Ballymahon Daycare Centre to reopen
While the doors of Ballymahon Daycare Centre have been closed since March 2020, staff and volunteers have been instrumental in keeping linked in with their clients since then in any way they could.
Now, they can look forward to catching up in the flesh this Monday, July 5 as the centre reopens for the first time.
Manager Breda Greaves says she is looking forward to meeting the first group of six clients in an “outdoor setting” on Monday, along with four staff.
“I looking forward to seeing them and I want to assure them we have everything in place to make it a safe environment,” stresses Breda, saying that they are “taking it slowly” and bringing clients in small pods on a rota basis.
It will purely be a meet and greet event as activities are still considered high-risk, explains Breda, who in the initial lockdown linked in with the Local Link bus service to run errands and do shopping for her clients, many of whom come from Tubberclair, Glasson and Tang, and check-in on them regularly.
“We didn't close our services during the lockdowns but we rejigged them. We got great support from the Friendly Phone Call service funded by Longford Community Resources Ltd, in addition to ALONE. Local libraries were also very helpful to us.
“We got a number of grants too from Longford County Council to enable us to get iPads for some of our clients,” adds Brenda, who says they were very much appreciated as many of the older people learned with help from staff and volunteers how to play online bingo, listen to music, Facetime calls or enter the world of social media which she says they “took to like ducks to water.”
The centre's mission statement is all about improving the quality of life for their clients, and Breda says they have endeavoured to do that in a variety of ways throughout the pandemic even if they couldn't meet them regularly.
With society reopening, they are delighted to be able to welcome back the first pod to the centre on Monday, in line with the Covid-19 guidelines.
The physical centre has been rejigged slightly, and all staff have been trained to allow them open safely. There's also a dedicated Covid-19 officer on-site, according to Breda, and staff and volunteers have been working extremely hard behind the scenes in recent weeks to get everything ready in Ballymahon Convent House Day Care Centre.