A birthday party and a celebration of dignity mark Portsmouth home’s first anniversary

Company news

Feb 10, 2012

Residents, staff and their friends and families will be joining in with an action-packed day of activities to celebrate the first anniversary of Care UK's Harry Sotnick House on Wednesday 15th February.

While many homes celebrated Dignity in Action Day on 1st February, manager Gary Briggs and his team decided to have a double celebration for the special day and the first birthday of the home on 15th February. After talking to residents it was agreed that doing what everyone loves was the best way to celebrate choice and dignity as well as the home’s first anniversary.

Activities on the day will include wine-tasting, pamper sessions including massages, manicures, make-up sessions and appointments with the hairdresser. In the crafts room, activity co-ordinators will be helping residents and visitors with St Valentine’s Day creations. There will also be entertainers, a balloon artist, a disco and fun food to keep everyone in the party spirit.

Jane Mahnke, who has been co-ordinating the activities at the home in Buckland, along with her colleague Ann Spreadbury, said: “Dignity is about having choice and living life the way you want. We wanted to celebrate dignity, and our first year, by having a day dedicated to choice and fun.”

Dignity Action Day aims to ensure people in care are treated as individuals and given choice and control. As well as the fun activities, there will also be a display on dignity and dignity champions. Created by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, dignity champions believe passionately that being treated with dignity is a basic human right, not an optional extra. They believe that care services must be compassionate and person-centred, as well as efficient, and are willing to try to do something to achieve this.

Ann and other members of staff will be signing up as dignity champions and talking to residents and their relatives about what dignity means to them.

Manager Gary Briggs said: “We are passionately committed to dignity and choice and we put our residents’ wishes at the heart of everything we do.

“We have had a wonderful first year and all the team and their families are looking forward to sharing a day of fun and celebration with our residents and their families. “