Steve Brine spent some time with Gill Johnson and Marilyn McGregor on Friday 26th February, as they told him about their exciting company, Bonnie Day.
Bonnie Day provides wonderful and exciting activity sessions for older people to enjoy in care homes as well as professional staff training. Marilyn McGregor and Gill Johnson have had over 50 years' combined educational experience in successful careers and extensive experience working in care homes together in the Winchester area and beyond.
Here, they write for www.stevebrine.com to explain who they are, and what they do...
Bonnie Day
"We set up our company, Bonnie Day in 2012 to introduce new and meaningful activities into care and nursing homes for all residents including those living with dementia. Having observed activities in care homes we realised that an activity of filling in the end of a proverb, or thinking of six girls names beginning with 'S', was not something we would like to be doing for an hour in our more mature years.
"Using our experiences as teachers and our backgrounds in Special Educational Needs (SEN) we were qualified to see how we could introduce activities that met all learning styles, that would be interactive, that would engage and also encourage inclusivity. Our activities were for the home as a whole, the residents, relatives and staff.
"Our main priority was to get to know the residents, what they liked, what they had done in the past, what they wanted from their activities, so that we could deliver person centred activities that would engage and stimulate. Bringing in tartans and Scottish country dancing music, a 90-year-old lady rose to her feet and after dancing a few elegant steps said: "Well I never thought I would do that again." After one of our activities, a relative rushed up to us and said: "You brought my husband back to me for that hour." We had given him time to talk about his life on submarines during World War 2.
"I was so impressed that you took the time to listen to Mum. She was so thrilled with what you brought in." We had taken in tapestries which were the 100 year old woman's passion and she was able to tell us all about them.
"Activity Co-ordinators have called our activities, "Fabulous." With residents we choose a theme for our next activities from 'Wellies and Wheelbarrows' to 'Faraway places with strange sounding names.' It may be 'On the street where you lived' or 'Love and Romance' which we developed for a home on St Valentine's Day. 'Hats Off to You' involves great fun in trying on a variety of headwear.
"We trigger reminiscence and stimulate chat through nostalgic artefacts, photographs, fragrances, music, prose and poetry."
"The residents were still talking about Bonnie Day at tea time."
"Everyone so enjoyed your programme, being able to be so involved made us feel part of the afternoon which is a great thing."
"Our original poems have been so well received that we decided to publish a book containing a selection of these alongside our tried and tested activity ideas from our activity sessions in many homes.
"Our valuable resource 'Now tell me – how about you?' written for all those visiting older people and health care professionals is available on Amazon for £8.99."
Pictured; Steve joins Marilyn and Gill of Bonnie Day
More information ...
Contact: marilyn@bonnie-day.co.uk and gill@bonnie-day.co.uk