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
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.
London Ladies
As part of our International Women’s Day celebrations, Residents from across our services were thrilled to join tour guide, Mandy Morrow, for an exciting talk about some Legendary London Ladies.
Mandy shared the fascinating stories of eight ladies with us, from the one of the richest heiresses in the world to the original 'Roaring Girl'.
Everyone who participated truly enjoyed the experience and were delighted to take a walk down memory lane.
Bingo Bonanza
Across the country our homes and hospitals came together to find out which care home or hospital had the best Bingo players as we teamed up for Barchester’s Bingo Bonanza.
Residents were treated to some exciting virtual games of Bingo as part of Barchester’ very own game show series.
Everyone who participate had a fantastic time and enjoyed some friendly competition.
Pancake Day
What a mess we made with our Balclutha Bairns this year on Pancake Tuesday. We managed to find every sticky, messy topping available and create pancakes that would terrify any well respecting dentist. It’s hard to tell who enjoyed this activity most…..us or the kids! Mary actually almost lost her breath laughing as Owen made her her very own pancake with every topping he could get his hands on.
National Puzzle Day
We had so much fun solving our own home made massive Scottish themed word search this month to celebrate National puzzle day. Everyone got involved in finding the Scots words and we had such a laugh debating over the real meanings of the words. Andy and Fiona took the lead and had a great time pointing out the words as everyone shouted out the answers.
