PHIL Mead House, an Abbeyfield residential care home for older people, held an oral care fun day to celebrate Abbeyfield Week.
Abbeyfield Week is an annual celebration of the operator’s model of housing and care for older people. Abbeyfield, a charity, has a national network of sheltered housing schemes, care homes and independent living complexes, which are characterised by their communal living arrangements, where residents have access to shared spaces where they can eat, socialise, and engage in activities together, in addition to their own private room.
This allows scope for each resident to determine the level of privacy and interaction with others they would like in later life, with a focus on choice and independence.
Abbeyfield Week serves as an opportunity to promote the benefits of the model to the wider world, and particular focus is also given to the benefits of community engagement.
Each local Abbeyfield is encouraged to invite people, organisations and other institutions from the neighbourhood to join a celebration event, which helps them to boost their profile in the community, raise awareness of what they do, and strengthen or build new relationships with potential supporters.
Phil Mead House senior care assistants Alecia Akram and Gemma Muir, deputy manager Michelle Hart and manager Lesley Costello recently completed their Oral Care Champion training with the Oral Health Improvement Team from Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust.
At the training they learned about the serious medical conditions that can arise from poor oral care, and received a Mouth Care Toolkit that included various samples of products that can be used to demonstrate to other staff, residents and relatives within the care home to help improve oral health.