Knitted creations adorn trees at Farlington care home which has 'thrived' during lockdown

A dedicated group of knitters at Alexandra Rose care home in Havant Road got involved with an idea from activities co-ordinator Caroline Good to knit squares and cover the trees at the front of the home with colourful yarn creations.

Registered manager Dan Luter said: ‘This is such a positive thing for the residents to take part in, many residents gave up knitting as they were no longer able to follow a pattern.

‘Knitting squares has given a new worthwhile purpose. This is something the home does every year with the residents and a different part of the garden is covered.’

Staff and residents have had an overall positive experience of these strange times, with zero suspected Covid-19 cases within the home due to their hard work.

Dan, who has managed the home for eight years, took the decision to close the facility one week before the government’s official order to close, in the hopes of keeping their ‘family’ at the care home safe.

Dan, from Farlington, said: ‘We wanted to make sure everyone was as safe as possible. We’re a small home but we’ve got a real sense of family.’

With all of their regular outings cancelled, residents have been getting busy every day enjoying bingo, quizzes, chair exercises and they even put together a huge window display to thank essential workers.

Residents have been using an iPad to video call much-missed family members, which Dan said had been a lifeline for them.

New skills have been gained all around as staff learned to change dressings and administer injections to prevent the community nursing team from having to come in.

Dan said: ‘There have been a lot of positives and I think going forward if there’s a way we can manage our residents within the home and save the nurses having to come in, that’s only going to be a positive to take away from this situation.

‘As a whole, although it’s been difficult I feel we have thrived within this situation. I think we have done really well.’

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.