Mad Hatter’s tea party highlights importance of Abbeyfield care home residents’ food and drink

Hill House and Abbeyfield House, residential cares home in Honiton and New Malden, have held a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for their residents and staff to mark Nutrition and Hydration Week (NHW).

The homes, which provides housing, care and support to up to 30 and 36 older people respectively, are part of the worldwide Abbeyfield network of charity care homes, sheltered housing schemes and independent living complexes that work to enhance the quality of life of their residents and help them to lead independent lives.

NHW is an annual event to highlight the value of food and drink in maintaining health and wellbeing in health and social care. Since 2002, the volunteer-run event has welcomed people from around the world to share best practice in nutrition and hydration, suggest standards that social care organisations can aspire to, and contribute towards the education and professional development of staff.

Hill House and Abbeyfield House, which boast 9.6 and 9.7 scores respectively on the carehome.co.uk comparison website, provide their residents with nutritious home-cooked food every day, and were keen to get involved in NHW this year.

To mark NHW, the houses decided to join the Global Tea Party, the NHW cornerstone event, on 13th March. Live entertainment was provided at Hill House by Albert Murphy, which was livestreamed to Abbeyfield House too, and residents at both venues enjoyed a cream tea.

Hill House activites coordinator, Nicola Trueman, said, “Albert sang songs that our residents knew and were able to sing and bop along too.

“We tucked into a delicious array of cakes made by our very talented chef Jon and we had magic potions that promised to make you smaller or taller, to fit with our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party theme!

“We had a fantastic afternoon full of music, love and laughter. It was really lovely to be able to share our afternoon with the residents in New Malden as well. It is definitely something that we plan to do again in the future.”

Abbeyfield House activities coordinator, Jay Ward, added, “Being part of a big company like Abbeyfield means we can work as a giant team within the Abbeyfield Family, not just within our own home.

“Being able to swap ideas, share what's happening and even be part of each other's activities means that all of us get to grow, learn more and be able to get to know one another, even from afar.

“Doing more things like this would really be worth it for the homes, our residents and staff.”