General Chat

I work in a department of the council that deals with care homes.
Every other Friday we have a (yawn) 2 hour team meeting, where for the last 20 minutes we take it in turns (usually in pairs ) to deliver an 'interest piece'.
My partner for this 'event' (who's left handed) wanted to do 'left handedness', but couldn't work out how it was relevant to our work.
I could.
Now, in Hampshire, service plans will now state whether a person eats left or right handed - very important (to my mind) if a client suffers from dementia or alzheimers, to find their cutlery in the right place!!!

They're not likely to just change knife & fork around, (unlike a toddler) but will wonder why it's so difficult to cut their food, and give up.

vive the independence!

The irony is, she's left handed, but eats right handed, whereas her sister, who's right handed eats left handed!!!

Maggie That seems so obvious. And will be such a help. Often simple ideas are the best :-D

Now see if the other person responds to thread, and in how many guises ;-)

Us dorks do come up with good thoughts sometimes :-D

My last 'interest piece' (with a man) was about married couples being allowed to sleep in the same bed/room :-D

I just think about how, when I'm in a home, I'd want to live.

Still haven't got a computer in every room - but, with an 82 year old mother who loves the internet, I keep persisting :-D :-D

Anybody's views on improvements to care homes are very welcome, I'm a persistant b*gger, and being the eldest in the team have a slight 'advantage' ie - respect your elders or else! - over the other members of the team ;-)

Maggie, Haven't been in care homes for over 10 years, but used to visit them a lot. Some were very good, some were terrible.

One thing I was never sure about was what they called the residents. It was usually by their first name, and that generation was brought up to be only called by their first name by close friends of their own age group.

Anybody from a younger age group would call them "Mrs Brown" and they would call her usually by her first name.

Personally, I prefer even kids to call me John and it really doesn't bother me. You still get same respect (or lack of). But am sure it bothers quite a few. :-)

As far as dorks are concerned, what about Percy Shaw and his idea for cats eyes :-D

Gone are the days for lefthandedness to be looked down on.
I used to get the strap at school for it....but still left handed writer....though eat the right way round.
The strange thing that My mother was told when she complained to the headmaster.........she'll never get a job at the post office!!!

I am left handed, also my husband and all three children. I have only ever seen one person eat left handed and it looked really strange.

Like you Brenda I used to have a ruler across my hand, and also am still left handed.

Carol

My Son is lefthanded has always eaten with right and also plays his guitar right handed.....nothing sinister with that ;-) :-)

That first name question - I was a bit hostile at first when my Mil went into a care home - though in fact she didn't seem to mind. And in fact it seemed to work very well, the staff were very good about knowing the residents' backgrounds, so we could all have informal chats about the rest of the family - "Anne telephoned this morning", "Paul is coming to visit next week", made for a relaxed community feel.

(Mind, I dislike it for me in formal business letters - a recent message from BT about change of accounts starting off "Hi, Elizabeth" is typical!)

My son is left handed but has always eaten with his knife and fork right handed, but when he was little (he is now 43) when he was asked.to lay the table for dinner he always laid the table as if everyone was left handed. :-D :-D

Strange how so many left handers eat right handedly.

One of my children is left handed, and eats the left handed way :-D