Derby’s oldest nursing home has welcomed a new member of the team to help put smiles on the faces of its elderly residents – and she’s only seven!
Skye Fearnehough is the youngest member of the team at Brookfields Private Nursing Home on Burton Road, where she visits around twice a month to chat to residents and take part in activities with them.
Skye’s visits are keeping it in the family as she comes to Brookfields with mum, Kirsty, who works as an auxiliary nurse there, and granddad Andy who works at the nursing home in the maintenance department.
Brookfields’ owner Celeste Turner said Skye’s visits were hugely beneficial for the home’s residents. She has even presented Skye with her own name badge which she wears when she is on volunteer duty.
Celeste, for whom Brookfields is also in the family after she took on its running from parent-founders Joan and Peter Turner, said: “If you could bottle the essence of Skye and give it to people, it would be such a brilliant tonic. Her visits light up the residents here. She’ll sit and have dinner with them, or join in playing bingo. Sometimes they might watch a film together and chat.”
Skye’s visits to Brookfields are part of the nursing home’s family ethos, and it holds regular activities to include younger relatives of both staff members and residents. Family friendly fun includes sports days, painting, a Hallowe’en party and even a Nativity performance for residents.
Skye first became involved as a helper after visiting Brookfields on a family activity day and she has been a trusted regular ever since. Skye said she enjoyed “chatting to residents” best, and said she also liked being “paid” with treats from the kitchen!
Many scientific studies have shown that intergenerational activities involving children spending time with the elderly is extremely mutually beneficial for both, improving mental health and reducing anxiety.
Skye’s mum Kirsty said: “It’s good for Skye to mix with older generations. She has a really caring side to her nature and she really enjoys chatting to the residents.”
Celeste said Skye was not the only child who regularly visits Brookfields and that at least one member of staff had started out by visiting when still at primary school.
“It’s so important to have children visit,” said Celeste. “It adds another dimension to what we do here. It makes a difference to the children that get involved too, because they see that older people are just like everybody else. The residents just light up when a child like Skye visits. It makes a huge amount of difference to them. They become much more animated. It’s really important for people to move outside of their own generations. It helps older people because when you’re old you want to be surrounded by life and interest and fun.”
Skye, mum Kirsty and grand-dad Andy are not the only family working together at Brookfields. Around half the whole staff team have relatives working at the home with them.
Brookfields’ staff roster includes three sets of sisters; five mothers and their daughters; a mother and son, granddaughters working with a grandparent and two husband and wife teams.
Celeste said: “Our brilliant team of staff are very important to us here at Brookfields. Their care and attention are vitally important to ensuring we give residents who choose to live here the very best life possible in their older years. We rarely use agency staff because we have such a loyal band of people working here and it’s quite remarkable how many of our team are related to one another. So, when we say it’s one big family at Brookfields – we really mean it!”
In 2024 Brookfields won the Excellence in Nursing category of the Business Awards UK, which also crowned it Best Nursing Care provider, as well as Care Home of the Year.
Brookfields was also highly commended in the Care Home of the Year category of Health Innovation East Midlands’ 2024 Care Awards.
Not just that, it has been crowned Nursing Home of the Year three times over the past few years by the Central England Prestige Awards.
The nursing home is host to a ‘cutthroat’ quiz each week in which residents are divided into teams and their general knowledge put to the test.
This story was written and shared on behalf of Brookfields Nursing Home by Lucy Stephens. Can we share your news and get you in the headlines too? Find out how we can help by getting in touch.
