CEO Message – March
Dear Derian House Colleagues,
Another month of lockdown has passed and it has been great to see the hospice busy in all areas, as we enter April we will start to see the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions which I am sure everyone is delighted about. It also allows us to review services and continue to expand what we can offer to families, I know everyone is working on their plans across all of our care teams and we will continue to get busier.
With the Easter weekend coming it is time to start thinking of Spring and hopefully warmer days and lighter nights, and this allows us to offer more activities outdoors. We are seeing more families requesting to use the garden for a visit and we will also be having a National Garden Scheme open day on the 9th May where the public can come and visit Derian House’s gardens, this will raise our profile and the work we do.
Our shops will reopen on the 12th April after being closed for over 3 months, we are sure they will be very busy so if you haven’t yet done so – why not have a spring clean and send retail some clothes, bric-a-brac or other items for us to sell.
Across all our non-clinical areas everyone has been working on new plans to increase the Derian profile and message to the wider community, we have a lot of plans and here are just a few things coming soon …
- Greenhouse works started with the tree felling (most had Ash die-back and needed to come down anyway), the base will be installed very soon and we still plan to have this completed by mid-June.
- Garden Pod to be used for counselling or other meetings, this will be built within the wooded area, we will have a date for this shortly.
- Memorial Fountain, we hope to have the initial plans which we will share with the bereaved parent group after Easter, once we have agreed the design we will share with everyone.
- New Laptop rollout has started, Sam and Jacquie will be in touch as we move through this activity.
- Coffee and Chat and Keeping in Touch meetings returning (safely) hopefully after 17th May.
- Culture and Values journey continues, after the 12th April anyone who had not attended the sessions in late 2020 will be invited to these sessions very soon.
- May will see our new campaign with a story focusing on Derian on Holiday and one of our families.
If you have not seen the March/April edition of Lancashire Life, there is a really nice 4 page article about Derian House with some lovely pictures.
I think nearly everyone has now had their second vaccination and of course all staff and eligible volunteers have been offered the jab. It is great to see such a huge uptake with over 90% of our staff now being vaccinated. I would repeat the advice we are receiving that we should still follow the advice to wear face masks, socially distances and regularly hand wash and of course we have our lateral flow testing in place as well.
Everyone has remained focused at this very challenging time, the Senior Team and I thank you all for your support and following the Derian Values – as one team we have done an exceptional job in keeping our hospice open and ready to support those who need us at this unprecedented time.
Thank You to everyone and keep safe
David