What types of care does Hickathrift House Care Home offer?

Hickathrift House Care Home offers Residential care, Dementia care, Respite / Short stay.

Activities at Hickathrift House Care Home

We have two Activities Coordinators here at Hickathrift House. We have a wide range of activities within the home, including musical entertainment, arts & crafts, clubs for like-minded people, such as flower arranging and gardening, board games, baking (where the best bit is the eating afterwards!), and we celebrate special events throughout the year. We also have trips out on a regular basis using our own minibus, where we find out places of interest each person would like to visit.

It is important to us that each individual who we support can get as much from these activities as possible, so we try our best to arrange activities that reflect their interests and capabilities, and encourage them to participate in any way they can. We also encourage relatives to join in with activities and events as often as they can.

For the less mobile residents, we unique one-to-one session, such as simple chats over a cup of tea, reading or listening to music. Activities are some of the most important aspects of a care home, so it is essential that our team are dedicated to ensuring that residents are entertained, and that life at Hickathrift House is fun and active.

Watch our video on life enrichment in our homes.

Kat Colangelo

Activities Lead

Hello, my name is Kat and I am the Activities Lead here at Hickathrift House.

Since 2017 I have been working in the field of well-being and I am passionate and enthusiastic about enriching all our of residents' quality of life.

As the Activities Lead at Hickathrift House, my focus is learning about each of our resident's likes and dislikes and supporting them to remain receptive and active in addition to supporting them to engage with our local community friends.

I organise activities to stimulate the mind, body and soul in an enjoyable, comfortable way. My aim is to diversify and increase activities ensuring that there is something for everyone - from Wine and Cheese events, excursions on our home Mini Bus as well as individual bespoke person-centered activities.

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 Hickathrift House Care Home

Royal Parks London

Across our services our residents have enjoyed a wonderful live virtual talk about starlings, one of the UK’s most gregarious birds, hosted by Rachel Dowse from The Royal Parks London.

Rachel examined our long history with this bird and the importance of common species to our lives. Our residents had the opportunity to find out more about the great murmuration and why we need to pay special attention to these beauties before it's too late.

The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all.

Crackers for the Nutcracker

Barchester’s Hickathrift House care home, in Marshland St James, got in the Christmas spirit by visiting the Wisbech Luxe Cinema to see the Royal Opera Ballet: The Nutcracker with local Book Club group.

Residents, staff and the local Marshland St James Book Club had a brilliant time watching Peter Wright’s much-loved production for The Royal Ballet, with gorgeous period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, keeping true to the spirit of this festive ballet classic, combining the thrill of the fairy tale with spectacular classical dancing.

Winter Wonderland

Barchester’s Hickathrift House care home, in Marshland St James, got in the Christmas spirit by visiting Baytree’s Winter Wonderland and Baytree Garden Centre to see the festive decorations. Residents and staff had a brilliant time visiting all the areas at Baytree, especially the Christmas decor section, Winter Wonderland Grotto and cafe for the scrumptious food and drink on offer.

General Manager, Paula Colman said: “We absolutely love being able to take our residents out and about to visit Baytree Garden Centre and Winter Wonderland, it makes us all so happy to experience Christmas events like this. It has been a fantastic day and we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.”

Betty, a resident at Hickathrift House care home said: “It’s been such a magical day. We’ve all really loved going around to all the different sections at Baytree. I particularly loved the Christmas decorations and seeing the cute animals and fish inside the garden centre. However, the best part was the grotto, the animatronics and train ride had us all singing along and laughing throughout the trip.”

Christmas Jumper Day

On the 8th of December we enjoyed the spirit of Christmas here Hickathrift House, wearing our Christmas Jumpers in support of Save the Children UK ! All of them look absolutely amazing !

Christmas Baking

Residents love attending the weekly baking club! Over the past month they've made vegan cherry bakewells, lemon drizzle cake, festive puffed chocolate treats, Christmas cookies and of course the seasonal Christmas cakes!

This week we've been icing our Christmas Cakes ready to enter into the Barchester Christmas Cake Competition! Residents worked in pairs to design 4 beautiful cakes! Don't they look scrumptious!

Blended monkey crafts

This week, residents enjoyed a fabulous talk by these incredible local business owners, Louise and Simon. Everyone found their talk and woodturning demonstration both informative and moving. Residents enjoyed sharing some fond memories of their own wood craft hobbies.

Simon and Louise focus their efforts on offering creative therapy workshops to provide rehabilitation and therapy for people of all ages who are suffering with brain trauma, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as well as other conditions.

Elsie said, "Thank you so much for coming in to speak to us. It's so wonderful what they do and they're so passionate about helping others. It's just so kind".