At Sage Care Homes, we take every opportunity to celebrate with a party and this St Valentine’s Day was no different.

At Hazeldene's Valentine’s Day party, residents celebrated by making pink and red hearts to decorate the big lounge followed by homemade heart biscuits, cakes and a Valentines buffet. Entertainment came in the form of an Elvis impersonator singing many of the singer’s greatest hits. Many a resident spent the afternoon bopping away! A “Name the Bear” raffle was also held and we are pleased to announce that Isobel won. The Bear is now named “Buttercup”. Well done Isobel!

The Belmar celebrated St Valentine’s Day with a Music for Health and Karaoke afternoon. Plenty of fun followed as resident’s spent the afternoon swaying like trees, bending from their chairs and singing their hearts out!

The Hollands kicked off proceedings with a delightful flower arranging session on the Saturday with many of the gorgeous creations put on display around the home and the bedrooms. On Valentine's Day itself, residents enjoyed a lovely buffet with entertainment by one of the resident’s favourite singers, Susan-Jay. A good time was definitely had by all!

And at Jasmin Court, resident’s celebrated with heart shaped cookies and cake, fresh fruit and truffles. Music CDs were made of 1940’s and 1950’s love songs to distribute to the residents. Thoroughly enjoyed by all!

The homes above are just a sample, many more events were held at our other homes. Just to prove we love a party, preparations are already being made for St David’s Day (1st March), Mothering Sunday (14th March), and St Patrick’s Day (17th March) - watch this space for more!

Congratulations are due to Teresa France, our Hazeldene Care Home manager, for completing her NCFE Level 3 in Managing Diversity.

Teresa, keep up the great work!

Jasmin Court residents were recently treated to a visit from the Guide Dogs for the Blind. They spent quality time with the resident’s and the dog’s were superb and well behaved.

Our home already has a tradition of keeping resident’s in touch with pet animals. Party Animals visit the home every month and bring lots of different animals with them. For a lot of the residents, this visit is the highlight of their month as they spend a lot of their time petting and interacting with the animals. Our thanks to Party Animal for being so generous with their time.

We are proud to announce that Millreed Lodge Nursing Home has been awarded the highly prestigious Gold Standards Framework in Care Home and Help the Aged Quality Hallmark Award.

The award was achieved following extensive internal and external evaluations of Millreed Lodge. Home Manager Liz Shufflebottom has been the driving force behind the award and is understandably thrilled. “This award recognises the high quality of care provided by Millreed Lodge and reinforces our commitment to giving our Service Users the highest quality of care in the final years of their life. We look forward to being a long time member of the ‘Gold’ group”, Liz said.

Chris Engel, Sage Care’s Regional Manager, said, “Liz and her team fully deserve this award. We intend to build on this by getting our other homes into the Gold Standard Framework process to ensure the Group is delivering the highest standards of care. Already a couple of our other homes are well ahead in their preparation for this assessment.”

Saeed Ahmad, Sage Care’s Director said, “Our Care With Respect philosophy applies to all categories of Service users and especially to those who come to us in their final years. We are delighted that Liz and her team’s efforts at Millreed Lodge have been recognised.”

The Gold Standard Framework was set up to enable care homes to deliver a ‘gold standard’ of care for all people in the last years of their life and places an emphasis on more home-based, less hospital-based care.

For more details on the Gold Standards Framework, please see the link below.

http://www.goldstandardsframework.nhs.uk/

Sage Care Homes Group would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Judging by the recent photographs from our Willowbank Nursing Home, our residents and staff in the North of England look destined to have a White Christmas!

 Willowbank in the Snow!

We are delighted to announce that Chris Engel – currently manager at Jasmin Court Nursing Home – has accepted the post of Regional Manager (North of England) for the group.

Chris will be responsible for providing oversight to our homes in Lancashire and Yorkshire and will work closely with the respective home managers. He will be taking up his new post in the new year and brings with him excellent experience in the field as gathered from Jasmin Court and beyond.

We wish Chris all the best in his new role!

Despite the difficult economic times, Sage Care Homes is in the middle of a major refurbishment programme on a number of homes. This significant investment will enable our homes to more than match current regulatory standards as well as cater for an ever growing demand for our services.

Willowbank before (left) and after (right) the extension work

As an example, once work is complete in early 2010, Willowbank Nursing Home's rooms will all have been upgraded to single en-suite and the overall quality of service enhanced as a result of a major investment in a new wing to the main building.

Extensions have also been made to the main buildings at Jansondean and Rosemead. Work is currently ongoing to build a new wing at The Belmar. New laundry, heating and boiler systems as well as passenger lifts have recently been installed in a number of homes. Further expansion and upgrades are also planned for Belgarth, The Hollands and Millreed Lodge.

We have also recently acquired land in the Nelson, Lancashire area to construct a brand new purpose built nursing home. All in all there is a lot to be excited about within the group. More details on the above progress to follow in 2010!