Prader Willi Syndrome

As 2010 draws to an end New Directions would like to wish everyone a very happy new year. It has been a very full and eventful year and we all can not wait to see what 2011 brings.

REVIEW OF 2010:

January: Following the previous months festive activities the only news item was the snow that hit the south east..the worst seen for many years.

February: More snow followed in early part of this month but had cleared in time for the Valentines event that was sponsored by our work placement scheme at DVS.

March: The service users enjoyed taster sessions at a farm fun by Plumpton College. It is hoped that a course can be designed and funded for our guys to attend.

April: A pen pal and friend of Bishops Lodge visited from Australia. Tamara Gates was crowned Carnival Queen and Miss Hastings naming the Prader Willi Syndrome Association as her charity of the year.

May: The international conference was held in Taiwan. Gayle Benet attended from New Directions. New Directions fundraising for the year got underway in earnest with £600 being raised on a Bank Holiday event.

June: The Our Way of Life Conference was held in Derby and enjoyed by the service users and staff from New Directions. The Forum Board for persons with PWS was initiated. The service user holidays were completed this month. Nick from Bishops Croft was taken ill on Holiday at Longleat and was taken to hospital by air ambulance ( Nick has recovered from this experience ).

July: All the management team attended a personalisation conference hosted by East Sussex County Council. It was pleasing to note that all our managers feel that we encompass the ethos of personalisation whist still catering for the comlex needs of PWS.

August: Three service users from New Directions went on a photo shoot to Brighton Pier where a professional photographer accompanied by Rob Kempson from the PWSA took pictures for a proposed publication. New Directions attended the annual Residential care Homes Associations Conference. 

September: New Directions attended the PWSA family Fun Day in Brighton. The annual summer fun day for service users took place at ” The Tin Hut “. The Girls out Loud Dragon Boat Team raced at Bewl Water and raised £5000 for the PWSA.

October: New Directions sent two representatives to the Care Show in London to keep abreast of developments within the care field.

November: The first meeting of the forum board for persons with PWS was held at New Directions training facility in Hastings. A cheque presentation ceremony was held at Bishops Corner for the amount raised during the Girls out Loud Dragon Boat initiative. New Directions wrote to the government and local MP due to the coalition governments decision to stop DLA mobility payments to working aged adults living in residential care.

December: New Directions secured further work place opportunities at a local engineering company. The service users Christmas party took place at the Tin Hut. The snow returned with a vengeance.

I am not sure if I’m getting older but time certainly seems to fly these days! I can hardly believe it was October by that we last posted news on the website. So here goes with the latest instalment

At the recent Christmas party Simon and Grant made great impressions as Santa in their costumes. Unfortunately there were no beards enclosed in with the Santa suits so we had to improvise with facepaint. Both guys thought this was hilarious and we had fun applying the white to their chins. Lydia made a striking Santa’s elf dressed in green and all enjoyed the fun and frolics at the Tin Hut that day.

 

Grant has recently started at computer club on Friday mornings, which he is very much enjoying. As usual, Grant left us early for Christmas as he also has a birthday at this time of year.

 

Lydia braved the first of the snow in November to return to Way after a visit to her family. Due to the road conditions they didn’t arrive until the early hours of the morning and her poor family had to make the return journey more or less straight away. The things we do for love! Since returning Lydia has worked extremely hard in day services both the exercise-based activities and the art and crafts. Well done Lydia!

 

Ayesha continues to settle in well and has just marked her three-month anniversary at Way. She enjoyed a successful visit to her family for Eid and plans to spend a couple of days with them over the Christmas period. Even though Ayesha did not feel like dancing at the Christmas party, she has proved that she can ‘bust some moves’ when she used the Just Dance programme on the Wii. 

Simon continues to excel in rug making and pottery. He has made many presents the family members and thinks that the new venue is much better. He says that he is enjoying the variety of work and support given by Vanessa and he loves learning new skills.

 

Many thanks to all of the service users who made some lovely decorations for the Christmas tree, these will be treasured and brought out year after year.

 

As for the staff team, everybody managed to get to and from work despite the best efforts of the bad weather, with the exception of Sue, who was on holiday in Florida at the time. The team has worked very hard and extremely creatively to keep things going and stimulating for the people that live here despite the weather keeping us housebound for days at a time. We always knew that the Wii would be a good investment, along with the board games.

 

Everyone Bishops Way wishes you will a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

 

This year’s Christmas party at the Tin Hut was sadly lacking something this year…. that something was David Palmer - although the birth of his new daughter Amber was accepted by all as a valid reason for non-attendance! You were very much missed David, but rest assured that we all ‘wet the baby’s head’ on your behalf (mostly with J20)

 

Kim from Lodge did a fantastic job as “Guess the Santa”  and kept everyone in suspense for most of the morning. There was much speculation that it was actually Gayle under the mask  -  maybe next year Gayle?

 

The Christmas fancy dress theme proved quite popular, with most people taking part. This could be the start of a new directions tradition. Everyone appeared to enjoy the dancing and the karaoke, whether they were participating or spectating, and all certainly enjoyed the food. Thanks to Chris and her team at Croft for handling the catering.

 

Lots of photos were taken and some appear below, however if the one of Sue doing her parentheses DP in Santa’s grotto) sees impersonation picture appears on the website, she will claim coercion or plead temporary insanity!

 

Roll on the next “do”   -  Valentines???

 

We are pleased to anounce the arrival of Amber Charlie Georgie Palmer to our Development Manager David Palmer and his partner Gemma (Gem ) Masters, born on Monday 13th December 2010. After a somewhat long and difficult labour mum and daughter are home and both in very good health.

Below is a letter from Lily who visited Bishops Lodge I have ***** the names of the residents as I have not asked their approval….all do want to raise awareness of PWS 

 

Dear David,

 

THANK you again (and your wife and daughter for being so patient) for helping me get my taster-tape filmed for the BBC Three programme this weekend.

 

Picking me up and dropping me back to the station, and making me so welcome and informing me so brilliantly about PWS and some of the resident’s needs - was so kind and so appreciated. It was such a fantastic pleasure for me to meet you and all the residents at Bishop’s Lodge. Fingers crossed today to see if we get through the first round of interviews.

 

After editing the footage, ***** certainly comes across very strongly on camera, as a main ‘character’ and I think he is the kind of contributor BBC Three would go for. Obviously, ***** and **** and *****  were brilliant too, but unfortunately BBC Three always go for a certain age in their main contributors, who they think the audience will engage with the most. Saying that, my hope is that the film gets commissioned and we centre it around Bishop’s Lodge, where anyone can be involved if they want to.

 

I know ***** has reservations about being involved, and without putting pressure on him, I would love to try and persuade him otherwise - to see that the film would very much be positive in tone and inspirational, while making people more aware of PWS. As *****  said to me himself  - i want the film to show how inspiring the residents at Bishop’s Lodge are as they show determination to not let their PWS stop them from leading the lives that they want to live, despite the daily challenges that they are faced with.

 

Anyway, enjoy that Christmas party - i wish I could join you all for the karaoke.

 

Thanks again, and speak soon,

 

Ps: Good luck with the arrival of the new babe…hope all goes well.

Lily

NEW DIRECTIONS CHRISTMAS PARTY

 

On 14^th December, I went to a Christmas Party with my fiancé Barrie and our friends at Bishops Corner to Ninfield.

 

I had a lovely time up there, I really enjoyed it so much.  The food was really good and I was so happy to be there.

 

The staff was so nice and friendly, and I was dancing with them with the Christmas songs and also it was a karaoke.

 

Barrie sang two songs to me and I sang one song as well, it was so good, I loved it.

 

I danced with Barrie as well and his friends and I had two cold drinks, we also played music and stand still.  It was fun.

 

WRITTEN BY MISS MICHAELA TARGETT

 

Michaela is not a resident at any of the New Directions Homes, she is the girlfriend of Barrie who lives at Bishops Corner, and has been for about four years now.

 

Ryan Inwards and Samual Newman from Bishops Corner went to a taster session at a new work place opportunity at an engineering company. They both spent 2 hours in the factory supported by David Palmer to learn the ropes and see what it was all about. Both thoughorghly loved the environment and the work. The management at the company were pleased with the results of the work and are putting a proposel to their next department meeting which is this Thursday.

Well done Ryan and Sam…watch this space….

www.1066.net/carnival.

  

 

Miss Hastings Tamara Gates is now officially a Miss England quarter finalist!

Student Tamara Gates has this year’s Miss Hastings title.

Tamara, who is studying business management at Surrey University, said: “I was really shocked when I was selected and had to double-check in my head to see if it was true. It’s only just sinking in.”

Tamara, who is a former pupil at The Grove and who studied for A-levels at Bexhill College, will be representing Hastings at forthcoming community events.

She has chosen to help the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, a charity which offers support to those suffering from the genetic condition, which means they have insatiable cravings for food.

Tamara said: “My mother is a Registered Manager of a care home for specifically for adults with Prader Willi Syndrome so I feel quite passionate about this. It is a genetic illness, rather than a lifestyle choice.”

More information about Hastings Carnival is available on the official website at www.1066.net/carnival.

Tamara needs your help though, she can get through to the judging for the semi finals on public votes so please can you vote for her? and get all your friends and family too please!

Text “24Tamara” to 84205. (60p plus standard network charge on mobiles)….
Heat 2 started on FRIDAY 26TH NOVEMBER at 12.00noon and will finish on TUESDAY 4TH JANUARY 2011 at 12.00noon

Click for more info

DAY SERVICE TRIP TO FRANCE - 30^th November 2010

 

 

We got up at 6am and got a taxi at 6.50am.  Then we got on a coach to go to Eurotunnel to catch the train.

 

We had a lovely time, I bought some tobacco and other shopping.

 

We had nice drivers called Mark and Bill on the coach and we made friends on the coach.  They made us laugh so much.

 

On the way back from France, we got stuck in Rye on the hill because a lorry was not allowed to come up the hill because of black ice on the road.

 

We got back to Hastings, we said good-bye to friends on the coach.  We had help to get all our stuff home to Bishops Corner.

 

We had a lovely time in France.

 

 

BARRIE GORE

 

 

Well done to all who went on the trip both service users and staff. What Barrie has not said is that the snows came when they were in France. There was much delay, they returned to Bishops Croft at 9:55pm. They had to walk from the coach drop of point to Bishops Corner with all their purchases. 

 

Since the trip the service users have been somewhat grounded by the severe weather conditions. It is subsiding. Fingers crossed for Sunday we have a group from Bishops Lodge going to the Bruges Christmas Market.