As you walk into Dolphin Lane, you are greeted by the service’s display wall: ‘Dolphin Lane - celebrating diversity and life inspiring events.’ Here, residents, staff and visitors alike can keep up-to-date with the latest happenings, initiatives and celebrations within the home.
Dolphin Lane is one of our Priory Adult Care services located in Wakefield, offering Learning Disability Support to 15 adults who live at the home. The service is rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Following the recent celebrations for Pride Month in June, the staff team have been busy working with residents on the home’s latest project – an anti-bullying campaign.
Dolphin Lane’s registered manager, Victoria Craig said;
“At Dolphin Lane, we like to celebrate differences and being different.
“As bullying is something that is common in everyday life and has on occasion occurred at Dolphin Lane within our residents, I thought this would be something we could all look at together.
“Sometimes we do not realise our actions are bullying and that pointing out and mocking someone’s differences, is in fact bullying. We also wanted to focus on kindness and being kind.”
The carefully curated wall display’s title is ‘Bullying Awareness – Inclusion Not Exclusion’, and gives residents access to educational posters, statistics and figures, and positive affirmations and mantras, all with the purpose of spreading awareness about bullying. The board also offers helpful information about what to do if you feel like you are being bullied. This display is purposefully located right in the heart of the home so everyone can access the information at any time.
The scheme extends beyond the wall display too, with the staff recently providing a presentation to spark further discussion on the topic. Senior Support worker, Valerie Jones, led the presentation, which everybody in the home attended.
Residents at Dolphin Lane pictured participating in the presentation and open discussion.
Residents gathered to share their thoughts and experiences and to listen to each other’s contributions. The staff team agreed that this method was effective in enabling an open discussion between everyone in the house, as well as in helping the residents practice their listening skills and develop a deeper understanding of one another. All residents admitted to having been unkind to others at some point in the past, with one stating that;
“When I argue, I don’t realise what I’m doing or saying and I get wound up.”
Another added; “I hurt my friends when I get upset; the people I like.”
Some people opened up about being victims of bullying, with one sharing their experience of being left out of things by their peers during their time at college. Support worker Joanne Bell brought along a poem to the session, entitled ‘Unique’, which was read out by one of the participants. The poem is now displayed on the wall for residents to enjoy in their own time.
Staff took the opportunity to reassure everybody in the home that they can speak up if they feel victimised, and that the support team would always work to swiftly and effectively deal with incidents of bullying. Residents all agreed that they learnt something from the session, and that they enjoyed themselves too.
Manager Victoria said she felt incredibly proud of everyone at the home for opening up, saying;
“The fact that our lovely residents felt safe enough to share their experiences and recognised all signs was actually quite overwhelming. I hope it will make them all think a little bit more about how good being kind actually makes you feel and to always consider others.”
For more information on the specialist services Priory Adult Care can offer, please call the enquiries and referrals team on 0808 159 3137 or click here to make an enquiry.