Cheriton Care Home

Cheriton Care Home in Dorchester, Dorset

Cheriton Care Home is a real home-from-home in the heart of Dorset’s county town of Dorchester. Comprising Badbury House and Maumbury House, we offer high-quality, affordable residential, respite, reablement and dementia care.

We respect all our residents – their dignity, their space, and their right to make personal choices in care. Each resident is different, and we offer a range of activities and menu options so every person feels happy, stimulated and cared-for.

As well as caring for our residents we care about their families too. Our door is always open for a chat, and our families’ forum gives relatives a way to support each other.

Friends and family members are welcome to visit at any time, and there’s always tea and coffee on hand.

If you’d like to find out more about how we could support you or a loved-one, please call us on 01305 262 192.

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Daily life at our care home

At our residential care home in Dorchester, Dorset, there is never a dull moment. Music sessions, quizzes, games, and gardening are some of the activities that keep our residents entertained. Our lifestyle team also hold one-to-one activities with our residents, supporting them to do whatever activity they wish to do. Our nursing home carers try to get our residents out and about so they can enjoy the incredible surroundings of Dorset. Our carers accompany them to nature trips, refreshing residents with sights of greenery and Dorset’s seaside towns.

In terms of meals, our residents are always full and satisfied. Our catering team serves delicious and nutritious meals and snacks that cater to all tastes and diets. We also make food fun by serving special treats for annual events and birthday celebrations.

Care home facilities

Residents of our residential nursing care home have everything they need here. After a £½ million refurbishment programme, Cheriton is fully equipped to deal with a range of needs and requirements. We want it to feel like home so we’ve taken care and time to furnish our communal rooms so they’re comfortable and welcoming.

We have four lounges and two dining rooms. It means there’s plenty of space for group activities, or somewhere to find a quieter spot.

Residents and visitors are welcome to use the free Wi-Fi. And there’s an iPad for residents and visiting families to use. Skype calls work really well.

Visitors often bring in their own devices. They use our Wi-Fi to show loved ones videos and photos, and to play games. And our Wi-Fi has proved very popular with the children of visiting families!

If you’d like to find out more about how we could support you or a loved-one, please call us on 01305 262 192.

Our bedrooms

We have 71 bedrooms, with a range of room sizes, including some able to accommodate couples.

We have ground floor rooms with direct access to the garden or our courtyard and first floor rooms that are fully accessible, by stairs or a lift.

Some of our rooms have en-suites and others have en-suite wetrooms, which make showering easier. The rooms without en-suites have accessible toilets, bathrooms or wetrooms within easy reach.

We encourage our residents to personalise their rooms with their own photos and furniture.

Personal possessions help residents feel at home, and provide extra stimulation and time for reminiscence. They also give our staff an important understanding of a resident’s history and what’s important to them.

Each bedroom’s front door is a different colour and style, which makes it more recognisable.

Our garden

We have a secure enclosed garden where residents can join in outdoor activities or simply enjoy being outside. The garden has level access, a lawn area and a patio. Each bedroom with direct garden access has a patio table, chairs and planters outside their door.

Members of our gardening club discuss and decide on new planting they’d like to see in the garden.

Our residents love watching the wildlife that comes into the garden. We have a communal bird table and feeders, which attracts robins, finches and blackbirds (and the occasional squirrel). Many residents have bird feeders outside their rooms, too.

But perhaps our most popular garden resident is Trott the tortoise. Trott belongs to a member of staff and comes to spend the summer at Cheriton. While Trott has the run of the garden, he loves to spend time with Pete the gardener.

We also have a courtyard where you can always find a sunny or shady spot to sit and listen to the fountain.

Our staff

Denise Chrippes is the registered manager of our Dorchester care home:

Some examples of how our staff go the extra mile for our residents:

• Taking a residents’ woollens home to wash them in a particular powder
• Buying special occasion cards for residents to send to loved-ones on birthdays and anniversaries
• Making decorations and brooches for residents to help celebrate seasonal and national events

Staff training

All our staff go on an intensive three-day Agincare training course before starting at Cheriton.

We use an online care planning tool. It gives our staff immediate real-time access to residents’ likes, dislikes and care information on a handset. A care worker can easily keep track of a resident’s day, including medication, repositioning, hydration and how much they’ve eaten.

We really value the strong professional relationships we’ve developed. These span our local district nurses, GPs, dieticians, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physios and pharmacies.

Social activities

We’re lucky to have two activities co-ordinators – one, who works with people one-to-one, spending time with them in their own rooms, and another, who organises the group activities.

Being part of the local community is important to us, so the people we care for are connected, not isolated. Our local reverend comes into Cheriton on the first Monday of every month.

We also have links with a local Dorchester pre-school. Each Wednesday children visit us to play games, and sing songs and nursery rhymes.

Four-legged and feathered friends are always welcome, too. We love it when visitors bring their pets in. Barclay the golden retriever visits every Friday and can always be sure of plenty of cuddles and treats.

We also have regular ‘pet therapy’ sessions. We’ve welcomed kittens, owls, rabbits, even alpacas!

Our activity schedule is varied. We welcome all sorts of musical entertainers. These include singers, music quizzers, ukulele-players, interactive musicians getting our residents involved with percussion, and singalong leaders.

Other activities in a week could include:

• Exercise classes
• Arts and crafts
• Manicures and beauty treatments
• Hair-dressing
• Bingo
• Baking and then eating!

We also get out and about as much as we can, visiting our beautiful county. Our minibus driver picks a destination depending on the weather – we love a mystery tour!

Food and nutrition

Good, wholesome home-cooked food is essential at a care home. Our two talented chefs cook with locally-sourced ingredients as much as possible.

We cater for all dietary needs, from Coeliac and gluten-free, to vegetarian and vegan. Often, our residents with dementia will have finger foods, as they find it easier to eat in this way.

Our chefs always ask for feedback from our residents, and are more than willing to adapt menus. Our kitchen staff have received a 5* ‘Very Good’ rating from the Food Standards Agency.

We serve three main meals a day and mealtimes are really important. We encourage our residents to eat together as there are so many social and nutritional benefits. However, people can choose to eat their meals in private too, if they prefer.

We have picture and written menus. However, we always re-offer before serving, to check our residents haven’t changed their minds about what they’d like to eat.

Read more about food and nutrition in our care homes.

If you’d like to find out more about Cheriton Care Home in Dorchester and how we could support you or a loved-one, call us on 01305 262 192 .