Resident engagement


defeat, I thought, ‘Not a problem, we’ll get the activities staff to do it.’ The thing about having a vision is you


need to enable others to share in that vision with you. When others have no experience of what you are asking them to visualise, it is extremely hard for them to visualise the outcomes, let alone become enthusiastic. Yet, for some reason, activities coordinator Jen Stutter was brave enough to volunteer to give it a go. We worked out a plan. She was to


play an episode of The Archers so that residents understood the concept of a radio play, the theme tune, the sound effects and the voices heard. She would then read the script to them and then record their parts individually. Due to Covid, this had to be done individually as the residents involved were from different households. We did not have professional


recording equipment, and this was being done on a tiny budget, so we had to make do with the equipment we did have - our phones. Although very proficient with her phone, Jen had never used the voice app on her iPhone before, so I created a set of ‘How to do it’ instructions for her to follow and when she had recorded each part she sent them to me via WhatsApp. The pandemic has made everyone


adaptable; Jen was a quick learner and we soon had things well organised. Even my graphic designer Philip Pitcher learned how to edit in order to ensure it was doable, cost-wise.


The show must go on Along with the first parts she had recorded, Jen sent me a message saying ‘I’m sorry but I don’t think this is going to work, I don’t think they are going to be good enough.’ You see, something like this


is not an easy ask when you are over 90 years old. You do not see so well and you do


not hear so well. Some days you feel better than others and some days your voice is weaker than others. Some days, just getting one of our budding radio stars into a room where they are soundproofed against the hustle and bustle of daily life in a care home is just not possible for them. My heart sank when I read her message. Yet I listened to the parts she had recorded and was soon feeling upbeat. What Jen thought was not good enough, I thought was actually perfect. In fact, what they had done was


brought the script to life in a way that I had not really envisaged. You see, it dd not have to be a flawless delivery to make this a wonderful piece of work. These people were all over 83, two


of them 98 and 99. The more misreads, intonations in not quite the right places or mispronunciations the better, as far as I could hear. It was real and it felt right that way too. I could not wait to edit it all together. We chose a music library track that


sounded like it would be a theme tune to this type of play and Phil edited it altogether. We found a library shot of an


old battery radio as a visual and added titles and the Finney House logo. Although this was very much a radio play, it was going to be a video file, so it also required something visual to go along with it. As a nod to the origins of the concept,


and to its comedic nature, we called it The Haharchers. We created its own brand identity and introduced it as a fictional comedy snapshot of daily life at Finney House. We also added a comedy disclaimer on the social media posts to be sure that anyone listening did not think this really was an accurate portrayal of daily life at Finney House!


Taking a bow Our plan was to circulate the finished episode to the senior management team and then the residents who had taken part to get their sign-off. We would then post it on Facebook so that their families and other Facebook followers could enjoy it, and LinkedIn so that other professionals could hopefully find some inspiration from it. Everyone was delighted with the


finished result. The residents were really proud of themselves and took great


48 www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2021


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