A team from Toshiba TEC recently spent a fun-filled day with the residents of Anchor's Bluegrove House in Bermondsey – one of the nation's leading care homes. The 12-strong team coordinated and hosted a diverse range of activities, all of which were designed to focus on interaction and conversation.
Anchor is England's largest not for profit provider of housing and care for the over 55s, and for more than four decades it has been leading the way in providing services for older people. Today, the organisation has around 40,000 customers and nearly 9,000 staff working in more than 1,000 locations.
'Bluegrove House is a trusted provider of care for older people and we offer specialised services for those living with dementia and physical disabilities,' explained Debbie Sharples-Kirkbride, MBE, Anchor's Customer Engagement Officer. 'Activities play an important role in creating a stimulating environment and we aim to enhance our residents' quality of life by providing a varied range of person centred social events. Therefore, we were delighted when Toshiba TEC offered to come and spend some time with us.'
The day began with a general introduction and tour, after which the Toshiba TEC team joined the residents for a full itinerary of sessions. In addition to repairing and painting garden furniture and carrying out other general gardening activities, the team also hosted a range of interactive exercise classes, music workshops and arts and crafts sessions. These were used to create Spanish themed drawings, paintings and bunting to display around the home. Each event was configured to enable everyone involved to get the very most out of the occasion and the day concluded with Bluegrove House's residents and staff joining the Toshiba TEC team for nibbles and sangria.
'We had a great time with the residents of Bluegrove House and the feedback we received has been tremendous and made it all worthwhile,' commented Ben Gaston, Head of Managed Services at Toshiba TEC. 'As a company we are committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and as well as caring about the environment and sustainability we never forget that it is just as important to give something back to the community and help our fellow human beings.'