Friends of Aston House

Leaves were cleared away, hedges trimmed, and fences coated. The aim was to make everything tidy for the winter and the group also spent time planting 200 bulbs ready for next spring.

The group brought in Christmas boxes they had made for the residents and also a record player they had brought so the residents could make use of the homes record collection.

Some of the young people had brought in homemade cakes to share as they wanted to spent time with the residents having afternoon tea and chatting

The first day time began with a session on getting to know the home and David Wood ran a short session on dementia awareness. The group then met and spent time with the residents in some of the lounges.

One the second day the group returned much to the delight of the residents. The group brought musical instruments and performed and chatted with residents. It was good to see the young people interacting with residents and both the young people and the residents thoroughly enjoyed the Halloween party.

They group are going to work on Christmas care packages for residents and will bring them back in November when they come to do a painting and gardening project at the home.

As part of his role, he is patron of each of the friends groups in care homes.

Pictured here, he is talking to Nichole, project manager, and Kahlil who is newly appointed to the team. He was delighted to hear of the progress to date.

The church are always looking for new way to be a good neighbour to people in need and has invited the Friends to talk about the work they are doing and consider how the church could be more involved at Aston House.

The attendees then had a group discussion to discuss their response to this. The following points were made:

• Should examine positively how we can engage with the home
• Volunteer group to visit home
• Hold regular events e.g. coffee mornings
• Pray
• Music
• After Church visit
• Hold Church service at home
• Take nativity/play to the home
• Monthly communion service

The Friends are looking forward to working more closely with the church to develop their contribution at the home

The group had already done some fundraising and bought painting equipment and paint with them. The plan for the day was to tidy up the gardens and car park and paint the fences and garden benches.

On the day the young people split into groups,  some to focus on the back garden area and the others to work in the car park and at the front of the home. One particularly laborious job was stripping the ivy from the fence in the car park but the groups persevered in the heat.

There was lots of tidying up and painting to be done and the home provided plenty of ice cold drinks on what was one of the hottest days of the year. The Friends provided additional paint and gardening equipment.

Everyone met in the garden for lunch. The home provided a delicious spread with, pizza, chips, sandwiches and other nibbles and then cornetto’s to finish

After lunch the team got back to work finishing off the painting and tidying up.

It was great to see the difference the efforts of everyone had made. The garden was tidier and the newly painted fences and benches really looked fresh and clean.

We were pleased to hear that the group thought the home was a lovely environment and had enjoyed their day with us as we really enjoyed having them.

She plans to study Psychology at University next autumn, but is currently now finishing her gap year that she took after secondary school. During her A-Levels, Maisha researched and completed a project on the placebo effect, relating it to Psychological disorders, including Depression and Dementia.

Maisha volunteers at Aston House every week because she wanted to volunteer at a care home that specialised in Dementia. The care home is about an hour away from her house and it requires her to take two buses to get there, but she said “there is not a single day I regret making this journey.” It has been easy for her to build and form relationships with the residents, after helping and caring for her grandmother who has battled depression for many years now. There are differences between the two illnesses of depression and dementia, but there are many similarities as well.

Even though she has had experience with caring for the elderly, her time at Aston House Care Home has been different in many ways. The biggest benefit she says is the feeling of love she gets when she sees her resident’s smile after they have just had an hours long conversation about each other’s past time, but the worst part about it all is when she returns the following week and the resident does not remember that conversation. Her passion and drive to improve the lives of the residents has grown since she started volunteering, which is why she loves organising different activities each day.

In the beginning, forming the relationships was easy, but keeping the residents attention can be challenging. Also, finding new activities that they would all enjoy each week has been tough, but as she got to know the residents better and learned what they enjoyed this became easier, while also communicating constantly with the Activity Coordinator at Aston House.

After all that her grandmother did for her, she wants to give other grandmothers and grandfathers the same care and love. This is so valuable to their health and well-being on a daily basis.  This volunteer work helped her in her psychology classes and while taking part in various clubs and activities throughout the year. She was moved and devoted to branching out of her comfort zone and meeting and interacting with new people and now has experience when it comes to finishing her degree and possibly moving into a field that will involve psychology and social care for either the elderly or children.