Festive fun – Radfield helps Ellen to decorate her flat

One of the great delights of Christmas is the bringing out and unpacking of decorations, ready to festoon our rooms with all things bright and wonderful. Decorating and having things as they used to be at Christmas can sometimes become a challenge as we become older, meaning many miss out on the wonderful festive traditions that bring happiness and a sense of connectedness to us all.

At Radfield Home Care Shrewsbury and Oswestry, care professionals are always thinking about how they can improve the day to day life of their clients, supporting them to continue old traditions and indeed, discover new ones. This was certainly the case for Sonya Cole, registered care manager of Radfield Home Care Shrewsbury and Oswestry, carer Isabel and support from the community, whose thoughtful actions have brought joy to much valued client, Ellen, by donating decorations to brighten up her flat. Isabel explains:

“With the support from the office, we were able to carry out a lovely idea we had come up with to decorate Ellen’s flat and as soon as I mentioned it to her she was so excited. It was a great way of bringing the festivities to Ellen, as she can’t leave her flat and enjoy Christmas like many of us do.

Ellen and I spent two afternoons putting up the decorations, and she loved every minute of it. She said it felt like a wonderful party for the two of us and she was in absolute awe that so many of the decorations had been donated for her to use. We have put up lots of decorations everywhere, her favourite including ‘Fred’ who is a teddy snowman that sits at the end of Ellen’s bed. She’s already asked if Fred can come back next year!

Ellen said she felt very lucky that she has the support for this to be done for her, and it was the absolute pleasure of mine to bring the idea to fruition. Everyone has told me that Ellen always brings up how beautiful the decorations are and how happy they make her. It’s lovely to see!”

For Sonya it was a complete pleasure to help make things festive for Ellen:

“I got the idea from something I had done for a previous client at Radfield a few years ago and I asked Isabel to confirm with Ellen if she would be interested – Ellen was absolutely overwhelmed by the gesture. I’d seen before how much happiness the decorations had brought to them! We had a spare tree in the office but didn’t have any decorations. I live in a village called Gnosall and got in touch with Shannon Fleming, one of the admins, for ‘Hearts and Hands Stafford‘ and explained, whilst keeping client confidentiality, what we were hoping to do and asked whether they could help.

Shannon said they’d be happy to help us to support our client’s Christmas wish and she put the request out to the community. Amazingly she gave us four bags of decorations that had been donated – what a fantastic and kind community gesture that brought a smile to the face of a very caring client.”

If you would like to find out more about Radfield Home Care jobs and how you can join the team, you can visit www.radfieldhomecare.co.uk or contact the office directly [email protected] or 01743 245 555.