officer, loves the outdoors, and can often be found sitting in our gardens enjoying the sunshine and fresh air and chatting to visitors and staff members. He enjoyed opening his presents (including a gift of a very smart polo shirt from the Charlotte Straker team) as well as other cards and presents from his family and friends. Ernie told us that he enjoyed his birthday and had a great day – and that he can’t believe he’s 91! Happy birthday from us all at Charlotte Straker House.

Our New Remembrance Garden

We held a special Remembrance Service this month to commemorate all those residents and staff members who passed away at Charlotte Straker House during the early months of the Covid pandemic. We were honoured to welcome Mrs Rodrica Straker, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland who officially opened a new Remembrance Garden in the grounds of Charlotte Straker House, plus the Rev. David Kennedy who blessed the garden as part of the commemorative service.

Berenice Groves, Chair of the Trustees gave an introductory speech, and Vicky Hogg, a member of the care team read a poem called “Farewell my Friends”, before Mrs Straker unveiled the new plaque in the Remembrance Garden.

Berenice commented, “On behalf of our all our trustees, I would like to thank all those who came to share in our service of reflection and remembrance. We’ve had a lot of discussions on how to pay tribute to our much loved residents and staff and we hope everyone will agree that this new flower garden is a simple and beautiful way to remember their lives. Thank you to the Rev. Kennedy and Mrs Straker who joined us at the service, and the relatives, residents, families and volunteers who helped us commemorate their loved ones and the sacrifices everyone made during the dark days of the Covid pandemic. I hope that the new garden will offer a space for peaceful reflection and help people remember the feelings of love and support that they received from our staff and the wider community, and their continued care and attention that continues to help us all today.”

The Covid pandemic has also had had a serious and significant impact on our residents and staff, as well as curtailing our fundraising opportunities, so we are currently trying to raise funds to maintain our core services. We are 30 successful years in operation as Charlotte Straker Project, such a special charity to be involved in. You can donate to our fundraising appeals at www.charlottestraker.org.uk/donate/

Resident of the Day

Every day at Charlotte Straker House we have a Resident of the Day. This means that every single resident has a particular day when we focus on their clinical care, as well as taking the opportunity to make them feel extra special. We bring staff members together from housekeeping, activities, the care team and the kitchen to review the resident’s care plan and to ensure we are adapting to their interests, aspirations and care needs.

The day also involves a deep clean of a resident’s room, a care plan review and discussion, health and weight checks, review of interests and activities, a check to make sure that clothes and toiletries are topped up, and a review of the resident’s mealtime experience.

This happens to a different resident every single day and it ensures that our different staff departments has a focus on a resident’s wants and needs and can pick up any issues or problems with a view to quickly improve or put them right.

Colin, one of our residents said “I’ve had two Resident of the Days so far, and it’s been interesting. I told the staff what activities that I wanted to do, and some meals that I particularly liked and they’ve already been put in place. It seems like a very useful sort of thing and I’m looking forward to my next one.”

Pam Crawley, our Registered Manager added, “The Resident of the Day process ensures that our residents are offered a meaningful opportunity for a care review and to feedback on the service that we provide. It also helps us see the people living in our homes as individuals, to understand their likes and dislikes, and to use this information to come up with new and varied activities and opportunities. The Resident of the Day ensures we create a care plan which outlines how our residents want to live and include their hopes and aspirations for the future.”

Singing along to the South Pacific

Talented singers Cary and Lee visited recently and entertained us with a medley of songs from the musicals such as South Pacific and Calamity Jane. Our residents absolutely loved clapping and singing along. Cary and Lee had everyone humming along to love songs and old favourites, and it created a wonderful atmosphere in our home, with lots of chatting and laughter. Alan said “I love the music, and I love singing. Sometimes I don’t know the words but it doesn’t matter. It cheers you right up. They’re very good at these songs.”

A visit to the riverside

Our residents decided they would like us to arrange a countryside walk so we took the opportunity to visit the riverside at Prudhoe. Four residents (Liz, Muriel, Margaret and Colin) and volunteers took a relaxing ramble along the banks of the Tyne. It’s a brilliant walk for our less mobile residents as the path is smooth and completely flat. It was a lovely warm day and we spent time watching the river flow past and watching the birds in the trees. Liz commented “I wanted to stay out longer. I liked seeing all the bushes full of sloe berries and blackberries.” Thankyou as always to the volunteers and staff members who helped on the trip and organised the transport.

The Corbridge Apple Pressing Day

A pavilion full of apples of all varieties greeted volunteers at the beginning of the apple pressing weekend in Corbridge. Generous people from around the area had donated sacks full of apples for this annual event. On Saturday morning volunteers from the community, the Corbridge Cricket Club (CCC), Quoit’s Club, Corbridge Youth Initiative (CYI) and Charlotte Straker Project (CSP) formed themselves into a production line to wash, shred and then press the apples at the Corbridge Cricket Club ground. Drinks and lunch were provided at the Cricket Club and at the end of two days of hard work 2300 litres of apple juice had been pressed; almost four times the amount of apple juice that was pressed in 2021! The Corbridge Lightly Sparkling Apple Juice will be canned by Andy Burrows, owner of the Hadrian Border Brewery at cost and will be on sale all around the area in support of local good causes – the CYI, the CSP and the Corbridge Community Partnership.

The money raised will support the Charlotte Straker’s Community Respite Care bed service, and core service costs for the Corbridge Youth Initiative including Job Club and one to one support. The Corbridge Community Partnership will also benefit enabling it to fulfil its mission.

Angela Jones, CSP Trustee said “The Corbridge Apple Pressing weekend has been a wonderful example of a supportive village community joining forces to raise funds for two essential local charities and for the community partnership. Thank you to everyone who participated and to Andy and his team for canning the juice. Over the past twelve months the need for our respite care service has risen sharply and we’re extremely grateful that the community has come together to support this essential service.”

Visiting the Sill National Landscape Centre

We pride ourselves on our varied calendar of different trips and days out, and one of the most interesting was a recent visit to the Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre and Cafe. The site is wonderful for wheelchairs as it has a completely flat carpark with ramps to the different exhibits and to the easily accessible cafe. John was fascinated by the geology of the land around Hadrian’s Wall and spent a long time inspecting the model of the different sediment and rock layers. Muriel commented that “there was a lot to learn about the landscape and the animals, and I liked seeing the models of different birds and pressing all the buttons.” Margaret used to be a guide at the nearby Housesteads Museum and chatted about the different types of roman history and sandstone sculptures that were found in the area. Everyone enjoyed a cup of tea or coffee and then came back on the bus. Thank you to our volunteers and staff members who accompanied us on the trip – it was a very interesting day out.