Coventry care home Residents given personalised cushionsColleagues at HC One’s Brandon House care home have created personalised cushions for Residents. 

The Home Manager Sheryl Davis, and Nursing assistant Amy Keogh, have made "This is me" cushions for all of the Residents at the Coventry care home.

The cushions enable the Residents’ living with dementia to have prompts about themselves, and so can bring a conversation about themselves and their families with carers and staff at the home. 

Sheryl and Amy found this to be a simple yet effective idea for the staff to learn about the Residents. The cushions tell anyone about themselves, even what music they like to listen too or when their birthday is. 

One of the Residents commented “It’s all about ME, in case I forget, I can read it and it reminds me”, whilst another said “I love reading it, it reminds me of who I am, it’s easy to forget and I can read it lots of times.”

The Residents love the cushions and really enjoy reading about themselves. Staff can then learn more when the Residents start talking and expand on their life and interests from the prompt the cushion brings. 

The cushions can be used on the Residents beds, chairs or even taken on trips to the hospital or GPs.

Home manager Sheryl said “I wanted to do something quick and easy for the staff to read and get to know the resident, its person- centred story of life and hobbies.”