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A 161-year-old ladies residential home has launched a healthy eating programme, with each resident given their own allotment to grow fruit and vegetables.
At the end of every year, Express speaks to local charities about the highlights of their year, and what their Christmas wishes are for the year ahead.
Today, it’s the turn of Glanville Ladies Residential Care Home.
Founded in 1860 and Jersey’s longest established residential home for ladies, Glanville is a registered charity. All generous donations and legacies received go towards improvements at the property and enhancements to the experience of the home’s resident ladies.
Express caught up with Glanville committee chairman, Clive de la Cour, about 2021 and their hopes for 2022…
Earlier this year we celebrated the arrival of our new home manager, Isabel Freitas. She has a proven reputation, the ladies love her and she is steering our wonderful team through lots of exciting developments at Glanville.
Pictured: Glanville was founded in 1860 and you can read about how it came to be HERE.
One of these projects has been to start the refurbishment of Glanville’s bedrooms, a programme of works which was made possible because of a very generous legacy left to the charity by a former resident.
Improvements haven’t just been made indoors, a new garden path, ensuring the ladies can move about safely, has been installed, while a healthy eating programme has also been launched, which sees residents eat their own homegrown fruit and vegetables. Each resident now has her own allotment.
The development of infection control safe strategies has continued, and thanks to amazing collaboration with staff and families of residents who have gone that extra mile, our ladies have been able to engage as much as possible with their loved ones.
Glanville was also appointed as one of Highlands College’s work experience care homes as well as hosting students from the government's 'Back to Work' scheme who are training to be carers.
Pictured: Each resident now has their own allotment.
The team has also continued to develop relationships with community health professionals, while at the home a residents’ committee has been established as part of Glanville’s ongoing person-centred development - residents play a significant role in our decision-making processes.
With Isabel at the helm, an amazing team of carers and support staff and wonderful residents it’s hard to work out which were our key achievements. We celebrated three significant birthdays, with ladies celebrating a 100th, 102nd and 104th birthday throughout the year.
Keeping our residents safe, following government guidelines in relation to covid infection control measures and also supporting residents and staff with the provision of as much information as possible so they could make informed decisions about having their covid vaccine helped us to achieve a 100% vaccination rate.
Pictured: Refurbishment has been a key focus at Glanville this year - and the team is hoping to finish the project in 2022.
Despite the challenges, within the home we achieved a great deal – the ladies were thrilled to be involved in the making of strawberry jam, made from their own homegrown strawberries and following the recipe of the grandmother of one of our ladies. These moments were really important to our team and to our ladies.
We were also thrilled to support staff through qualifications and to celebrate one of our carers being accepted onto a nursing degree course. The development of person-centred care plans for all of our residents was another key achievement.
In addition to continuing with our exciting improvement and enhancement projects, we are very much wishing for a safer, covid-free 2022 (which does feel like a wish as opposed to a possibility!), so our residents can spend even more good quality time with their families and the community of Jersey can have some normality in their lives.
To host our annual summer garden party - we usually hold a summer garden party, which is a highlight for our ladies, and has unfortunately been cancelled two years running.
We would also like to share the wonderful Glanville story more widely and to be able to fundraise (as that’s been a challenge in 2020/2021) to help support the upkeep and enhancements of the home. Receiving pledges of support is so important as it means we can continue to charge some of the lowest fees of any residential homes in Jersey, which we believe is critically important.
Pictured: Glanville's rose garden, where they're hoping to host their twice cancelled summer party in 2022.
We will continue to put our students through their qualifications and wish them every success.
Finally, I do wish we could finish our refurbishment programme more quickly (and that unexpected maintenance issues cease, to allow us to forge forward with the programme of improvements), so that our ladies can all enjoy beautifully refreshed bedrooms.
More in the 2022 charity wishes series...
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