A Century Of Care

This year Worthing-based Care For Veterans celebrates 100 years of helping disabled ex-service personnel and their families live a better life

- Duncan Hall

If one word sums up the experience of residents at Worthing’s Care For Veterans it is dignity. The evidence is everywhere – from the beautifully kept shared spaces to the attitudes of the volunteers and staff who populate the wide, bright corridors of the Boundary Road home. Formerly known as the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Care For Veterans has been providing nursing care, rehabilitation services, respite and end of life care to physically disabled ex-servicemen and women, and their families for 100 years. Having started life in the stately home Gifford House, Roehampton, it moved to its current address 85 years ago.

“One of the reasons the home moved here in the 1930s was its closeness to the sea and its flatness,” says Stewart Gillespie, marketing and PR officer, adding that some residents take the opportunity to visit local shops or catch buses to nearby towns and villages. Others have plenty to keep them occupied. The 2006 extension, the Alexandra Wing houses 22 single rooms alongside a number of therapy rooms – ranging from physiotherapy to a bright occupational therapy room where residents can paint, weave, read and do jigsaw puzzles. Some of their crafts go on to be sold to raise cash for the home. The Norfolk and Richmond wings, which were refurbished between 2009 and 2011, are home to 38 beds in single and double rooms.

All of this doesn’t come cheap. According to head of fundraising and marketing Elizabeth Baxter it costs more than £5.5m per year to fund everything for the home’s 60 residents.