News

On Tuesday the 22nd of July, 15 residents, 9 relatives and 5 members of staff took a trip to Birdworld in Farmham. 

Happily the sun shone throughout the day.  With 3 Age Concern minibuses, 15 wheelchairs, a picnic, sunhats and cream we left Rodwell Farm at 10am.  At Birdworld we enjoyed our picnic under the trees and then walked around in small groups admiring the livestock and meeting up again later for ice creams.  Everyone loved the baby goats and spent much time telling me that we should have one at Rodwell as it would be such as asset in the garden! 

We returned to Rodwell at 4.30pm with 29 extremely tired people having enjoyed a very pleasant day out.  My thanks to all the relatives who made the day so successful.

Karen Raggett
Home Manager

On Sunday the 27th of July we held our Annual Garden Party with a tropical theme. 

Due to the extremely wet weather of the last three years we decided to order a large marquee with cover from the house.  Typically the day turned out to glorious and extremely hot!  Everyone was decked in colourful Leys and enjoyed the tropical menu of marinated chicken, assorted flavour sausages, vegetables, tropical fruit gateaux and ice creams.  Coconut & pineapple or tropical punches were served.  We ran a tombola and raised £200 for cancer research, our chosen charity for the year, following the illness of some friends and relatives and the loss of one very dear friend. 

With over 100 visitors Gail & Harvey did sterling work on the barbecue.  Many thanks to Glenys and the team for organising such a memorable day.

Sunday 8th June - Outline of Meeting - Present were 24 relatives, manager Karen Ragget and owners Ernie and Dr Karen Graham

Guest Speaker: Simon Stace

Karen welcomed everyone and thanked all for attending. She outlined the agenda and the aim of the meeting as being to generally involve relatives more in the care of their loved ones.

Ernie showed rough plans for the rebuild of Rodwell now that he has purchased 6 acres of nursery to the side. He described how it will probably take a year for planning permission, then a year for phase 1 to be built. Everyone will move in and then phase two commenced on the ground that the current Rodwell stands on.

Ernie explained the concept of care suites and reassured everyone that no existing residents will be charged the higher rates for new rooms.

Ernie answered questions from relatives about the plans.

Ernie introduced everyone to our new website at www.rodwellfarm.co.uk and asked Simon, our IT specialist, to describe how our interactive care plan and daily reporting system will work. Simon detailed how relatives will be given a password onto our secure site where they will be able to access details of their relative on a daily basis.  Ernie asked for 3 volunteers who have internet access to trial the system. Relatives’ questions were answered as they arose.

Karen spoke about individual activity plans and explained that some ideas suggested through surveys were unsuitable for our residents due to their physical or mental abilities, but she felt that if relatives were able to spend a short time occasionally to join us for activities or to run small groups themselves they would gain insight into the individual capabilities of our residents. Several people volunteered their services and skills.

Karen informed everyone of the planned outing on 22nd July and asked for escort volunteers.  It was agreed that forthcoming events would be published on the website and in the entrance hall for those who no not have internet access.

Karen gave relatives the option of 2 suggestions for ease of information sharing. The first was to run 3 sessions per year with a similar format to today with the addition of bringing in guest speakers to talk to us all about key subjects of interest eg. Loss and bereavement and dementia. The second was for the relatives themselves to set up a relatives group.

The opinion of all was that the first option would be more beneficial to all at this stage. This was agreed and Karen said she will plan a meeting for October.

Everyone present then enjoyed tea, cake and a chance to chat.

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April 2008 - Our Kittens Fred & Wilma

The home recently acquired two kittens who are growing fast and have settled into life at Rodwell Farm.