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
The scent of lavendar
After a fight with some bumble bees over the lavender in the garden and a week of the house smelling like your grannies undies drawer while drying that lavender out. It was time to put it to good use. We made our own wee smelly bags to keep our own drawers smelling lovely.
Music through the ages
Our homes had a brilliant time with curator Sarah Deters as she took us on a virtual ‘Music Through the Ages’ tour of St Cecilia’s Hall: Concert Room and Music Museum.
Our residents were thrilled to discover weird and wonderful musical instruments, hear their unusual sounds, and find out how instruments have changed over the last 500 years.
The virtual live event explored the world-renown collection of musical instruments on display at St Cecilia’s Hall, Scotland’s oldest concert hall.
Home present cheque to local charity
Balclutha Court care home in Greenock recently presented Barrmill Jolly Beggars Burns Club with a cheque for £500 to help them continue to support their community.
Formed in 1944 Barrmill Jolly Beggars Burns Club has provided a social group for men and women ever since. We hold 8 opens per year with invited speakers as well as St Andrew's Dinner, Burns Supper, Ladies Night, Theatre Outing and annual Away-Day Bus Trip. We also sponsor local verse-speaking competitions for schools in the area and provide judges for such events. We also support Garnock Valley Disability Forum by providing small amount of money such as sponsoring the annual raffle ticket books.
An afternoon at the Opera
Our homes had a fabulous time with the talented soprano Astrid Joos from Street Theatre. Astrid spoke about a selection of famous operas and our residents were treated to performances of wonderful arias from operas well-known to all, such as ‘Giuditta’, ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’.
It was a lovely experience, truly enjoyed by all.
Book Club with Dr Tim Howard
Residents across our homes had a lovely time joining Dr Tim Howard, 4th generation GP, whose whole life has been about patient care, for an exciting virtual event to discuss his novel ‘Let’s Kill All The Lawyers’.
The novel is a medical fiction thriller that explores the impact of life and death events, mistakes and forgiveness, and the impact of law and justice on the day- to-day lives of ordinary people doing their best in difficult circumstances.
Residents had the chance to ask their own questions once the discussion was over and a great time was had by all.
Just passing through
Our residents had a lovely time joining Daniel Snowman, for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘Just Passing Through’.
Author of over a dozen books, Daniel Snowman’s long and active life has led him to interact in countless ways with the wider world and with some of its most famous inhabitants. His memoir evokes these experiences via a series of vivid literary vignettes.
Our residents found the talk very intriguing and informative, and were happy to learn more about Daniel’s experiences around the world.
Upcoming events
May
May is the gateway to summer and we have lots of fun filled things planned - all welcome.
