Newsletter : May 2008

Autumn Leaves

One of the highlights in this month’s activities was the production of the “Autumn Leaves Wall Hanging” that is proudly displayed on the wall outside the Kinross lounge. Spare a moment to look at it and appreciate it as a piece of work created by a group of Residents and staff.

All our Activities range in size of the group involved, large, medium and small as well as one on one.

The creation of the wall hanging involved doing leaf prints in autumn colours onto paper. However before the project can start, cardboard has to be cut into manageable sizes, leaves have to be collected, paints assembled and colours selected.

B)Encouragement is given to residents to contribute with skills that have been acquired over a lifetime.   C) Choice/decision making- the group had to select the leaves they wanted to use on their panel, the colours, and any additional utensils to assist.

D) Stimulation- The exercise was a form of expression and gave great satisfaction as each of the panels was finally placed together to form the whole effect.

F) Reminiscing- as usual accompanies this group exercise and was a good

way to keep memories active.

G) Emotional- there was a huge sense of achievement after all the weeks of work and a feeling at pride and satisfaction with the end product.

H) Fun and “having a go”. It was a new challenge and a totally new experience for some.

This was especially rewarding for those that said “I’m no good at that” or “I have never done that”. You are never too old to try and fun getting your fingers in all that thick gooey paint.

See them for the creations that they are and the hours of interaction that has gone into them.

Other activities

As well as the Autumn Leaves, the usual round of activities has taken place – outings, music, entertainment, baking (chocolate rice cakes for afternoon tea), flower arranging and hydrotherapy.

We had two games in the Round Robin Competition. We hosted Amberlea (we won that day) and we went to Bettina (and they won that day). Maybe the home ground advantage came into play.

The clay wind chimes have been finished, strung, and are hanging up in the Gazebo. So if the weather is OK you can walk down to the gazebo and listen to the gentle tinkling.

Mother’s Day

For a couple of days before Mother’s Day I noticed some of the staff acting like “Secret Squirrel” and they were very tight lipped about their activities. All was revealed at a special morning tea. The staff had raided their best china from home and had set up the dining room with the lace table cloths,

Some of the boys had a bit of trouble lifting the cups as the man-sized fingers would not go through the fine bone china handles, but this was well compensated for by the girls who were able to delicately lift the cups with their little ‘pinkie’ sticking out like proper ladies.

Thanks to all the staff that prepared this lovely surprise for the Residents and Ann.

Winter is here

With the passing of the warm summer days we have new turned on the heating and try to keep the rooms at 22C. This temperature seems to suit the residents.

Quality Management Survey

I sent out a “Survey for Quality Management” with last month’s newsletter. I would like to start analyzing these next week so if you still have a form to send in, please do so as soon as you can.

Keeping up-to-date with Peacehaven

Remember that if you have friends or family overseas, they can visit our website on www.peacehaven.co.nz to view our facilities. We have recently added two new sections to our website. One will contain all future newsletters and the other is for employment opportunities. If overseas friends/family want to send an email to a family member of resident here then address it to alan@peaceheaven.co.nz then I will print it out and give it to your family member.

If you want a copy of our newsletter to go to out-of-town friends I can do this by email if you give me the email address. Currently copies are going to Germany, the UK and Australia.