About Point House

Point House is a small family run business, and open in 1980, Sarah the manager grew up with our people in a small family home, alongside her parents, Aubrey & Carol Cropley. Sarah attended the Blyth Jex school. Sarah’s and her family lived just round the corner before Point House was born.

Sarah’s parents have always been passionate about helping people with learning difficulties, or mental health needs. We have been running for over 44 years, we maintain Point House as a family, friendly working environment as much as we possibly can. We make sure everybody respects that this is …. Our peoples home

Our Peoples Home

We involve our people as much as possible in all aspects of Point House, including the daily running and maintaining of the home. We believe that everyone should take control over their own lives, and always take an active part in the dynamics of the home and contribute in their own way.

We have a large diverse group of people here at Point House, so this means everyone has differing needs, and what suits one person may not suit another or be appropriate. Therefore, we believe that person centred care, made individually and not one size fits all is the way forward, to allow our lovely people to grow, develop, and become as independent and in charge of their own lives as possible. We want all our people to have a voice, and their voice will be heard, This is very important to us, and them. Our people take control of their daily lives, they do their own personal washing, drying, and ironing with or without support. Clean and look after their own bedrooms.

Staff will sit down with our people go through Rotas, to take part in activities and duties that they choose: this is very important, as we are more of an independent care home, that promotes peoples Life Skills. A few of our people have just moved out into their own places, which to us is amazing.

POINT HOUSE is so very proud 💕❤️💕

Our manager Sarah

Can be a clever girl when she wants too, 😂 always changing things, new projects ongoing. she has built all our computer systems, at Point House, with electronic care plans, daily log sheets, staff files, all our paperwork – put onto the data base, computer OneDrive base systems.

All our staff have their own work emails, and correspond with families, outside professionals, and the team, which is very important to us and them.

We are moving over to Technology. By doing this we are →

Using Technology to Support Person-Centred Care
Technical Skills in Using Technology e-Learning.
Communicating through Technology
Using and Managing Data
Being Safe and Secure Online
Ethical Use of Technology
Using EmaRR medication systems
All staff have their own email accounts
Wi-Fi has been updated through the home
Digital Learning, Self-Development, and Wellbeing

Our daily activities

We have lots of board games, Pool table and darts board.
We have a day service activity coordinator which is our lovely Jo
These are only some of the things we have made:
Soaps, perfumes, wind chimes, bird boxes, lip balms, soaps, necklaces for staff, bunting for the back garden, bugs house for all bugs to live in.
Arts and crafts - Coffee mornings - walking club - Mental health therapy - people's meetings - games inside and outside - shopping trips - keep fit - well-being sessions Reki sessions - aromatherapy sessions - cookery classes - afternoon tea in the gardening – meals in the Zen garden – Bowling - cinema trips – Pool - darts - taste of food days - Dressing Up day’s - shopping trips into the city centre - Park walks & picnics in the park - Lunch out hairdressers - Woodland walks - Family get-togethers - energy efficient talks Save our planet - knitting classes – yard sales - BBQ’s
We have planned theme days & Evenings.
Partys to celebrate Halloween, and we all get dressed up.
Chilled out days in the garden, with freshly home cooked cakes or scones.
We have grown sunflowers from seeds, strawberries, tomatoes, herbs.
We have a large whiteboard in the main dining room which our staff with write down the weekly actives
We have another white board in the dining room, with all things on about food, healthy eating, looking after yourself.

Meals

Sometimes our people will cook evening meals from scratch, we also have special menus available. We have a small kitchen area in the dining room which our people can make hot/cold cold drinks 24 hours a day. There is a cooker, microwave, kettle, and toaster, & fridge.

Breakfast

Breakfast is self-service for all our people to help themselves

Lunchtime

Our people will make their own lunches with choices with or without support from staff, our lunch menus change regular.
Some of our people enjoy taking part in cleaning up after mealtimes - washing the tables, hoovering etc. some people will help in the kitchen, handing out food, then after meals washing and wiping up.

We try and get everyone involved as possible, including helping with the home’s laundry, washing, drying, we also have some people who loves to help with office duties.

Main evening meals

These are cooked by our lovely staff; our people will take part in the cooking of the evening meals. We hold regular meetings about our menus, the menus are planned by the choice that our people give us, and always have a healthy option. We make sure lots of vegetables and fruit are always on the menus. Jugs of water are put out on the tables at all times.

Peoples Own Rooms

Our people clean their own rooms, with some staff support, includes – polishing and hoovering, tidying, changing beds, and remarking, doing their own personal washing.

Our domestic staff will also go in and give bedrooms a deep clean. This is important as its their own personal space.

All rooms are deep cleaned on a monthly basic

Our Garden area

We have a nice little courtyard in the back garden, we call it our Zen garden with bamboo trees, lots of lovely flowers, with a patio area with tables, chairs and umbrellas.

We have a barbecue which we use throughout the summer months. We eat our lunch outside on warm days we try to make it a magical sacred place to relax and enjoy.

We have outdoor games, which are fun, some of our people love to do the gardening, also enjoys planting seeds and caring for them as they grow into flowers. One of our people love weeding and maintaining Point House ‘s garden areas and is very proud of this.

Events & out and about

We had a yard sale a few years ago, where we raise money for our people to have big trips to the pantomime or other expensive activities that benefit from additional funds. In June 2019 we had a fete and raised £700.00 which was spent on our people for summer trips out and about.

We also have coffee mornings and cake baking where money is raised, often for charities, picked by our people. We have some nominated days which we enjoy celebrating and being involved in such as children in need, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Red Nose Day, Remembrance Sunday, Fancy dress, Christmas dress, we are also happy to share in celebrations for other cultures too.

We have walks to the park & picnics, cinema trips bowling, on the buss, or train, Beach trips, Theatre trips, yoga groups, keep fit, Reiki sessions with the manager, as she is a qualified reiki healer. In the past Some of our people have had small group holidays together too!! With our own staff. We have regular shopping trips for our people to go out and purchase their own shopping, which can be clothing, toiletries, or other items. Some of our people have their own Pre-payment cards, which they can use independently in the shops, by contactless, again this is very important, as it gives the people control over their life. The bus stop is 2 mins away from us.

Big trips planned to Yarmouth, Lowestoft, places of interest, seaside, walks, fund-raising events.

Some of our people attend Phab club on Monday evenings.

Our people can come and go as they wish. We have a photo board which our people put into place, so when anyone goes out, people put their photo over to the out board, so we know they are not in the building in case of a fire.

We are about 2 mins from the bus stop.
We are a 10 min walk from Anglia square.
We are a short walk 20 mins into the main city centre.
Also, not far from the train station
Close to parks, Mousehole heath.
Riverside is close by.

Social media

We have a website, and use all social media, to keep families and friends updated with some of the things we do. we also have an office mobile, and we use what’s app to contact family’s.

Finances

Our people take control over their finances, with family support, or NCC which are appointees, staff support with shopping trips. our people have their own bank cards, or Pre- payment cards.

Health

All our people have yearly learning disability reviews with their GP’s
Yearly health check ups
We also have our own GP that calls us every Thursday so we can voice any concerns that we have about our people, then this can be addressed
Achieving new things
Certificates can be given to any of our staff, or our people, that have done well in a skill or job they have been completed. this is to show everyone they are valued for what accomplished, this has a positive influence on others!!

Care – life plans.

Staff will on a one-to-one will go through the care plans and risk assessments, discussing any changes, problems or concerns they have, with new goals or aspirations, changes are made and signed to agree to this. We share this with family’s, only with our peoples consent.

Appreciating our staff Family Friendly Workers F F W

Point House values all staff members, they are all hard-working, loyal, and kind. many have worked here for over 10/15/20 years We give staff recognition to show our appreciation. All our staff are very special to us.

Family’s friends

We think it’s very important that our people keep contact, with Families & friends.
Some of our people have mobile phones, which they use to message, or WhatsApp with video calls.
Appointments/visits are not necessary, you can come at any time, we have a open door policy

Quality assurance

We ask for feedback from anybody that comes in to Point House, families, friends, staff, and our people yearly – from theses we can learn new ways to improve our ever-changing service. We are having lot of refurbishments, decoration going on throughout the building, this is a BIG project, and still work in progress.

The meaning of Point House and what the letters stand for

P = People who care
O = Overcome obstacles
I = Interest explored
N = Nurtured to develop
T = Time to grow
H = Happy to help
O = Open up to others
U = United we stand
S = Safe environment
E = Equal opportunities