Our Christmas message from the Chair of the Trustees
Christmas Message from Berenice Groves, Chair of the Trustees
As always, I’d like to send a huge “well done and thank you!” message to our staff, volunteers, trustees and supporters for their hard work and commitment over the past twelve months. As everyone knows we have been under great pressure this year, and I am extremely proud of the way we have managed our home throughout.
I have had many opportunities throughout the last year to work alongside our staff both whilst managing the significant Covid outbreak at the start of the year when we saw our levels of staffing impacted and also in supporting recent power outage incidents, the latest as a result of Storm Arwen, when cooperation between staff, our residents and families was very moving. It was wonderful to see staff constantly reassuring our residents and continuing to give the best care in a calm and professional manner. Pam, our Registered Manager, and Sam, our Deputy Manager, continue to be pillars of support, their experience and common-sense approach essential to the smooth running of Charlotte Straker House.
I think the greatest achievement we’ve accomplished is the fact that Charlotte Straker House has continued to be a warm, happy, and welcoming “home from home” and our new residents often remark on the open hearted and caring staff and the friendly and sociable atmosphere. We have welcomed many new residents into our home in 2021 and it is encouraging to see we continue to receive extremely positive feedback from our Charlotte Straker family about incredibly high standards of professional and loving care.
I also wanted to mention the residents that sadly passed away during the first months of 2021 during the Covid outbreak at our home. I know that recovering from such a horrible situation takes time and we are still healing, both mentally and physically. I wanted to send a message of love and support to all the bereaved families, plus our staff members who continued to work through the gruelling months, often contracting the virus themselves and then returning to work as soon as they were able. We won’t forget. I’ll make sure that their sacrifices and commitment will always be remembered.
The spirit, determination and compassion of our staff and volunteers has been very moving and it makes me very emotional to think of the sacrifices that they have made to ensure our residents experience minimal impact during the ongoing Covid situation. We are all immensely relieved that our residents, staff, and volunteers have had their two Covid vaccines, and the booster roll out programme is now in full force.
As everyone is aware charities have been hit hard over the past twelve months and fundraising is a real struggle – we are still raising funds for our Respite Care Bed. This costs us over £52,000 per year but we are absolutely determined to keep the bed open for our local community. It is an essential service and after speaking to some of our 2021 respite residents and their families it’s clear to see their relief at being able to access such high-quality respite care.
Our priority has always been the safety and wellbeing of residents and staff. For the residents I can’t impress on you how delighted I am that they are able to receive family visitors, cautiously enjoy outings and meet again in our lounges and dining rooms. We’ve recently had some wonderful coffee mornings, Christmas crafting afternoons, singing, and dancing. You can see all the photos and stories below plus on our website and social media. I am fully aware that having visitors and events in the home does not just benefit the residents but also the staff they get a sense of that family feel again and that we are all in this together. We are however continuing to provide additional health and well being support to our staff and this requirement cannot be underestimated.
Our Christmas events have been taking place including our Tree of Lights, visit to the Christmas Tree Exhibition, carol singing, coffee mornings, games afternoons and Christmas crafting sessions, we have managed due to the weather being slightly kinder to us to continue with these and kept to all guidance and distancing at events – thanks again to those that helped, lovely to see that 5 residents wrapped up warmly and went outside to join carols and shine against the beautiful tree lights.. We appreciate that normal as we know it nis not likely to return but we will aim to make this December, the Festive Period and coming months as cheery as possible. This Christmas season is shaping up to be a happy month, and we are all very thankful that life has some previous experiences back again.
I just wanted to end this message by saying, that on behalf of the Charlotte Straker Project, I would like to wish everyone a joyful and peaceful Christmas and hope that the New Year will bring prosperity, health, growth, and recovery for us all.
Berenice Groves
Chair of the Trustees
