Optalis launch poetry project for staff and customers
A social care provider, Optalis, has introduced a poetry project to encourage staff and customers to discover and share life experiences through poetry. The project was launched on World Poetry Day (21 March) across Optalis’ Older Peoples’ Services in Windsor and Wokingham and poems will be submitted until mid-August. World Poetry Day is a worldwide celebration of poetry and all things poetical. It’s about everybody sharing poetry, reading poetry, writing poetry and enjoying poetry. Optalis is asking staff and customers to share childhood poems, associated memories and encouraging them to look at nostalgic pictures and record their thoughts. The poems will be part of a poetry book, ‘Rhymes of Our Times,’ which will be published in October. All profits from the sales will be used to purchase equipment and resources for the benefit of Optalis’ customers. Belinda Dixon, Optalis Service Manager, said, “We are committed to providing meaningful activities that will engage our customers and introducing projects like these brings new challenges and enables them to gain new skills. We are really looking forward to reading many creative entries and I’m sure they’ll all be so captivating to read.” Optalis’ Windsor Day Centre also runs Dementia poetry sessions each week for their older people groups. Optalis strives to make a positive difference to the lives of customers, offering genuine choice and enabling them to fulfill their potential. For more information about Optalis, contact 01628 683744 or click here
Social Care provider celebrates two glowing CQC reports
A social care provider is celebrating after two of its services – a rehabilitation team and a care home – both received 100% ‘Good’ reports from UK’s health watchdog. The Optalis support and rehabilitation team, who provide short-term care and support to people in their own homes across the Windsor and Maidenhead area, was rated as ‘Good’ in all five categories of the CQC report, published on the 8 January. Delivering support to around 30 to 40 adults per month, the service provides personal care and rehabilitation on a short-term basis to customers recovering following a hospital stay, ensuring they are able to get back to leading an independent life as soon as possible. In the report, the CQC said: “People were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care. “Staff we spoke with knew people’s preferences and used this knowledge to care for them in the way they wanted.”One relative told the inspector: “It’s an amazing team” and “ The service has been an absolute inspiration to me.” The report added that people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery of care. “Some people had very complex needs, and staff recognised the need for alternative methods of communication with them. “People said they were encouraged with their independence. We saw from care plans that people were empowered to make choices and have as much control and independence as possible.” In addition, 5 Winston Court, a care home run by Optalis in Maidenhead also received a 100% ‘Good’ report, which was published in December. The 8-bed home provides residential care for young and old adults who have a physical and/or learning disability. Assistant Director of Provider Services at Optalis, Helen Woodland, who is responsible for both services, commented: “Congratulations to the teams on their 100% positive results. Their dedication and motivation has ensured that they are delivering truly person centred care and support. “We are dedicated to listening to the needs and wishes of our customers and will continue to invest in quality so that we are able to go above and beyond minimum requirements.” Four Optalis’ services that were inspected by CQC teams over the last six months have been rated as “Good”, and three of them have improved from ‘Requiring Improvement’, successfully delivering part of Optalis’ strategy to improve the quality of care and support provided across the organisation. Optalis now has 100% ‘Good’ scores in the key categories of Caring, Responsive and Well Led in all of its CQC reports. The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. They ensure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve.
