High tea and home-made cakes were the order of the day as Rose Lodge Care Home celebrated the opening of a new on-site dementia friendly coffee bar.
The Mayor of Aycliffe Councillor Mrs Mary Dalton officially opened the new café, dubbed ‘The Coffee Corner’, with a ribbon cutting before joining residents and staff at the home for a chat over tea and cakes.
Diane Tweddle, Activities Coordinator at Rose Lodge who organised the tea party, said: “Residents and staff had a wonderful morning with the Mayor, enjoying tea and cakes while having a lovely chat. We’re very proud of our new Coffee Corner.”
After a successful opening of a tea room at the home last year proved popular with residents and families, the home decided to create a new dementia-friendly café for those living in their specialised dementia care unit and their visitors.
The aim of the Coffee Corner is to provide a place where family and friends can enjoy a ‘cuppa’ and a chat with their loved one in a relaxed setting with the charm and atmosphere of a contemporary coffee shop where they can help themselves to the self-serve tea and coffee making facilities.
Rose Lodge Home Manager Nicola Wheatley Said: “We feel it’s important for families to feel at home here and our self-serve coffee shops are a lovely place for them to socialise with their loved ones where they can help themselves to a cup of tea, just as they would do if they were visiting a relative at home.”
“Our new coffee bar is a fantastic new addition to our home for our residents with dementia and is somewhere that they can enjoy visiting while being in a familiar environment where they feel comfortable and safe. We’ve had great feedback from residents and visitors.”