How We Care
We’re passionate about providing a myriad of opportunities for our children and young people to make new memories and new friends while enjoying quality life experiences. We are always open to suggestions, so let us know if there’s something special you’d like to see offered at our Care Home.
Relax Kids
At Orchard Cottage Care we believe every child and young person needs attention, affection and affirmation to grow and be their best self along with having the right to feel valued, appreciated and connected. To achieve this, all of our team members will be trained in Relax Kids that have one goal - to help children feel more positive, resilient and believe in themselves.
Relax Kids aims to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people so they can navigate life feeling calm, confident, creative and lit up from within through relaxation and meditation. By using a unique and pioneering 7-step system - Move, Play, Stretch, Feel, Breathe, Believe and Relax, that works through children’s natural energy system to lead them into a relaxed state where they are ready to learn, allows our staff members to become a key person in helping children emotionally regulate, build resilience and learn self-care tools to help them manage life.
Animal Therapy
It is well known and proven that interaction with a gentle, friendly pet has significant psychological, social, emotional and physical benefits to children and young people, as showing love towards animals helps to achieve a more healthy and balanced life. Therefore at Orchard Cottage we allow our young people to experience this through Animal Therapy sessions.
Physical Health benefits include lowering blood pressure, allowing your body to release endorphins such as oxytocin that has a calming effect, providing motivation to move more, stretch farther, and exercise longer while also maintaining and increasing motor skills and the act of petting produces an automatic relaxation response.
Mental Health benefits include lifting spirits, lessening depression as well as decreasing anxiety. Animal Therapy can also decrease feelings of isolation, alienation and reduce loneliness while encouraging and increasing socialisation and communication. Being around animals provides comfort, reduces boredom and may help children overcome speech and emotional disorders.
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention
Orchard Cottage Care aims to ensure that all children, young people and adults associated with our home are protected and kept safe from harm. We acknowledge that young people placed within our service may have a high level of complex needs and behaviours.
At Orchard Cottage we will adopt the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) model developed by Cornell University for residential child care facilities. This model gives a framework for implementing a crisis prevention and management system that reduces the need to rely on high risk interventions. It provides our care staff with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to help young people in a crisis situation, where staff have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to de-escalate potential crises, prevent injury or significant harm and teach our young people to learn constructive ways to handle future situations.
Psychological Services and Therapies
At Orchard Cottage, we offer our young people the services of an experienced Therapist who is qualified in and practices Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Emotional Freedom and other holistic techniques to deal with Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Addiction and various other behavioural issues.
If needed, our young people also have access to a Clinical Psychotherapist who will use a range of different therapies uniquely tailored to suit their needs. Each session can last up to an hour, depending on how much the young person can manage at one time, and this can be weekly, fortnightly or as often as needed.
Our care staff will undertake training to increase their knowledge to be able to use a variety of different strategies to best help and support our young people with issues that arise in their daily lives that may cause them distress and feeling of being unable to cope with certain situations.
Diet and Nutrition
Our young people at Orchard Cottage will benefit from the health advantages of well-cooked, well-presented meals, made from good-quality ingredients to accepted nutritional standards, prepared by a trained cook who is confident in their skills and valued by all in the house. Providing healthy food may contribute to improved behaviour as there are clear links between good nutrition and calmer, relaxed children.
Children and young people of all ages should look forward to and enjoy meals, they will learn about where their food comes from, and also be encouraged an take an interest in how it is produced and grown. Improving their food knowledge will include practical cooking skills so that they have the ability to look after themselves when older, in a way which meets their health needs while also enhancing their self esteem and self confidence. By catering to the personal food needs and preferences of each and every young person, we hope to make Orchard Cottage feel like home.
Medication Monitoring
At Orchard Cottage we have a duty of care to ensure that our young people’s medicines are managed effectively through their safe storage and accurate administration. Medication when prescribed, shall only be administered by staff who are fully trained, competent and confident in it’s management.
We will involve our young people as much as possible in their medication process and include this as an essential part of an overall person centered approach. It is encouraged that mature young people will express a desire to self-medicate and store their own medication and staff will support them to do this by developing individual plans according to their own circumstances, considering safety issues and associated risks.
To ensure we promote a safe, secure and efficient system for the administration of medication to our young people that require it, Orchard Cottage has a partnership arrangement with a local Pharmacy who will provide support in maintaining best practice and highest of standards.
Developing Partnerships
Our home doesn’t operate in isolation and it is important that we have a wide network of support.
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Our service ensures we have strong links with parents, family members, schools, social workers, Local Authorities, doctors and healthcare professionals, Police Scotland and the justice system, colleges, universities and other invaluable organisations such as Who Cares?Scotland, Barnardo’s, Aberlour, Skills Development Scotland and CELCIS.
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We are dedicated to developing strong, collaborative and effective relationships with all involved in our young people’s lives.
Recreational Activities
At Orchard Cottage Care we encourage our young people to try something new either as individuals or together in a group. We will give them a chance to explore new experiences and challenges to help enhance their physical and mental health, creativity and their self esteem while having fun.
Our aim is to support our young people to take pleasure in life and offer them many opportunities to become well balanced individuals. We will promote the continuation of past hobbies as well as encouraging new activities and interactions that the young person may enjoy, allowing them to reduce stress, giving a sense of belonging and accomplishment. Some examples are swimming, ice skating, bowling, sports such as football and tennis, horse riding, going to the cinema, shopping trips, days out, overnight stays and holidays during school term times.
