Activities at Balclutha Court Care Home
At Balclutha Court our resident’s happiness is extremely important to us. We all know that a large part of this is keeping active and continuing to enjoy your interests and hobbies. At Balclutha Court, we have regular activities including arts and crafts, music, entertainment, trips to local attractions such as canal trips, safari parks and many more. Our activities team are always busy organising events, entertainment and excursions with the broadest possible appeal and many of our residents see living at Balclutha Court as an opportunity to develop a new skill or interest. It is important to us that each individual who we support can get as much from these as possible, so we try our best to arrange activities that reflect their interests and capabilities as best as possible, and encourage them to participate in any way they can. We also encourage relatives to join with activities and events as often as they can.
Karen Dillon
Karen Dillon is our Head of Activities and has worked within the home since 2005, starting out as a Carer. Karen is very outgoing and full of fun. She has many hobbies, with arts & crafts being her favourite, and her passion for this can be seen in our life enrichment programme.
Karen is supported by Kay Millar and Anita Marsh, between them they ensure that residents are happy and have loads of fun.
They are very keen to involve the residents in the decision making within the home to enhance their experience. They take part in the residents' meetings, catering forums and assist the General Manager in interviewing new staff members.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Balclutha Court Care Home
Craigmarloch kids visit
What an absolute pleasure it was to have these young ladies from Craigmarloch school join us at the home for the first time, but certainly not the last. We made jewellery together and even managed to squeeze in a wee sing song. Here’s to new friendships and many memories to be made together on future visits.
Circus themed fun
We celebrated World Circus Day earlier this month by learning some new skills. We tried our hands at plate spinning, Juggling, balloon popping but to name but a few. Christine in particular turned out to be a professional plate spinner and Ricky proved to be an natural dart thrower. We had so much fun.
Easter celebrations
Our annual Easter tea party was a massive hit as always at Balclutha Court. We enjoyed a beautiful sweet spread courtesy of our amazing kitchen team followed by an Easter Bonnet parade with our hats (made from our arts and craft sessions), games and a sing along. A lovely day was had by all involved.
Come sing!
Residents across our homes and hospitals had a fantastic time with vocal coach Dan Cooper from Biiah as he led an amazing sing-a-long session for residents to enjoy.
Residents who joined the event were able to learn different techniques as they sang the famous ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ by Jimmy Cliff and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by The Beatles.
Across our homes there were smiles and laugher all around. The session was such a success and was great for the mind, body and soul.
Beat The Clock
We continue to celebrate a varied life enrichment programme and across our services we linked up with other Barchester care homes and hospitals up and down the country for some interactive Beat the Clock games.
Our residents truly enjoyed solving word puzzles, conundrums and mathematical problems as part of Barchester’s very own game show series.
Everyone who joined had a fantastic time and enjoyed some friendly competition.
Harrogate Chocolate Factory
We had a brilliant time across our services with Harrogate Skills 4 Living as they took us on a wonderful virtual visit to their Harrogate Chocolate Factory.
Residents were thrilled to discover details about the chocolate-making process and the fascinating journey from bean to bar, all while enjoying some delicious sweet treats.
The Factory aims to employ people with learning disabilities and autism, involving them in all parts of the process, from sorting and roasting the beans to packaging and sales. The experience was truly enjoyed by all who joined this event.
Upcoming events
May
May is the gateway to summer and we have lots of fun filled things planned - all welcome.
