Zahid Khan on Beating the Winter Blues

As head of Well-being for Avery Healthcare, my job is to support a programme of person-centred activities that nurtures every residents’ needs and preferences. I think I have one of the best, most rewarding roles. The coronavirus pandemic has posed a great challenge for all of us this year, particularly so for residents in care homes. With relative visits restricted and external activities mostly postponed, our well-being and activities staff have been working hard to maintain creativity and fun in all their activities, with nature and nurture at the forefront of their care. Our weekly roundups, distributed to all staff at our homes, include ideas and inspiration for the upcoming week, as well as helpful resource packs to inspire our team to engage with our residents as best as possible. 

Beating the Winter Blues 

This winter, it’s more important than ever to keep this momentum going, and our dedicated teams are pulling out all the stops to create a great winter and Christmas for all of our residents. We have a whole host of activities and events planned for this winter, all complying with current restrictions but with the same festive fun! Including, Christmas markets in the garden, biscuit decorating, virtual Christmas fayres, online concerts, and fancy dress competitions. We encourage our staff to share the wonderful things they are doing on Facebook; we want relatives to feel as involved as possible and hope this will bring a smile to their face.

Remember – keep safe, stay positive and stay smiling!

Zahid Khan, Head of Well-being