Activities at Harton Grange Care Home
We understand that the people we support have passions and interests that could be difficult to pursue after moving into a care home – but that doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to try! Some hobbies can define a person, so our Activities Coordinators are dedicated to ensuring that everyone we support is able to do what makes them happy to the best of their abilities. Social events are organised with individual tastes in mind and with the idea that residents have the opportunity to try new and exciting things.
Marius Sidoriuc
Hi, my name is Marius, I am the activities coordinator here at Harton Grange. I joined Barchester's family in 2021, as I found their approach and standards on dementia very interesting. Since early 2022 I work for Barchester as both activities coordinator and care assistant. In 2018, I started my journey in health and social care as a care assistant and very soon after, I completed courses on dementia and activities (NAPA, level 2) and I worked as both activities coordinator and care assistant in Kent. I'm also an apprentice in health and social care. I've met some amazing people that have guided my understanding of dementia.
The most important thing for me is to see our residents achieving a meaningful raison d'etre, living as they like and to benefit from a range of activities starting from Namaste to reminiscing and spiritual needs (such as praying or listening to hymns), art and craft, armchair exercises, music therapy or finger nail pamper sessions.
I like to acknowledge that I am working as a part of a whole team, including the fantastic management, hospitality and maintenance departments, promoting a person centred approach for each resident and we are glad to know each persons preferences and abilities in order to plan how the day will look with them. One way we are able to do this is through our residents' and family' meetings where we try to let everyone have their say about the way they want to live and the activities they take part in.
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 Harton Grange Care Home
A Trip to the Garden Centre
What's best to do when the weather is so cold? To visit a garden centre for a hot coffee, said Meriel and Marguerite. Therefore, we put the the warm coats on and we went to Green Fingers Garden Centre in South Shields. Moira joined us and we spent a great morning having hot coffees and cheese scones as we chatted about so many things...
Baking Club
We had a great afternoon making oat biscuits, this time. For our special recipe we used golden syrup and not much sugar - we tried to make the biscuits as healthy as possible. Maureen, Meriel, Audrey, Kitty, Dot and Peggy can't wait to have some biscuits tomorrow. We were fortunate to have Peggy's daughter, Susan, to help us. I baked all the biscuits and I can say they are yummie yummie...
Visiting Alum Pub, South Shields
Visiting a pub can bring back many memories and it is a good place for sharing memories as well. We went to Alum Pub, South Shields, where Dennis used to go years and years ago. Last time when Dennis visited this pub was 20 years ago.
David and Ken enjoyed a brown ale as and Dot was thrilled to join us and she enjoyed a lemonade.
Everyone had a lot of fond memories to share, especially about the old collieries, old Shields, ferries, the dock.
Live entertainment from Christine
Wonderful Thursday afternoon! We welcomed Christine for a great musical reminiscing.
This time, Christine invited us in a beautiful journey through the most popular ABBA songs. Thomas, Margaret and many other residents said they enjoyed very much as Christine has a wonderful, vibrant voice.
Conversation and Reminiscing
Great time for conversation in the morning! We had two special guests, Nicky and Liz. We spoke about the famous English wood engraver, Thomas Bewick. Some of us remember the book "A History of British Birds" illustrated by Bewick. This was a good opportunity to remember about the old collieries as well, about the changes in landscape in North East. We enjoyed even to see some pictures by the famous photographer Chris Killip.
Dennis remembered the tenor Richard Tauber and we listened together some songs.
Nicky and Liz, with their beautiful voices, ended the conversation session singing "You are my sunshine".
Medical Detection Dogs
Across our services residents had a fantastic time during a special live virtual event, led by Emilia from Medical Detection Dogs. Emilia took us on a journey to discover how the organisation began training dogs to support people with complex health conditions, saving their lives on a daily basis.
Using their amazing sense of smell, these dogs can identify odour changes emitted prior an episode and alert the person to take preventative action.
We were introduced to the wonderful dogs and the science behind the sniff. It was a delightful experience for everyone, especially our canine-loving residents.
