Harrogate schoolchildren have written letters and handcrafted butterflies to hand to lonely care home residents as part of Loneliness Awareness Week.

Saltergate Schools have teamed up with Vida Healthcare, a specialist dementia care home provider, to bring joy and happiness to frontline workers and residents.

This year’s Loneliness Awareness Week, which takes place from 14th – 18th June, aims to encourage people to talk about loneliness and remove the stigma around it.

And to support the theme, the children have penned letters and handcrafted butterflies for each resident and care worker across Vida Healthcare’s two homes; Vida Grange and Vida Hall.

Linda Mortimer, Executive Headteacher at Saltergate Schools, who led the initiative, said:

“Everybody is likely to experience loneliness at some point in their life. Many people have recently felt very isolated after a year of lockdowns and social restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Loneliness Awareness Week was the perfect opportunity for us to give back to our local community and educate our children about loneliness. Accepting that we all feel lonely sometimes is an important lesson and learning what we can do to help others and ourselves manage feelings of loneliness is critical.”

Vida Healthcare is coordinating numerous activities with local schools throughout the year, having previously teamed up with Rossett Acre to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.

They’ll also be hosting a Christmas Carol event later this year, which they aim to hold in person as Covid-19 restrictions continue to ease.

James Rycroft, Managing Director at Vida Healthcare, said:

“The main role of a care home is to provide high quality care to its residents and create a positive living environment which promotes good wellbeing and reduces feelings of isolation and loneliness. This is something we’re proud to achieve at Vida Healthcare.

“We are so pleased to have had the support this year from Saltergate Schools to make our staff and residents feel extra special. The butterflies look fantastic and our residents and staff have all been really touched by the handwritten letters.”

If you’d like to partner with Vida Healthcare on a CSR project, please get in touch via its website: www.vidahealthcare.co.uk

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