Your community
Focussing on independent living
Coming out of the pandemic and being able to do more in our Retirement Living schemes has been an exciting time for us.
Since we’ve been able to do more joined-up and group activities, we’ve brought wellbeing into sharp focus with projects that are allowing our customers to create happy, healthy communities where they live.
Take a look at some of the work we’ve been doing to find out how we’re enabling customers to shape our Retirement Living Service
Your community
Focussing on independent living
Coming out of the pandemic and being able to do more in our Retirement Living schemes has been an exciting time for us.
Since we’ve been able to do more joined-up and group activities, we’ve brought wellbeing into sharp focus with projects that are allowing our customers to create happy, healthy communities where they live.
Take a look at some of the work we’ve been doing to find out how we’re enabling customers to shape our Retirement Living Service
The Resilience Project
Presentation House, Bedford, is a specialist retirement living home housing around 19 customers from South Asian countries aged between 69 and 100.
With residents coming from Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Afghani backgrounds, many of whom do not speak, read or write English, our team are adept at finding creative ways to celebrate this unique, vibrant and diverse community, bringing them together and helping them feel valued as individuals.
During lockdown in 2021, we wanted to help them celebrate their rich cultural heritages by creating the Resilience book - a collection of personal stories which give an insight into the lives and experiences of the amazing people who live at Presentation House.
Take a look at what happened in this brilliant short film which captured the project:
Ageing Well Board
When we reached out to all of our customers over 55 in May 2021 to see if they were interested in helping us to form a new group aimed at helping people live independently for longer in their homes, we were delighted with the response.
In total, 335 people told us they’d like to help us with this project, and in August 2021 we held our very first Ageing Well event, where 35 customers from across the country came together to tell us about the issues that matter to them and how Stonewater can support them.
Using this feedback, which included areas such as communication, health and wellbeing and connecting communities, we formed our Ageing Well Board, a mixture of customers and Stonewater staff, in January 2022.
Since then, the Board have been meeting regularly to agree on three key areas that they can explore and help Stonewater to improve. These are:
- Housing that supports ageing well
- Connecting people to reduce loneliness
- Digital inclusion - tackling the perceived and real barriers
Each of these topics includes clear objectives that Stonewater will support the Ageing Well Board to achieve so that all of our customers can age well, regardless of where they live or the type of home they have.
INVITE Project
In 2021, working with Longleigh Foundation and the University of Stirling, we started a research project to find out how Inclusive living Via Technology Enabled support (INVITE) can improve the lives and communities of older people – including those living with age related conditions such as dementia.
Four Stonewater retirement living schemes in England took part in the research, comprising of more than 100 customers and nearly 30 colleagues.
We asked people what matters to them, what motivates them and what quality of life means to them. The people involved in the project have helped to identify a range of needs as well introducing helpful gadgets such as kettle tippers, can or bottle openers and devices to help with carrying hot drinks that can make a huge difference for independent living as well as other technology to help them stay connected with friends, family and other services.
The research is helping us to build support that has a long-lasting impact and enables effective housing, social work and health delivery for years to come.
Take a look at this short film to find out more about the project:
Taking Care Partnership
Our new contract with Taking Care, part of AXA health, has been in place since April 2021 to give our customers greater peace of mind in knowing that help is available 24/7.
Simply by touching a button or pulling a cord allows customers to get straight through to the highly trained team at Taking Care, who can arrange for a response through the emergency services, GPs, carers or family and friends.
In 2021-22, Taking Care responded to:
- 16,917 emergency calls from customers living in Retirement Living schemes
- 987 emergency from customers living in the community
- 1,956 fire alarm activations, calling the emergency services to attend and check customers’ safety.