This month Springhill Care Home in Accrington is nominating two sets of Caring Heroes for their outstanding contributions.

Laura Foulger has been nominated by a relative of one of our residents, John, for going over and above her duties.

Laura has been praised for supporting John by researching Easter and the importance to the Catholic faith, helping John dress smartly and his family have been very impressed.

Meanwhile, the kitchen team at Springhill Care Home have been nominated for the work they have done to research and develop new menus.

The tasty food was presented to residents, staff and family members recently at a special tasting session and was extremely well received.

Thanks to everyone involved for their efforts you are all #CaringHeroes

Residents and staff at Springhill Care Home gathered to mark VE Day recently.

To commemorate the Victory in Europe in May 1945, we all watched news footage and announcements from the time and shared our own wartime memories and those passed from family members.

There were a range of newspaper articles from the day that we made available along with photographs of people gathering to celebrate the end of the war.

It was a lovely occasion with tea and beautiful cakes, and later in the afternoon music and dance.

To view more photos check out our Facebook page click HERE

Residents at Springhill Care Home recently enjoyed taking part in an activity related to the local heritage project named ‘Finding Ethel.’

The session proved very popular and saw residents and staff looking through a first edition of a book written by local author Ethel Carnie Holdsworth.

We refer to Ethel as ‘Our Ethel’ due to the local connection – she was born in Oswaldtwistle in 1886 and lived in East Lancashire for most of her life.

It was very interesting to read through an extract from one of her books and some of her poetry, and we spent time considering what life would have been like for her.

We even tried to get to grips with some old time Lancashire dialect, for example ‘Furze Bush’ which we believe must refer to a gorse bush which we still see in abundance across our countryside.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and we’re looking forward to the next time we ‘find Ethel,’ due to take place on Friday, May 17 from 2pm.

These sessions are open to family and friends – anyone wishing to attend should speak to a member of the lifestyle team.

Staff at Springhill Care Home know what it feels like to be ‘Dementia Champions’ after completing their training.

Care staff Janet Cornthwaite, Denise Walkden, Donna Greenhalgh, Julie Stevenson and Justyna Majcher completed an intense training programme led by Jakki Whitehead, Springhill Care Group’s Admiral Nurse – a specialist in dementia care.

The training covered a range of topics including the facts and figures around dementia such as the amount of people diagnosed and how nutrition and good health can help.

The group learned about the importance of communication in providing good dementia care, and how important life history and meaningful activities are.

Finally, the group presented a case study to directors, managers and trainers at Springhill Care Home, which required a significant amount of planning, writing and rehearsing.

The presentation involved seeking permission to work with residents and family members, before identifying and explaining the resident’s life story and how dementia care and the social care environment has affected them.

Following the training, one of the new Dementia Champions praised the training as ‘emotional but very worthwhile.’

Jakki Whitehad said: “The presentations were very challenging but went extremely well. The case studies were very moving and highlighted the amount of compassion and empathy with which Donna, Julie, Denise, Janet and Justyna work.

“We all agreed that the group highlighted the great work being done at Springhill and we are very proud of them for completing the training.

“From a personal point of view I know how hard our new Dementia Champions needed to work to achieve this standard, and I was delighted to see them presented with their certificates and badges.”