Bridgeside Lodge, part of the Forest Healthcare network of care and nursing centres, has been featured in a prominent BBC broadcast, shown on the local news to viewers across London and the southeast, followed by a headline feature on the main BBC morning news.
The segments focused on the centre's work with charitable organisation The Spitz, which delivers personalised and group-based musical sessions to residents and generates remarkable results for care centre residents with cognitive and age-related care needs.
High-Profile News Coverage of Bridgeside Lodge’s Work With The Spitz
The London care centre, based in Islington, has partnered with The Spitz Charitable Trust for several years. The charity was first established in 2013 and celebrated its tenth anniversary this year with a party hosted at Bridgeside Lodge for musicians, residents, and care teams.
As a regulated and registered care centre, Bridgeside Lodge has long upheld impeccable standards. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has awarded ‘Outstanding' status not only three times but across consecutive visits—an achievement that only a tiny proportion of care facilities ever achieve.
Part of the care centre's success and reputation is its approach to personalised activities and lifestyle programmes. The centre offers a host of on-site amenities, ranging from private en-suite accommodation rooms to a salon and barber, an inclusive residents association, a library of books, movies, and computer games, and regular performances, musical afternoons, and day trips in and around Islington.
The work with The Spitz has brought fresh focus on the value this offers residents, many of whom are permanently based at Bridgeside Lodge due to conditions such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, learning disabilities, motor neuron disease and neurological diseases and tumours.
The news article headlined ‘Transforming Care Home Residents' Lives with Music,' looked at how residents who may have been experiencing fear, disengagement, and ill health have found musical therapies transformative. These therapies help to address isolation and give residents a medium through which they can communicate, participate, and find joy.
Exploring the Value Music Brings to Bridgeside Lodge Care Centre Residents
BBC presenters Jon Kay and Sally Nugent said during one of two broadcasts that music has been 'a source of strength' and that the video piece showed the ‘power of music’ to aid in healing and happiness, concentrating on a case study featuring Jackie, a Bridgeside Lodge resident.
Having suffered a serious brain injury six years ago, right before her wedding to Matt, Jackie responds to musicians from The Spitz playing the song she had planned to walk down the aisle to, alongside other musical pieces, by being able to communicate and show facial expressions.
In a second segment, shown by the BBC on local and national morning news last month, Fatma Makalo, care centre Manager, noted that a resident who was shy, afraid, and disengaged had become a 'showman on his floor' following regular musical sessions. He now has a guitar always close at hand to enable him to play his favourite songs to care teams and fellow residents.
John, the featured resident, said, 'Music makes me feel great and takes me to another place altogether.' In the piece, he can be seen playing guitar with musician Arthur Lea and performing for friends.
Fatma says, 'Our work with The Spitz has been a wonderful part of the added-value entertainment and engagement activities we offer here, and we are delighted to have been featured in this way to bring more attention to the way musical therapies provide residents, including those who may be nonverbal, with a new way to interact, relax, and share in something joyful.'
The BBC broadcasts are available to watch on demand through its YouTube Channel:
Thom Rowlands, General Manager of The Spitz Charitable Trust, said during an interview that the musicians 'Use live music to increase people's well-being and reduce that sense of isolation and loneliness'. The charity's team features a wide array of skilled musicians, including singers, songwriters, guitarists, violinists, saxophonists, and bass players.
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About Forest Healthcare: Forest Healthcare is an established care provider dedicated to consistently delivering an outstanding quality of life to the residents they serve. With a network of care centres across South-East England, Forest Healthcare specialises in catering to a wide range of care requirements, including; residential, nursing, dementia and specialist care. The organisation’s mission is to provide a family feel to the exceptional care they deliver by valuing, respecting and caring for each and every person who lives and works at Forest Healthcare.
Media Contact:
Chris Salter
(020) 7250 0156
https://www.foresthc.com
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Source Company: https://www.foresthc.com
Source: Woya - Digital PR
Release ID: 1042879
