Local care home residents celebrate International Day of Sign Language
To mark the International Day of Sign Language on September 23rd and to learn some new skills, staff and residents at Barchester Hall Park care home, in Bulwell, enjoyed a Sign Language demonstration.
Staff and residents learnt some basic sign language with a company called Commanding Hands who aim to teach people British Sign Language (BSL). They have BSL lessons, tutorials, quizzes, vocabulary builders, videos for early learners and videos from the Deaf community to help everyone learn how to sign. Staff and residents found it challenging but fun!
Learning new skills is important, and fantastic for mental well-being. Learning BSL and other languages has a positive effect on interpersonal, communication and memory skills as well as making it easier to learn other languages.
General Manager, Jodie Rakhra of Hall Park care home, said: “Today has been all about learning new skills, learning sign language is an incredibly useful skill to help us all communicate with our residents who are hearing-impaired. Being able to learn new communication skills is fantastic and it has been great fun for everyone. Our staff and residents have really enjoyed themselves.”
Hall Park care home is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering personalised care across its care homes and hospitals. Barchester Hall Park provides residential care, dementia care and respite care and short stay.