Harton Grange Care Home in South Shields has recently brought a bit of magic to residents by providing a new ‘Magic Table 360 and the Happiness Programme’ as a way to improve residents’ quality of life.

Designed and manufactured in the UK, the Magic Table 360 uses interactive games to connect residents with staff and with each other, and research shows it improves the wellbeing of people living with dementia. Using interactive light projections, the Magic Table 360, which can be played independently or in a group, stimulates movement by inviting participants to take part in all sorts of different fun activities such as popping bubbles, playing the piano, colouring in pictures, sweeping leaves or interacting playfully with fish. Games are rich in colour, movement and detail, and allow people of all ages to play in a safe and comfortable environment.

The Magic Table 360 is portable so it can be used wherever residents feel most comfortable, it can be projected onto the floor, ceiling, walls, a whiteboard or even the bed. The Happiness Programme allows for a range of games that change seasonally and have country-specific versions covering 14 different categories, so there will always be something new for residents to try.

At Harton Grange we like to utilize all we can from our community and have a very close friendship with the library community team who work with many people who live alone and need support, they also do group get-togethers like coffee mornings.

They have been supporting Harton Grange for many years and they have donated activity books, quizzes, reminiscence pictures and very recently they have donated large jigsaw puzzles and also spring bulbs which came fully equipped with pots and soil, the residents have planted the bulbs ready for spring. We cannot thank them enough and we are so grateful for all the help we receive from our community.

At Harton Grange we have some amazing spaces to work in, we have our own living kitchen. We have been donated lots of memorabilia which work wonderful for reminiscence and role play sessions, one of our residents “Freda” enjoyed posing for pictures, she pretended to chat to her family on our vintage brass candle stick phone whilst drinking tea from the lovely posh tea sets and the back drop of long johns and pinnys hanging from the Victorian clothes creel.

Today we took a large delivery from Sainsbury’s Local in our region. Jody from Sainsbury’s kindly used her “Community budget” on Harton grange. Jody rang Harton Grange and asked what we would like as a donation and we mentioned, toiletries. These come in very handy if a resident does not see their loved one and we have supplies in the home to give out. Jody also supplied numerous chocolate bars to give to our residents.

Jody, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

At Harton grange, we added a new addition to our home, in the form of a visitor’s suite. This is perfect for resident’s families visiting their loved ones.

The suite is in the form of a square with a glass partition in the middle. The family go inside via one door and the resident in through another day. This means there is no physical contact with each other. Inside the suite, we have table and chairs to make this a homely feel along with electric radiators to keep everyone warm. There is a built in Microphone / intercom system so the family can hear their loved ones.

The visits have been very successful and we have had lots of good feedback!

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Harton Grange were delighted to be invited to have the vaccination, which has lifted everyone’s spirits after what has been a very challenging year for everyone.

General Manager, Lesley Gregg said: “Last year was a year like no other and the vaccine feels like the light at the end of the tunnel.  Our teams have been magnificent in how they have risen to every challenge during this pandemic and we are proud to play our part in this next phase to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.”