Prader Willi Syndrome

Saturday 28th August is the 18th birthday of New Directions administator. We do not normally allow silly hats in the office, but we had made allowances on this occassion.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICKY X X X 

After 11^th September there will be a full report with pictures of how Girls Out Loud (New Directions fundraising team) got on at this event. In the meantime the text below has been taken directly from PWSA instant news.

 

If you live in the South East, here’s an exciting day out that will also raise funds for PWSA (UK).

 

The spirit of Dragon Boat Racing at Bewl returns for its 13th year at Bewl Water. All day activities on both days 10am – 5pm.
The 2010 event will take place on Saturday 11th September and Sunday 12th September.

 

The Dragon Boat Festival is the largest event of its type in Europe with 100 teams competing over the weekend in 10 dragon boats watched last year by around 15,000 spectators. The setting at Bewl Water, Lamberhurst, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent is a perfect backdrop for the event. The Festival has grown each year and we have extended the weekend’s activities with field events, tented village, bands, personalities/celebrities, all giving a lively carnival atmosphere.

 

Admission charge: At time of posting this was set at £5 per adult and £3 per child.   Please see official Bewl website www.bewl.co.uk for confirmation of admission charge. A child is classed as aged 3 - 15.

 

New Directions’ fundraising team, “Girls Out Loud” have entered a team in this year’s event to raise money for PWSA (UK). They will be taking part on  Saturday 11th September 2010.  At the event will be many PWS supporters.

 

There will be a PWS Marquee and raffle / tombola. See the Girls Out Loud “Just Giving” web-site http://www.justgiving.com/girlsoutloud-pwsa  for more details. If you are attending this event, please introduce yourself to New Directions (tel 01424 421684)  www.newdirections.gb.com

 

 

We can hardly believe that it is 2 years on 1st September since Bishops Way first opened. 

 

We have all developed and grown in that time!  The staff team are now well established, those who did not have previous experience of working with adults with PWS are knowledgeable and well trained in the syndrome and the staff who had previous experience have learnt so much more in these two years.

 

The service user group have developed in their personal and become truly ‘at home’ at Bishops Way.  Although there have been some changes, with Jenny moving out last week, the three remaining people in the home are well settled and happy in their home environment.

 

So, 2 years have passed so quickly and we are all looking forward to the next 2, 5 10 years and beyond.

On Thursday 19^th August,  everyone at Bishops Croft went to Eastbourne for the day.  We had a picnic on the beach and then went to the theatre to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  All service users and staff said how fantastic it was.   Mark was the star of the group with his laughter, which got the whole theatres attention.

 

Over the weekend of Saturday 7^th and Sunday 8^th August the group from Bishops Croft went to visit the Step Back in Time Show at Sedlescombe, near Battle.

Everyone  really enjoyed themselves, they said “there was so much to see, such as old cars, vintage tractors, shire horses, bird displays and even off roading in a land rover and so much more”. The weather was so good we took a picnic there.

 

Barry, Ryan, Sam and Louise from Bishops Corner went on a Day Services trip to Legoland. We asked them to write a piece for the website on their day.

On the 4^th August I went to Legoland with my friends, I went on a water ride called Extreme Team challenge, it was very good. It was funny because Donna and I got wet. When we went on the Extreme Team challenge, I had to go in a dingy; I went down very fast and went round lots and lots of corners.

Thank you Donna and Barbara for taking us to Legoland.

By Ryan Inwards

 

 

I went out with Barbara and Donna and thought I was going out for a walk; I was very surprised when Barbara told us we were spending the whole day out at Legoland Windsor. The bit I enjoyed the most was the rubber ring ride, it was great fun because we all sat inside the ring together and we got bumped into the walls and ended up getting wet from the water falling down. I enjoyed the roller coaster ride and the laser ride too and we went on another ride which was in a catamaran and it was great, it made me feel like I was James Bond because we had to steer the wheel in order to make them go faster. I just wanted to say a big thank you to Barbara and Donna and a big thank you to Gayle for making this possible.

 

By Sam Newman

 

 

 

Hello my name is Barry James Davidson Gore.

We went to Legoland with Donna and Barbara. We went on the rides and we did lots of walking round Legoland Park. It rained very hard and we got very wet. We all caught the train to go down the hill. We enjoyed this very much and had a lovely time.

Thank you very much Donna and Barbara for taking us to Legoland, it was a fab day out.

By Barry Gore

 

 

 By Louise Newham

 

 

Last month saw Simon launch his stage ‘career’ at the Phoenix Arts Centre in front of a packed house, his Mum, his brothers children and some people from Bishops Way were amongst them. It was a long, but extremely entertaining evening.

Grant is continuing to win his fight to lose weight, a feat  which he is, quite rightly very proud of. Grant also successfully completed his course at the Station Plaza campus of South Coast College.

Lydia had an enjoyable break with her family and continues to apply herself both in workshop and exercise activities, in fact Lydia requested an additional swimming session each week as she both enjoys and benefits from this. Lydia had a surprise visit from her Godmother last week, which was a great success.

Jenny will be moving on for personal reasons and a suitable new home has been found for her in Burwash Common. Jenny spent a day there recently and is now impatient to move in, this has been scheduled to happen on 23^rd August.

Staff-wise, we have temporarily ‘loaned’ our Senior Tracy to Bishops Lodge to help them out and in the meantime Claire is acting as our third senior. Leslie has successfully passed her NVQ Level 3 in Health & Social Care.  Simon and Adam have just started their NVQ Level 2 with the local College and we wish them a speedy completion. Sadly, we will be losing Gem next month when she goes on maternity leave and we will be taking someone on for that period, watch this space…..  Finally, we have offered the Day Services Co-ordinator job to Andy, who hopes to start with us on 13^th September.

Sam, Barry, Paula and Louise all went for an afternoon trip to Bedgebury Park and what an amazing place that is. We walked along Woodland trails and explained what was around us they had a giant adventure trail, it was very quiet with hardly anyone around and that’s when the inner child came out in all of us we walked the wonky bridge, we slid down the slippy slide.

 

We took our packed tea with is and found a lovely spot down by the duck pond. We tucked into out tea being watched by the ducks, we fed the ducks some bread crusts they even tried a broken rice cake but spat that out, they must not like the salt and vinegar. Louise found it funny when one of the ducks bit my finger but he spat me out cause I’m very much more than a mouthful.

 

Why don’t you try Bedgebury when you next want an afternoon out?

 

By Donna Barfield

Senior at Bishops Corner

 

The East Sussex Brighton & Hove Registered Care Home Association conference was held on 20^th July at Herstmonceux Castle.  All New Directions managers attended.  The conference is a good way for us to all to keep up to date with new legislation and procedures in the industry.  There were about 120 delegates and talks from  Local Authorities, Care Quality Commission, Tissue Viability expert, The National Care Association and many others.  The day was useful, the managers gained knowledge and, we hope, enjoyed the day.

 

This months award went to Kim Hubbart who is the Day Services Co-ordinator at Bishops Lodge. Kim has been with the company for just over 8 months. The award was given due to Kim for settling in well, her commitment to work and due to maternity leave at Bishops Lodge, Kim has stepped in (as have many of our other staff) to cover shifts in the home.

Well done Kim!

On Monday 2nd August, four persons with PWS, accompanied by David Palmer set off for a photo shoot on Brighton Pier. They were Steven Mackelden from Bishop’s Croft. Sarah Marsh from Bishop’s Lodge and from Bishop’s Corner Paula Densham and Ryan Inwards. 

We arrived at the agreed meeting point and were joined by Rob Kempson of the PWSA and Katie Lloyd our photographer. All, except David, experienced a photo shoot on the world famous Brighton Pier. Katie described Steven as a natural, Sarah as beautiful, Paula as a true model and Ryan as excellent. David was not described as anything by Katie. Ryan described David as an embarrassment, this was agreed by the others. David’s crime was that he sang “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…” whilst walking back to the car.

On the way back we stopped for lunch which was enjoyed by all. Then on to the respective homes so that the four could tell what a great day they had and that DP was an embarrassment.

www.katielloydphotography.com

pictures to follow