Bupa care Home Residents Set to 'Get Into Reading' With Special Reading Aloud Groups

LEEDS, England, May 23, 2011 -

Bupa has joined forces with charity The Reader Organisation to encourage
its care home residents to 'get into reading' with special reading aloud
groups.

The 'Get into Reading' groups will be piloted in eight Bupa care homes
(www.bupa.co.uk/care-homes) for six months from April 2011. Get into
Reading aims to bring the benefits of reading aloud and of social interaction
to people in health and care environments, such as residential homes
(www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/care-homes/types-of-care/residential-care)
or homes offering nursing care (
www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/care-homes/types-of-care/nursing-care).

Each group will enjoy shared reading led by a project worker from The
Reader Organisation for an hour each week. Members will discuss what's being
read as they go along, and relatives, staff and members of the local
community will be welcome to join in as well. Studies show that literature
can have a healing or therapeutic effect on readers, helping them to identify
with characters and situations in books or to be 'taken out of themselves' by
the story.

The Reader Organisation's experience has shown that short stories and
poetry have proved most beneficial for people with dementia. The project will
ensure that Bupa care home staff members will be trained to deliver
read-aloud groups themselves. Following assessment of the pilot, Bupa plans
to offer groups to its 305 homes nationally as part of its industry-leading
Activities programme.

Siobhan Drane, Bupa Care Services community manager said: "We are really
pleased to be working with The Reader Organisation to deliver 'Get into
Reading'. We hope that these reading aloud groups will reignite a passion for
literature in our residents, spark a new interest or offer an opportunity for
reminiscence. We believe our residents will benefit from the positive effect
literature can have on wellbeing."

Jane Davis, TRO founder and director, added: "This pilot with Bupa is a
great opportunity to spread the benefits of Get Into Reading and bring shared
reading into the heart of care home culture. We've been running groups in
care homes since 2006 and our evaluations have told us that the groups
improve mood, decrease agitation and increase levels of concentration and
social interaction."

About Bupa Care Services:

Bupa Care Services runs 305 nursing and residential homes in the UK and
cares for almost 18,500 people. Bupa's homes are open to everyone - with over
70 percent of UK residents receiving state funding. Bupa is the only company
to offer Alzheimer's Society-trained Dementia Champions in its UK specialist
care homes and over 25% of its beds in the UK are registered for specialist
dementia care. Bupa Care Services employs over 27,000 people and owns care
homes in Spain, Australia, and New Zealand

About Bupa Group:

Bupa's purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. A
leading international healthcare group, it offers personal and company health
insurance, run care homes for older people and hospitals, and provide
workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management
services, including health coaching, and home healthcare.

With no shareholders, Bupa invests its profits to provide more and better
healthcare. It is committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable
healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease
management and ageing.

Employing nearly 52,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world,
principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as
Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America.

    PR Contact:

    Sally Brown
    Copwriting & PR Executive
    Sales & Marketing
    Bupa Care Services
    Bridge House
    Outwood Lane
    Horsforth
    Leeds
    LS18 4UP
    +44-(0)113-381-6147

www.bupa.co.uk

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