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

Celebrating National Cheese Lover's Day

Yes, we do love any excuse to have a feast! So, when our team discovered there was a day celebrating the love of cheese, we just had to create a beautiful cheese trolley for all to enjoy. Staff designed lovely cheeseboards and tasting plates from cheddar to Wensleydale with mango and ginger. Our talented Head Chef Andy made modified versions for those with special nutrition needs, this ensured everyone could enjoy this fun scrumptious activity. There were some delightful pairings with crackers, grapes and sherry.

Metal Detection Dogs

Across our services residents had a fantastic time during a special live virtual event, led by Emilia from Medical Detection Dogs.

Emilia took us on a journey to discover how the organisation began training dogs to support people with complex health conditions, saving their lives on a daily basis.

Using their amazing sense of smell, these dogs can identify odour changes emitted prior an episode and alert the person to take preventative action.

We were introduced to the wonderful dogs and the science behind the sniff. It was a delightful experience for everyone, especially our canine-loving residents.

Home embraces flower power

Residents at Hickathrift House in Marshland St James, Wisbech celebrated International Flower Day which took place on January 19th.

International Flower Day promotes the psychological boost that flowers can give to people. From growing and nurturing plants and flowers to gifting flowers to show love and appreciation, and sometimes just the simple act of admiring their beauty – flowers have the power to make someone’s day.

Residents took part in flower-based activities in the celebration including a flower arranging afternoon, reminiscing about their gardens, learning what different flowers symbolise, virtual visits to famous gardens via YouTube and floral aromatherapy which everyone enjoyed. Their collective knowledge about flowers gained from years of gardening experience was very impressive.

Residents put on their blue suede shoes

Hickathrift House Care Home in Marshland St James, Wisbech, was transformed into Graceland to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 89th birthday on 8th January.

It is estimated that Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide so to honour the undisputed King of rock & roll, the staff and residents enjoyed a fantastic day of music, fun and dancing. The activities, decorations and costumes provided by the staff sparked fond memories for residents at Hickathrift House.

Barchester’s Big Quiz of the year!

All over the country our care homes and hospitals linked up for Barchester’s Big Quiz of the year!

Residents tested their knowledge with a variety of questions, from historical humdingers and musical musings to pictorial puzzlers and connective conundrums.

Everyone who participated had a fantastic time and enjoyed some friendly competition.

Pantomime Time at Hickathrift

It's behind you! Oh no, it's not! Oh yes, it is! Residents had an incredible time when the pantomime visited us at the beginning of December. We had a spectacular pantomime production of ‘Cinderella' by Eva Long Productions. The room was full of laughs and constant smiling as these performers were making us giggle with their punchlines and amazing acting. The staff, residents and loved ones all joined in with the performance with their amazing singing and interacting with the traditional pantomime calls. At the end, we sang carol singing and everyone was singing along and in the Christmas spirit.