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
Arts and Crafts Session
Residents have been discovering their creative sides at Balclutha with regular art therapy sessions in the mornings. With small groups and relaxing music, residents are able to switch off and focus on their painting and their finished works are simple yet spectacular, and are giving people a big confidence boost as well!
This week’s session involved making cards and pictures for their loved ones for Valentine's Day and as they sat together creating their masterpieces, conversation soon turned to what the most romantic gesture they had received!
Residents Keep Fit with Active Age
The team at Balclutha are dedicated to providing a varied activity programme for their residents and residents enjoy their bi-weekly keep fit classes with Active Age. The popular and well attended ‘Keep Fit’ class is part of the homes life enrichment programme providing a ‘5 a day’ concept in which residents have a range of activities on offer that meet social, emotional, cognitive, sensory or physical needs as part of a holistic programme of care.
General Manager, Alison Dickson said “Seated exercise is such a great way to improve our Resident’s wellbeing, and it’s even better to see them having such a wonderful time doing it! Our exercise therapy sessions are just one of the variety of regular activities available for Residents to enjoy at Balclutha Court and we welcome members of the community to join us”.
Festive Cheer
Residents of Balclutha Court enjoyed a surprise visit on Christmas morning. Staff at the home invited Father Christmas and his reindeer to bring some festive cheer to the residents and their relatives. Putting on his hat, trimming the beard and blasting loud cries of ‘Ho Ho Ho’, he sat with residents and handed out sweet treats.
Alison Dickson, General Manager said: “We had a fabulous day! Father Christmas gave out presents to all the residents.''
Sweet Treat for Residents at Balclutha
Residents at Balcultha had a sweet treat making delicious cakes for the home. Residents had a lovely time chatting whilst decorating their cakes with icing sugar, cherries, chocolate and more, and they all had a wonderful time enjoying their sweet treats for dessert. Residents were also delighted with the cake they made for Christmas which showed the nativity scene.
Alison Dickson, General Manager said: “We are delighted with our interactive group sessions in particular our take on the great British bake off with our very own baking sessions at the home as part of our regular activity sessions. It was great to see so many of the residents getting involved with the session, as for many of them baking has been a lifelong hobby. We find that the process of mixing certain ingredients and the smells associated with baking can trigger memories and nostalgic feelings, and can be extremely relaxing for residents. After all of their hard work, everyone was able to sit down and enjoy their delicious freshly baked biscuits.”
Halloween Party
Residents at Balclutha enjoyed a spooky afternoon of fun Halloween games, live music from Chaz Cunningham & a lovely buffet prepared by our chefs.
World Food Day
Residents at Balclutha Court had a mouth-watering day as they marked World Food Day with a variety of different foods from across the globe. Our catering team cooked up a storm in the kitchen as a stream of dishes old and new were available for residents to sample throughout the day. This brought up the opportunity for everybody to reminisce about their favourite childhood meals, as well as those they love to cook.
