made initial enquiries and then visited the care home to meet the staff and look around. Sadly, for the safety of our residents, staff, and relatives this is not currently able to happen. Instead Birchwood House – our welcoming care home in the charming village of Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent – offers virtual tours.
Category Archives: Blog
The skills and attributes you need to be a good carer
Whether you’re looking for a good care provider or thinking of starting a career in care, it’s important to remember caring is all about people. As everyday humans, a carer needs to have a number of skills and attributes over and above those that can be learnt through training. Yes, it’s important to have good and regulatory qualifications along with some experience, but being a people person and having a good personality is just, if not, even more important. Multi-tasking, thinking on their feet, being punctual, reliable and willing to learn are all required skills, but we believe good carers need to have these essential human characteristics to deliver the best care.
White Christmas had by all at Birchwood
We went all out to make sure it was a white and jolly Christmas for the residents at our home in Speldhurst, Kent. With a snow machine adding a dusting of white to the beautiful House, staff held a festive event to bring joy to the residents after a difficult year. The team have been doing all they can to keep things as normal as possible and keep spirits high by working hard behind the scenes to create a magical Christmas celebration for the residents.
Maintaining positivity for residents and homecare clients
We’re delighted to kick off a new initiative to show the smiling faces of our staff behind their masks to help our residents and clients recognise their support and maintain positivity. Aptly named Birchwood Smiles, every team member will be wearing a lanyard around their neck, with a large picture of their smiling face on it. This will help them to engage with residents and clients, even when wearing full PPE.
Brightening up the afternoon for one lucky winner
We wanted to do something to brighten up someone’s day so as people can’t get out much, we ran a prize draw at the end of November offering afternoon tea to two people in our local community.
An unprecedented year in the life of a care home
Owner of Birchwood House and Care Services, Niral Patel, provides his personal reflections on the last 9 months of 2020 and how he continues to be optimistic in the run up to Christmas.
Harvest Hoedown extravaganza
Birchwood House enjoyed a socially-distanced harvest festival in its grounds on Wednesday 9th September, for all staff and residents. Sealed food was donated to benefit the local community.
Take care of your mental health during lockdown
The lockdown that has been imposed by the Covid-19 outbreak has made us think about how important it is to take care of your mental health whilst either in isolation, or just unable to socialise and interact with others in person for a long period of time. Here are some useful tips for the elderly for taking care of your mental health during these periods which can be relevant and applied now, or during future periods of isolation.
An Introduction to Helen Geer – Manager of Birchwood House
Introduction to Helen Geer – Manager of Birchwood House
Looking after the elderly in summer
Although summer is only just upon us and we are probably yet to hit the hottest day of the year, the recent spell of warm and sunny weather coupled with spending more time than normal at this time of year indoors during the Coronavirus lockdown has got us thinking about our top tips for looking after the elderly as we get deeper into the summer and the weather gets warmer.
