Coronavirus: ‘Happy Boxes’ make happy people!
Social care during social distancing – day services with a difference from Shropshire Council
Teams at Shropshire Council have been adapting their work whilst the usual provision of day services are placed on hold at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Staff that usually are involved in running a day service at a few of our venues across the county, are making welfare calls to people who use the services, and their parents and carers, and assisting with practical tasks where possible.
The teams have been busy this week putting together and delivering ‘Happy Boxes’ to the people they would usually be supporting at the centres.
Staff member Stacey Kerr helping to assemble the ‘Happy Boxes’
Dean Carroll, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult social care, public health and climate change, said:
“Whilst we miss being able to provide the help and support of a day service, these new activities are going a long way to provide company and support to the people that we’d usually see in our centres. I’m very proud of the way the teams have flexed and adapted to the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in; despite the obvious challenges of social distancing, they’ve continued to do what they do best, caring for and supporting those in need.
“The Happy Boxes have gone down a storm. They put smiles on the faces of many of our service users and we’ve received some wonderful thank you notes for both the happy boxes and the phone calls. I’d like to thank Tesco for donating some goodies to go in the boxes.”
James Davies from Greenacres said “Thank you so much, very kind of you, I miss Greenacres.”
James Davies (attends Greenacres), receiving his Happy Box
Tanya Miles, Shropshire Council’s assistant director of adult social care and housing, said:
“We’re seeing many examples of ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’. The day services teams are working with partners on our Good Things to Do at Home project.
“It turns out that all the organisations that usually support people face to face, in their homes or in a community setting are also coming up with ideas about how to do this differently, and we are going to work together to develop a brilliant programme of activity packs, online material and technological ways of connecting with people in their homes.
“So many ideas have come forward covering visual arts, music, cooking, exercise, gardening, mindfulness and relaxation and we’ll be working with artists and musicians to create a fantastic, high-quality Shropshire offer for people who are missing coming out to their usual place in the community, and for their families too.”
Keep informed and sign up to our daily Coronavirus email updates
Shropshire Council wants to keep you as up to date and informed as possible. To help us do this, we have developed a coronavirus update that will be sent daily at 8pm via email to anyone who has signed up to our e-bulletins.
This update includes the day’s key Shropshire Council news, and some key news from our partners, relating to coronavirus-linked issues. Please click here to sign up for the updates.
Please do encourage your family and friends to sign up to the updates too. This will help us keep everyone up to date with the rapidly-evolving crisis.
