Staff at a care home pushed the boat out – literally – to ensure residents could enjoy a holiday.
The residents of Bradley House nursing home, in Sale, enjoyed daily trips over a four-day period along the Macclesfield Canal in a specially adapted canal boat.
The residents were able to relax and take in the picturesque views, as well as enjoy meals out as part of their holiday, which took place during the summer when enhanced restrictions had not been brought in.
Helen Bange, manager of Bradley House, said:
This trip it is one of our favourite activities and it is a lovely relaxing time along the canal with beautiful scenic views, feeding the ducks and waving to everyone along the way.
“Normally we invite families and our amazing volunteers to come along but unfortunately this year we had to take all the measures to protect our residents.
“A big thank you to all our amazing staff for making this trip possible by giving up their free time and annual leave to come along and make it happen.”
Staff at the nursing home, which cares for elderly people with dementia, put in huge amounts of extra work to ensure the trip could go ahead.
This included cleaning the minibus for the journey to the canal, putting in social distancing measures on the boat and ensuring the canal boat crew and its passengers remained apart during the trip.
Monica Temple, activities co-ordinator added:
It was a lot of extra work compared with our normal trips but it was well worth it. The residents had an amazing time and it was great to see them relaxing and enjoying their trip out.
“Hopefully, we will be able to return to normal next year and be able to invite families and our volunteers on our trip.”
Cllr Jo Harding, Trafford Council’s Executive Member for Adult Social Care, said:
Seeing the pictures of the residents on the barge enjoying themselves has brought a tear to my eye.
“The coronavirus restrictions have made this period such a difficult time for care homes but staff are still going above and beyond to look after their residents and make sure they enjoy a high quality of life.”
Posted on Tuesday 22nd September 2020