WEDNESDAY, 6 MAY, 2020

Photograph attached: Activity Support Worker Jodie Milne with a selection of donated activity items

Stay at home activity packs

The Community Mental Health Teams for Older People in Dundee have developed activity packs for our service users and their carers to help keep them occupied and support them at home during lockdown.

These 'Stay at Home, Stay Safe and Have a Cuppy' activity packs, as they have been named by the team, were created by support workers in the Community Mental Health Teams for Older People.

The support workers carefully selected donated items for the activity packs making sure that all items can be used by both patients and carers.

The packs include seated exercises, seated yoga, word searches, quizzes, colouring pictures and pens, poems, carer stress tips and life story questions. In addition they also contain a coffee sachet, some tea bags and a biscuit to encourage people to make time to do something nice in the day.

Over the next 12 weeks the teams will be distributing new packs with different activities every two weeks.

Currently the teams have 50 packs made up which will be shared with service users by delivering them to their doorsteps whilst observing physical distancing measures.

Community Mental Health Team Older People: East, Team Lead, Christine Davidson, said, “As an occupational therapist I was acutely aware of the impact lockdown could have on our patients and carers. I was keen that as a service we would try and help people to stay as active as possible during this time.

“Social isolation among older people was already a huge issue before the coronavirus crisis and the lockdown has made life even more difficult and isolating for this vulnerable group. 

“I would like to thank our support workers in the Community Mental Health Team Older People as they have really pulled together and worked incredibly hard to gather donations, find suitable activities and to put it all together and also arrange to get them delivered.

“We would not have been able to prepare these packs without the generous donations received from local businesses and members of the public. Everyone has been so kind and we really appreciate all the donations we have been given.

“In these difficult times we hope the activity packs are one way that we can let people know we are here for them and they are not forgotten.”

If anyone would like to donate items for these activity packs such as word searches, quizzes, colouring pictures and pens please email donationscovid19.tayside@nhs.net

Contact:

Anna Michie

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 424138