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
Olympic fun
Well it has be fun but it’s time to pack away our torch and hang up our medals until next time.
Here at Balclutha Court have been having our own Olympic games. So what if we can’t do the pole vault or the long jump. Instead we tried our hands at some old favourites like badminton and basketball but also some new like the slipper toss and archery. It has been great fun and kept us limber over the last couple of weeks.
International Youth Day
Staff and residents at Barchester’s Balclutha Court care home in Greenock were treated to a unique performance from English National Ballet to celebrate International Youth Day on August 12.
Prior to the day itself, members of English National Ballet’s youth dance company, ENBYouthCo, and their Creative Director, Richard Bermange, asked residents to submit their memories of going to see films over the years. The cast then used these evocative descriptions, along with Arielle Smith’s digital production of Jolly Folly, as inspiration for their performance.
On the day, residents were able to watch a performance of A Comedy in Long-shot, a dance film performed by ENBYouthCo, participate in a chair-based, creative dance workshop along with the cast and observe an open rehearsal where Richard and the young dancers created a performance inspired by the residents’ childhood memories.
Club culture with V&A Dundee
Staff and residents at Barchester’s Balclutha Court were treated to a talk about nightclub culture by V&A Dundee Curator, Kirsty Hassard. The presentation forms part of a series of six talks and virtual tours that V&A Dundee is hosting for Barchester Healthcare’s care homes and private hospitals across the UK.
V&A Dundee is Scotland’s design museum, it showcases Scotland’s outstanding design achievements and features world-class exhibitions alongside the permanent Scottish Design Galleries, and a changing programme of commissions, events and activities.
Relaxing with lavender
Did you know that lavender is known to help you relax and sleep well?
Residents at Balclutha Court have been busy harvesting Lavender from our garden over the last week and used it to make their own lavender bags to help them relax and sleep well.
Nelson Mandela Day
Here at Balclutha Court we enjoyed celebrating Nelson Mandela Day in honour of the great man’s birthday.
We spent the day reading excerpts from Mandela’s famous book ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ and talked about the impact Mandela had around the world.
We decided to mark the occasion by creating our own piece of art dedicated to the man himself using our own hand prints combined with his many wise and wonderful quotes.
Not only was today an education but as always it was fun too.
Independence Day
Residents at Balclutha Court celebrated Independence Day in Style
We were off on our travels again and this time we stopped off in "THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE"
Independence Day is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776.
Residents at Balclutha Court had a wee taste of American Independence day. There were lots sweet American themed treats created by out totally awesome kitchen staff and we washed it down with some traditional American fizzy pop. We looked into the history of the 4th of July, tested our knowledge with a themed quiz and painted our own flags.
Upcoming events
May
May is the gateway to summer and we have lots of fun filled things planned - all welcome.
