Friendship is s important at all stages in your life, and even more so in later life! Charlotte Scarrow, spokesperson for Elmfield Care, shares her thoughts on why friendship is so important amongst the care home residents.
Charlotte explains: “For those in care homes, forging new friendships with other residents and care staff is integral to helping combat feelings of loneliness and isolation, which unfortunately can be very common in care home residents. Friendship also makes it easier to deal with difficult challenges and situations that may arise, providing advice, emotional support or simply just distraction.
“Conversations, activities and laughter shared with friends doesn’t only help improve quality of life but it can also help with mental stimulation and help to keep cognitive functions sharp amongst an ageing population.
“Giving residents the time and opportunities to form these strong bonds is important so socialising and using spare time for activities such as silent discos, bingo andsit-down exercise sessions can help the residents to feel a closeness and bond over shared experiences. Not to mention the physical and mental benefits of such activities.”
A special bond between resident Max and care worker Gemma formed at Flowers Manor care home in Chippenham, and led them to get tattoos together. Max had always loved tattoos but his wife was against him getting one, but after seeing all the beautiful tattoos that staff and residents at the home had, he wanted to join the club!
With Max having Parkinsons and Lewy body dementia, finding a tattoo artist proved slightly difficult, however, the pair found the perfect person for the job in Chippenham where they both got some ink. After always having Beagles in his life, Max sadly had to leave behind his beagle Brodie when he moved into the home, so he wanted a tattoo of his dog, meaning he was never far away from his best friend.
The pair are continuing to discuss a bucket list of activities and achievements that Max can tick off during his time at Flowers Manor. One of these things was abungee jump in New Zealand, however, this may need a rethink to something more achievable!
