The manager of a care home has explained how she became “hooked” on the Veteran Friendly Framework (VFF) after overcoming her initial reservations.
The VFF helps homes in England provide tailored support and care to veterans and their partners.
Kirsty Allen, Home Manager at Cotman House Care Home in Felixstowe, felt she might struggle to free up the time to take on the VFF, but discovered working on the free-to-access project had a calming effect, explaining:
“I became so involved in the process, and now find that if I’m having a challenging day because of other things, I just step away for a time and do VFF work, which I really thrive on.”
She is now recommending the VFF to other care homes, and encouraging their participation, saying she wished Cotman House had completed it earlier.
Cotman House is part of the Caring Homes group, and currently has 27 veterans and partners of veterans in its care. The group has 18 care homes in England and has pledged to put all of them through the VFF process.
Kirsty said:
“I was hesitant about committing to the VFF project when I first heard about it. My days are already jam-packed and I thought it might be super-stressful. But the first thing we had to do was identify veterans, and that set off a spark, I was hooked! We were speaking to residents, emailing family members, and discovering their stories, seeing their old photos and learning so much about them. That started conversations with our residents and it was really beautiful.”
Chantal Sencier, a VFF Champion at Cotman House said:
“I think there were probably five or six residents here that we didn’t know were veterans until we’d spoken to their families. And there were some residents who we knew were veterans but we didn’t know what they had done. We found out one resident drove a tank. We’d known he was in the military but we didn’t realise he was a tank driver!”
Kirsty said:
“I think the VFF has given us so much more understanding, especially with residents living with dementia, to go into their world a bit more. We had a Navy veteran who was living with dementia and believed that because he could see the sea from the home that we were on his ship. His behaviour could be quite challenging and he could become quite distressed. I think if we’d known what we know now from our VFF journey we would have been able to support and understand him much more. We weren’t as knowledgeable or aware as we might have been. But we are now.”
Cotman House was able to complete the VFF process in weeks. Kirsty said it complemented the work they were already doing, and Chantal added:
“It was a pretty straightforward process, thanks partly to our VFF Project Officer. We just can’t sing her praises enough. She kept us motivated and was very positive.”
Chantal continued:
“Kirsty has become quite the ambassador for other Caring Homes signing up to the VFF. She’s a great advocate because she can be honest and tell home managers about the doubts she had at the beginning, and how they were quickly dispelled.”
Any care homes interested in receiving more information about the VFF can visit https://veteranfriendlyframework.org.uk, email VFF@starandgarter.org or call 07425 326070.
