Stroud Court has always promoted and encouraged clients to enjoy a range of individual activities as well as group activities. Covid-19 then hit us all and we had to limit the way we work – no groups mixing, clients not allowed to leave their homes, reduced contact with family and friends.

 Considering our residents are on the autism spectrum and all their daily routines were changed, this could have caused so many anxious and stressful moments for our residents, but they all managed really well and after a few weeks settled down to the new routines, luckily, we have beautiful grounds and great staff. So, the daily walk onsite kept us ALL balanced. The Teams then stepped up to provide activities in their individual homes. Lots of craft projects, gardening, growing vegetables and up-cycling garden furniture. More Baking, so luckily, we had our lovely walks.  May 22 and we started to come out of lockdown and started to introduce activities again. Clients and staff were very happy about this and are enjoying, swimming, craft, group activities, sensory and enjoying the community again.  We also started to hold our parties again, our first celebration was the queen’s platinum jubilee which was great fun. We had two days of celebration. We had a singer singing lovely old tunes, a BBQ and a best cake completion and wow they were delicious sorry your just have to believe me. It has also been good for the new staff who joined us through Covid to see what we do when not under restrictions. We have also had trips to the cinema, circus shopping and many more, moments of rewarding engagement.

Sandra Carthy – Activities Coordinator