A CHARITY partnership has welcomed Occupational Therapy students from the University of Southampton who wished to meet with the older people it supports and take part in activities with them (June 2022).
The students met with customers of Southampton Living Well’s (SLW) services and got to know them by having some quality one to one time, before taking part in flowerpot decorating together as well as planting up the pots and sowing seeds.
Alison Fisher, Day Opportunities Manager at SLW, which is a partnership between the charities Social Care in Action (SCiA) and Age UK Southampton* (AUKS), said: “We were thrilled to be contacted by Fay Hughes an Occupational Therapy lecturer from the University of Southampton and were so pleased that she had a group of students that wanted to meet some older people in their community and help create activities they would enjoy.
“During the first week, the students chatted with the individuals we support and got to know each other better. They then returned the following week to decorate flowerpots together. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this, and our customers all looked forward to seeing the students again.
“The week after, they all filled the pots with soil and sowed seeds and our customers are loving watching what they planted grow. Having the students interact and spend time with our customer is fantastic and has really brightened everyone’s days. Intergenerational contact is so important, and it proves that people of all ages can get along together and share interests.
“It is great that we can welcome students and entertainers physically into our centres once again after two years of Zoom and Microsoft Teams entertainment due to the pandemic.”
SLW is commissioned by Southampton City Council to deliver its service in partnership with SCiA and AUKS.
SLW provides a range of services for older people and their carers at various hubs across the city. It offers daytime activities and a safe, welcoming place for older people living in Southampton to go to.
It has transformed former day care centres into thriving activity hubs promoting friendship and fun, as well as hosting day trips and activities.
Emily Edwards, one of the Occupational Therapy students, said: “As a group of six occupational therapy students we planned an activity based around decorating plant pots and planting seeds. We felt a real sense of connection with the customers throughout the activity, with everyone expressing a part of themself through their pot. Everyone chatted and joked throughout the session, and we all agreed we could have carried on all afternoon!
“We are grateful to the Living Well programme for facilitating this experience and the brilliant work that they carry out.”
SCiA, which is based on Dukes Road in Southampton, is a not-for-profit group of charitable social enterprises working together to improve health and wellbeing in communities across the south of England.
For further details and to find out SLW’s hubs and how to book in for activities, please visit https://southamptonlivingwell.org.uk/ or call 023 8036 8636.
