The Happiness Programme at Clement Court

Clement Court, a part of Harbour Healthcare, in Stoke-on-Trent, began their Happiness Programme subscription in March of 2021. We caught up with them a few months later to see how things had changed the care experience for both staff and residents.

Therapeutic Intervention

The Happiness Programme can be a great way to initiate interaction between residents and visitors, especially after prolonged periods apart. Maxine Bagnall, an activity coordinator at Clement Court tells us how the Happiness programme is helping them overcome this barrier:

“The magic table 360 has been a really great tool for us. At the minute we are just getting back into having visitors, so it’s been a little harder to engage everyone. It’s been really nice having the magic table 360 set up as something that everyone can use and engage with.”The Happiness Programme can also be beneficial for residents who experience agitation or who can become upset during activities. Maxine continues:

“I’ve noticed with the Ripples game that it has a really calming effect on residents. There are a few residents who become a bit agitated, so we began using the Happiness Programme as a therapeutic intervention. It really helps create a relaxing environment for our residents.”

Maxine concludes:

“The Happiness Programme has triggered a reminiscence of happy memories for a lot of our residents. They have begun speaking about memories from when they were younger and a lot of residents have opened up. It’s been really nice to engage with them in that way.”

A Happy Overview

Clement Court have made fantastic use of the Happiness Programme over the last few months. As part of the Happiness Programme, we collect data and create reports that give us insight into how onsite teams are using the magic table 360.

As a continuation of this service, we also run an ongoing assessment into the functionalities that each care service is performing. Impressively, Clement Court was performing eight out of nine of our functionalities. One of the categories that stood out was ‘enhanced mobility play’ according to Annette Ramsden, deputy manager at Clement Court:

“The magic table 360 is a really good thing and it has benefitted our residents massively – they are moving and using their arms a lot more.”

She finishes:

“The ladies nursed in beds are also benefiting from it- we know them and we can see their faces lighting up when they are playing the games.”

Newfound Skills

We spoke to a few members of staff at Clement Court to get a deeper insight into how the Happiness Programme was helping on an individual level. Rebecca McKenzie, manager at Clement Court, told us:

“We have experienced a very positive response when using the magic table 360 with residents who are living with dementia. Generally speaking, we have witnessed new levels of engagement with some of our residents. I do believe this is due to the interactive nature of the games.”

Rebecca continues, telling us the incredible story of one particular resident:

“We have a resident who has always been reportedly unable to read. She has never really engaged in any type of activity requiring a reading skill. However, when using the magic table 360, she actively engaged with the Word Search game. She experienced a great sense of achievement when being able to identify specific letters and spell words out. She spent a long period of time engaging with a member of staff in a ‘competitive’ word search game.”

Rebecca finishes:

“Staff were absolutely amazed to see her develop this newfound skill with such enjoyment that we hadn’t previously observed.”

Not a member of the Happiness Programme?

The Happiness Programme is a first-of-its-kind initiative helping to change the lives of people living with cognitive challenges. We use interactive light technology to provide meaningful activities for residents and patients in care homes and care settings.  For more detail on what the Happiness Programme is and how it’s helping care venues across the UK, visit our getting started page.

Alternatively, jump to our dementia, learning disability and NHS pages for more specific detail on how it’s helping care homes like Barchester and HC-One as well as hospitals and local authorities such as St George’s Hospital, London and Westminster and South Kensington Council.

For anything else, you can contact us here too.