Activities at North Park Care Home

This week the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Chelsea Flower Show hosts a five-day-long annual spectacular of flowers, plants and show gardens, hosted in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Yesterday residents, staff and visitors held their very own NorthPark Flower Show.  Throughout the morning everyone enjoyed arranging flowers and reminiscing about their favourite flowers, their beautiful gardens and their love for gardening.  It was then time for the General Manager and Deputy Manager to judge the competition. 

Music and dementia can be a powerful combination for enhancing quality of life. Music therapy, along with listening to and engaging with music, can reduce anxiety, depression, and agitation in people with dementia, and can also help with communication and memory recall. 

Today we welcomed back the very talented Chris Johns to North Park for an afternoon of music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Residents had an amazing afternoon, singing, dancing and having a tipple or two. 

Residents of North Park often get together to enjoy their regular art and craft sessions, which support their creative ideas and encourage different methods of art. Residents have been busy showing their own style of colourful designs.

This class is particularly popular with all and everyone thoroughly enjoys a get-together with a cuppa and a slice of delicious cake.    Residents enjoy the colouring and crafting as they find it very calming and therapeutic. It enhances mindfulness and promotes positive mental well-being.   
 

Staff and residents are celebrating because their wonderful Regional Directors, Wendy McGowan & Dannie Tsoneva, from Barchester’s North East & Scotland Division, have stepped completely out of their comfort zones to compete in the Barchester Charitable Foundation Cook Off 2025.

Dannie & Wendy went head-to-head with the Regional Directors from Barchester’s four other divisions and cooked up a storm to raise a phenomenal £31,000 for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation which helps connect vulnerable people and those living with a disability to community groups in their local area by providing grants to improve mobility and quality of life. Each year the Foundation distributes thousands of pounds to individuals, small community groups and charities across England, Scotland and Wales.  In 2024 the Foundation achieved a donation milestone of £335,000 which enabled the charity to provide vital help to 239 small groups and charities, plus 104 individuals in one year alone.

We’re thrilled to share that North Park officially went live with Enable, our brand-new digital care planning system. This innovative platform allows our team to provide even more responsive, person-centred care by securely recording, updating, and accessing care plans in real-time. It also helps us improve communication, ensure consistency, and spend more time doing what matters most – supporting and caring for our residents.

We’re proud to be embracing digital transformation to enhance the lives of those we support and empower our staff with the tools they need to deliver outstanding care.  We celebrated the day with a launch party, with an array of  treats for all the staff.  This afternoon residents joined in the celebrations with tea and cake, and enjoyed chatting about the new digital system. 

 We attended a very special VE Day: 80th Anniversary Talk with Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy at University of Westminster.

The popular image of VE day is of partying in Trafalgar Square, of spontaneous street parties and bonfires and plenty of singing – and drinking! Yet many, no doubt, joined with the King in remembering those who would not come back from the war, as well as those still fighting in the Far East.
During the talk, Pippa Catterall highlighted both the light and dark moments of that momentous day.