"I know you!" - Becoming part of our communities

A few weeks ago, Tracey, Wellbeing Lead at Benholm Care Home in Forfar, was shopping when someone stopped her and said “I know you! I’ve seen your lovely residents on Facebook”. She was a member of the Forfar community with no connection to the home, who’d discovered us when our activities and events had appeared on her Facebook feed.

When Ashley, Wellbeing Lead at Shawcross in Wigan, visited the local dementia café recently, other visitors told him they've been watching what the home have been up to online. Volunteers and people supporting loved ones said they enjoying watching along to see what the team has been doing. And then they mention they've told their friends about it too.

"It's lovely when someone says they've seen us online," says Ashley. "You hope people are connecting with our posts, but to actually meet them in person is special. And they tell us they've passed it on to friends too. It opens up so many doors for families who might not have known about us otherwise."

For Tracey, that connection between the online community and the real one is something she sees from the other direction too. Billy, who lives at Benholm Care Home, had been a regular at a local music club for years before she came to live with us. Tracey made sure she can continue with this. When she brought Billy back recently, she was welcomed by a room full of friends delighted to see her walk through the door.

This is the power of community at Each Other Care. We share the life inside our homes so that our neighbours feel a part of it and we make sure our residents never lose their place in the communities they've always belonged to.

If you're part of a local group or community organisation and would like to connect with one of our homes to run an event, teach us something new or simply have a chat, we'd love to hear from you.