Oaklands, a 55 bedded care home in Essex, houses many residents of different ages and conditions. Some are in their 60s and many of them are over 100 years old. Many of them also have dementia.
Friends of Oaklands enjoys helping the care home out. Catherine Wood, the Chairman of Friends of Oaklands and also the Clinical and Quality Lead at Attend, hosts a Dementia Cafe every month at the care home where residents who live with dementia can share treats and socialize with each other.
Friends of Oaklands has also been providing Christmas stockings for the residents each year for the past five years.
“Even though you’re in a care home, you can still feel really lonely,” Catherine said about the residents at Oaklands. “Some residents don’t get any visitors.”
“Christmas can be really impactful,” Catherine said, “because if you’re not getting any presents or visitors, that can make you feel more isolated.”
Recognising this issue, the Friends group approached the care home asking if they would like them to give the residents Christmas stockings. Up until this year, when the home were no longer permitted to buy gifts for residents, the home had been buying each resident a small present.
However, this year, Friends of Oaklands provided 50 Christmas stockings to the care home.
The stockings were filled with items that are intended to “make life a bit easier and nicer,” as Catherine described them. These items included shower gels, Christmas-themed shower sponges, toothbrushes, and new flannels.
The Friends Group was also able to get a donation of chocolates from the local Tesco branch, so those were included in the stockings as well.
Residents recounted to Catherine how impactful the Christmas stockings were to them. “It just made them feel a bit more special. It made them realise that somebody was thinking about them and cared for them.”
