Popular Southwold care home welcomes day-care visitors
- Nearly half of Southwold’s population are aged 60 and above
- Loneliness can be as harmful for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day
- 9% of older people in the UK feel trapped in their own home
St Barnabas, one of Southwold’s most sought-after private residential care homes, is offering extra support to the local community. It has opened its doors to day-care visitors to give them the chance to enjoy friendly, occasional day care in a home-from-home environment.
Life does not get easier for people as they grow older. The elderly may feel sad, lonely, bored and are very often in pain or suffering from a chronic and debilitating condition. Or, they just become increasingly frail. Frailty, which affects some 50% of those over the age of 75 is now considered a distinctive health state, and impacts both quality of life and length of life.
For those elderly living or being cared for at home, taking a break from the daily routine, meeting and interacting with new people, and having some of the daily care needs provided for can offer real relief and bring important mental and physical stimulation to help restore dignity and quality of life.
“I like the people that run it and the people who live there; I wake up in the morning and think, ‘how lovely, it is my St Barnabas day’,” says Pat, St Barnabas’ first day-care visitor.
With wonderful views of the harbour and sea and only a stone’s throw from the lively centre of Southwold, St Barnabas, which accommodates up to 14 permanent residents, has created a dedicated space to admit 5 day-care visitors every day. There is a comfortable, light and spacious communal sitting room, where day-care guests can enjoy meeting others, including residents, in a friendly family-like atmosphere, take lunch with the residents and participate in all in-house entertainments. Day-care visitors are cared for by a dedicated staff member, who can also help with some of the basic care needs such as taking a bath or supervising medication, to help those who may be struggling and to take pressure off family members who maybe giving care at home.
St Barnabas is a private care home and a registered charity and operates as a not-for-profit organization. As a charitable trust, St Barnabas can draw on legacies to provide higher-than-usual staffing levels and highly personalised and tailored care.
Sir Richard Dales, Honorary President of St Barnabas comments: “St Barnabas is very dear to our local community, it has existed for nearly 120 years, and this day-care facility is an incredibly important service for the people of Southwold, where over half of the residents now are elderly. It’s a very small home, and as such everything it offers is highly personalized and tailored to the very needs of its residents, very much like living within a family home. I do hope that we will always be able to provide for our elderly, be they local people, or indeed visitors with holiday homes who would like to see their family members cared for in this special location with such a dedicated and lovely team of care staff.”
St Barnabas offers day-care from Mondays to Fridays from 10am-4pm, with lunch included. Fees are based on a fixed day-rate.
To find out more visit St Barnabas’ new website at:
