Guild Care home joins Worthing Library to revitalise residents’ love of reading

Audiobooks and reading are a perfect activity for our residents, particularly in these cold winter months.

We have a lot of avid readers in our care homes and joining Worthing Library is a great way to feed this passion, while strengthening our relationships with the local community.

Caer Gwent already has a substantial selection of books in-house but with this new subscription, our residents can enjoy an even more varied range of books and audiobooks. Some of our particularly keen residents have already put in their requests – including crime, travel, biographies, and history.

The idea came about following an activity led by Sammy Paynter, our wellbeing co-ordinator at Caer Gwent.

Sammy said: “I started reading one of the Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton aloud and then, if they felt comfortable doing so, asked residents to each read part of the book out themselves. The large print made reading a lot easier.

“At the end of the activity we discussed what we’d just read and residents said they had appreciated being able to join in. Some indicated that they would also love to have access to audiobooks.

“We will now be taking out both books and audiobooks on a regular basis and if the library are holding events, then it would be wonderful to take a few of our residents there. In the meantime, we are allowed up to 50 items, that can also include DVDs, and myself and other staff go down and pick up.”

There are many proven health benefits to reading which are especially valuable to older people. These range from reducing stress and enhancing sleep to improving memory and possibly even delaying the onset of dementia.

At Guild Care, we pride ourselves on taking every step we can to improve our resident’s health and wellbeing, and seemingly small steps, such as signing up to the local library, can make a huge difference.

Caer Gwent is consistently rated as Good in Care Quality Commission reports for ‘Responsiveness – Meeting people’s needs’ and joining Worthing Library exemplifies this. We work very closely with our residents and their families, and our staff are always on the lookout for new ways that we can better meet our resident’s needs. We are always trying to learn and grow, and all suggestions for improvement are welcome.

March 3 is World Book Day and with this just around the corner we are hoping to continue this newly revitalised love of reading and have even more of our resident bookworms settle in for some quality time with a classic novel.

Guild Care is a registered charity and care provider that has been serving Worthing since 1933. For more information on our services, or to find out if we could support you or a loved one, please visit our website at www.guildcare.org or follow us on social media to keep up to date with more stories like this.

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