Ensuring our more vulnerable Retirement Living residents remain safe, well and active

An article by Cynthia – one of our Supported Housing Senior Coaches

Although our Supported Housing colleagues (who are usually based from retirement living schemes) are currently working from home, they’ve been working closely with their Retirement Living counterparts to stay in daily contact with the residents they support, to continue to help them as much as possible remotely.

Most of the residents they support are keeping their moral up by remaining busy with activities they can easily do from home such as; crosswords, gardening, cooking, knitting, sewing and crochet.

Here’s just a flavour of what some residents have been up to since lockdown:

One resident, who lives in our Asian Elderly Retirement Living scheme, is keeping himself busy by cooking, not only for himself but for two other resident friends, who don’t cook at home (ensuring social distancing guidelines are still met). One of his most recent dishes has been Palak Gosht (Spinach with meat) and the spinach he used came from the garden at the scheme and was planted by one of his friends. He also plans to make some homemade chapattis later – yum!

Mary, a Retirement Living resident in Bedford, told us that she’s happily sewing and knitting at the moment and she’s really grateful for all that she has and what other people and agencies are doing for her – including our own colleagues who are maintaining contact with their residents at this difficult time. She’s also put a thank you note on her rubbish bin for the local bin men saying ‘Thank you for your help with emptying my bin, you are amazing.’ She watched one operative from her window read the note, smile and then place it in his pocket.

Julie, also from Bedford, told us that she values the daily wellbeing calls from our colleagues adding, ‘I really look forward to your daily call, I enjoy my chat and a laugh.’