Northants Lockdown Legends: Care home worker became a ‘lifeline’ to relatives by keeping them connected to vulnerable residents

Relatives of care home residents and staff show their love for activities coordinator, Sam Rix, who went the extra mile to help them cope throughout the pandemic.
Activities coordinator, Sam Rix (right) pictured with a Boughton Lodge care home resident (left).Activities coordinator, Sam Rix (right) pictured with a Boughton Lodge care home resident (left).
Activities coordinator, Sam Rix (right) pictured with a Boughton Lodge care home resident (left).

A care home activities coordinator, from Finedon, has been nominated as our sixth ‘Northants Lockdown Legend’ for going above and beyond to cheer up residents and staff at Boughton Lodge care home in Kingsthorpe.

Sam Rix was described as being a “lifeline” to relatives as a result of the work she undertook to make Boughton Lodge care home a happy place for its residents and staff throughout this particularly challenging time.

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“She constantly strives to not only look after the residents’ wellbeing but those of her colleagues too,” one of the nominations said, “She is a ray of sunshine in the clouds of Covid and deserves this award so much.”

Covid restrictions and lockdown meant that care home residents had very limited contact with loved ones. Sam, however, did all that she could to keep families connected from organising Facetime calls and safe window visits to arranging a variety of online events and helping residents write out postcards to their loved ones.

When England was hit with the first national lockdown in March 2020, Sam helped the care home residents to put together a music video along to The Beatles’ song ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’. The finished video was then sent out to the families of the residents for them to enjoy at home.

Sam said: “All of the residents joined in and it was a silly idea but it was so brilliant. I think the craziest ideas are all the best ideas. It worked so well because it gave people hope that they will see each other again.”

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Christmas, being the time of year where families would usually get together to celebrate, presented a whole new challenge to the staff at Boughton Lodge care home.

Sam said: “Normally, we make a big thing of Christmas because you never know whether it is going to be somebody’s last - we usually bring in school choirs, church choirs - a lot of outside entertainers - but it was so different this year because we had to make a lot of the entertainment ourselves.”

Boughton Lodge care home, at the time, had around 13 residents with the majority of them having two sons or daughters. Sam came up with an idea to help to bring them closer together.

She said: “Over Christmas, I took photos of every resident and sent them out to their families in the form of christmas cards. I helped the residents to write them out.

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“We also sent out handmade baubles with the residents’ fingerprints on them so relatives felt that they had a part of their parents there in the house with them. We wrapped them in tissue paper, gift wrapped the box and sent them out to homes.”

Sam organised a candlelight carol service to take place at the care home, which involved setting up a big projector so residents could read the lyrics to carols and then inviting their families to sing along with them via Zoom.

A Christmas raffle was additionally organised via Zoom where £200 was raised to go towards the activity fund for Boughton Lodge care home.

Although organising fun activities for the care home residents is a big part of Sam’s job, her work did not stop there. Whilst the average family spent Christmas Day together at home, Sam was one of the many frontline staff who came into work to facilitate the lateral flow tests so families could safely visit their loved ones.

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One of the lockdown nominations, which came from the daughter of one of the care home residents, said that this “enabled a much-needed emotional visit and a hug with my mum, who is a resident, and for other relatives.

“She has kept all of the residents and staff entertained, especially when she does her impressions and has been very humble in receiving recognition saying it’s a team effort, which it is, but with Sam at the helm.”

When asked about her ‘impressions’, Sam laughed. She said: “At our Christmas party, we did a lot of animal impressions which ended with a lot of us on the floor trying to do impressions of a cow!”

Lockdown restrictions mean that families are not presently able to escort care home residents to hospital appointments so Sam took it upon herself to accompany them instead.

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She said: “Nobody should be going to a hospital appointment on their own. Everyone needs a friendly face with them. Even if you can reach out and hold their hand - if that’s all you can do, just do it. You don’t need to know the right words to say.”

Sam has not only been attentive to the happiness and needs of care home residents but she has been a rock for her fellow Boughton Lodge colleagues, keeping staff members company when they had to go for their Covid vaccinations.

Care worker, Lea Dav Ray, said: “She has been an angel to us staff with handmade gifts and kind words of support. We wouldn’t be without her.”

When asked about what she loves most about her job, Sam replied: “I think it’s the ability to make a difference because you can.

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“Sometimes, if you go in and have a five minute chat with someone, that’s enough to make their day. It’s interesting to just sit there and talk.

“We have someone here who was in the Navy for over four years during the war - his stories are amazing. We have a lady who was a district nurse and a midwife. I remember her telling us how she told new parents to get used to the baby’s crying because they’re going to be doing it for the next 18 years! That was funny.

“The oldest person we have here is 98-years-old. You can learn so much from them.

“I do think of work here as my second family, it’s like I have lots of adopted grandparents!”

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Sam joined the team at Boughton Lodge care home in November 2018 after working in retail for around six years. With voluntary work as a Beaver scout leader under her belt coupled with her experience of running events, she knew that the role of activities coordinator was her calling.

She described the last couple of years as “the best two and a half years of my working life I’ve ever had” and Sam plans to remain there until she retires.

When asked about how she feels to be nominated as a ‘Northants Lockdown Legend’, she said: “I’m honestly quite shocked - I just see this as a little bit of kindness. I’ve always had the attitude of kindness goes a long way and I am very grateful to be nominated but there are lots of other people here who deserve this recognition.

“If you think of life as a jigsaw puzzle, the first piece is you're born and you go to school, then hopefully you fall in love and get married and, when people move in with us, that’s the last bit of the puzzle and it shouldn’t be dull and boring just because you’re in a care home. It should be just as colourful as the rest of the jigsaw puzzle.

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“If there’s something one of the residents wants to do, we do everything in our power to help them do it.”

The ‘Northants Lockdown Legend’ campaign was started to give recognition to those who have gone above and beyond in their community to help others throughout the pandemic. If you want to nominate an individual or group, email [email protected] .

You can read about our last ‘Northants Lockdown Legend’ here.

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