HOUSEY-HOUSEY OF WINDSOR
Care home’s bingo game graced with some VIP guest callers
THEY wouldn’t be the first royals to decide they had found a new calling.
But the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s latest role was only temporary.
William and Kate acted as bingo callers as they joined residents of a care home in Cardiff by video link for a game. The royals giggled at their Norfolk home while taking turns holding numbered balls to the screen – calling out some of the numbers in ‘bingo lingo’.
William told players Margaret Stocks, Ray Donoghue, Margaret Jones and Joan Drew- Smith: ‘Catherine is going to pick out the first ball.’ As Kate held it up to the screen for the residents to see, she announced: ‘So, the first number is five and eight, 58.’ William then chose a ball and held it up, calling out: ‘One little duck, number two.’
Kate called out the next two balls: ‘Eight and seven, 87. Six and two, tickety-boo.’ She and William displayed other numbers, including the 19 ball, until they heard Joan call out: ‘I won!’
The couple clapped, and William congratulated her. ‘Hi, Joan,’ said Kate. ‘Well done!’
‘How did we do at bingo? We did OK?’ asked William. ‘Very good,’ said the winner, before adding cheekily, ‘Wasn’t as good as it should have been!’ prompting more giggles from William and Kate.
‘We’ll try and do a bit better at bingo next time,’ said the prince.
Before the game, he and Kate spoke to staff at the Shire Hall Care Home, including general manager Karen Grapes, who told them: ‘It has been quite a hard couple of months, I must be honest.’
Harriet Boobyer, the senior care assistant and dementia co-ordinator, described how she is helping residents to stay in touch with their loved ones. ‘A lot of our residents are living with dementia,’ she said. ‘It’s hard for them to understand 100 per cent what’s going on outside. So we’re working on just making sure that we still have that connection with them.’
PRINCE William has warned of the impact that lockdown and being kept away from school could be having on children’s mental health.
In a video call to care providers, he said he was particularly concerned about the issue, despite families attempting to ‘muddle’ their way through.
He also expressed fears about their anxiety levels as a result of the pandemic generally, as well as the loss of family members to the virus, and highlighted the long-term implications of the economic outlook for school leavers.
The prince was talking to five professionals from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in a Zoom video call. William said: ‘I’m particularly worried as to how the young people are going to cope long term because we’re all muddling through this period.
‘But the long-term implications – of school being missed, anxiety levels, family members sadly dying and the sort of general economic outlook – do you think that will play heavily on your services and what they’ll need?’
Consultant psychiatrist Frances Doherty, who runs an inpatient mental health unit for teenagers, replied: ‘Interestingly, some of our referral rates have gone down but I would imagine that as we’re starting to come out of lockdown and people are starting to get back into the world again, [we’re] starting to realise just what we’ve been through and we’ll start to see our referral rate increase and the impact on our services.
‘What I think has been really helpful is a lot of work has been done to think about how young people can care for themselves, how parents can care for them, to help them to survive and to thrive even… through the pandemic. But I think it’s the other side of it that we’ll have all the challenges that you mentioned.’
William also raised the challenges posed by young children – he and
Kate have three aged six and under. Talking to child psychiatrist Dr Clare McKenna, he gave a knowing laugh when she said: ‘The children I work with don’t understand social distancing.’
To laughs from the other five participants – all women – William said light-heartedly: ‘That’s all children isn’t it? I don’t think any children understand social distancing.’
Dr McKenna said some of her staff had developed innovative ways to put vulnerable children at ease, for example by sticking pictures of themselves smiling on the masks or visors of their PPE. Social worker Eimear Hanna said her staff had bought big teddy bears for the children to hug as they weren’t allowed to hug carers.
William laughed: ‘Everyone needs a hug, it’s very important Eimear.’ ‘They do! They do Sir,’ she replied. At the end of the call, the prince said: ‘I would just like to say before I go that I’m hugely grateful for all you’re doing and hope enough people are saying thank you and appreciate all the hard work that not only you, but all your team are doing right now. You’re all making a huge difference.’
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