Sunrise Senior Living UK And Gracewell Healthcare Scoop Two Major Awards

Sunrise Senior Living UK and Gracewell Healthcare have won two awards at this year’s BOC International Brilliance Awards. The care provider was named as the winner of the ‘Brilliance in Customer Service Award’ and received the Gold Award for ‘Brilliance in PR/Communications’ for their #CelebrateCareHomes campaign.

The care home provider, which operates 46 care homes across England and Wales, won the Brilliance in Customer Service Award in recognition of their efforts to continue providing industry-leading care to their residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of their efforts to protect the safety and wellbeing of residents across their care homes, Sunrise and Gracewell have implemented a ‘Meaningful Contact’ model. This model has formed the basis to delivering enhanced, meaningful contact between residents and their loved ones which has dramatically improved the emotional and physical wellbeing of those who have participated.

One family member who had used this innovative service, said:

“Thank you so much for organising the enhanced visiting for my mum. Since you have introduced the enhanced visiting, it has made such a difference. We are at least able to see each other in doors, have a relaxed socially distance conversation and even play a game of cards.”

The care home provider also effectively managed the immediate impact of the pandemic when it first broke-out earlier this year. After making the difficult but necessary decision to close their care homes to all visitors, team members at Sunrise and Gracewell facilitated hundreds of video calls between residents and their loved ones to ensure that valuable contact was able to continue.

Sunrise and Gracewell’s #CelebrateCareHomes campaign also won the Gold Award for Brilliance in PR/Communications during the virtual awards ceremony on 3rd December. The campaign, which was launched in July 2020, sought to challenge the damaging media narrative against care homes as the effect of COVID-19 became increasingly clear. The multifaceted campaign included each Sunrise and Gracewell care home creating and posting unique videos on TikTok which were shared with the campaign hashtag. Over 75 videos were created as part of the campaign, which went on to receive over 30,000 engagements across the platform.

The judging panel were also impressed by the campaign’s success at garnering political support, after numerous care homes wrote open letters to their MPs calling on them to support the campaign and the invaluable work of care homes. These letters went on to receive numerous pieces of press coverage, with one care home securing a front-page feature in their local newspaper.

Speaking of their double win at the prestigious Brilliance Awards, Jen Walker, Head of Marketing at Sunrise and Gracewell, said:

“Our #CelebrateCareHomes campaign championed the vital work of our care homes as well as all those within the care home sector during the pandemic. To have won a Gold Award for this campaign is a validation of not only the campaign’s success, but of the truly heroic actions of all team members, residents and their family members in the fight against COVID-19.

“The entire Sunrise and Gracewell organisation are immensely proud to have also won the Brilliance in Customer Service Award. Our team members have worked tirelessly to ensure that our residents continued to thrive during the most testing period that the care home sector has faced in a generation. Using this momentum, we’ll continue striving to deliver the best possible services to our residents and their loved ones across each and every one of our care homes.”