Meet our Activities Coordinator, Louisa Taylor

Hello my name is Louisa and I am one of three activity coordinators here at Highview, I have been in post since January 2016. Prior to taking the post here I held a similar role for five years, but in a smaller, privately owned nursing home.

I have a BA in ‘Health & Welfare’ which I completed on-line through the UHI while my son was in primary school. We live on the Black Isle with our two dogs.Our aim here at Highview is to provide a stimulating and relevant programme of activities that reflects the interests and aspirations of our residents. We are always looking for ideas and inspiration, working closely with the nursing and care teams, residents and their loved ones to ensure that our activities provision is relevant, and of benefit to our residents.Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the activity team if you would like further information or support in enabling your loved one to achieve their full potential.

Activities at our home

We understand that the people we support have passions and interests that could be difficult to pursue after moving into a care home – but that doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to try! Some hobbies can define a person, so our Activities Coordinators are dedicated to ensuring that everyone we support is able to do what makes them happy to the best of their abilities. Social events are organised with individual tastes in mind and with the idea that residents have the opportunity to try new and exciting things.

Life at our home

Pet Therapy for Residents

Residents were recently treated to a falconry display as they welcomed, Clare Morrison and her young daughter from Speyside Falconry. They brought with them two of their young owls, Lana the White-faced Scopes Owl and Lola the Saker Falcon.

All of their birds are hand reared and a lot of time is spent training them for meeting the public and being gently handled. Clare and her family are experienced handlers with a level 3 certificate in Animal Assisted Therapy and are Disclosure Scotland checked.

We have also recently welcomed our new Pets As Therapy dog Sammy into our home on a Monday evening. Sammy is a very cute West Highland Terrier and he comes in to visit with his Owner Ivy. Sammy likes nothing more than to ‘courie in’ and enjoy a cuddle!

Shopping Trip to Garden Centre

Residents of Highview enjoyed a great outdoors with a visit to the homes local garden centre to purchase autumnal flowers for their hanging baskets. Residents took their time to wander around the displays remarking on the colourful shelves before enjoying the delights of the café with a tasty slice of cake over a cup of tea.

“Everyone had a lovely visit to the garden centre” commented one resident “It’s a lovely time of the year to come out and see all the plants with their autumnal blooms. Thank you to those who arranged such a lovely trip out.”

The Scottish Ballet

We were very fortunate this year to be selected for the Scottish Ballets Community Outreach Programme. We enjoyed our first visit on the 29th of March, and again, more recently on the 11th of October. The chair based dance sessions are well attended and we have incorporated many of the moves into our twice weekly exercise classes.

On both occasions we had the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea and a cake with the dancers after the session. It has been lovely to have the opportunity to meet the artists and participate in this very worthwhile project and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Miriam, Amy and Andy for their support.

Residents Enjoy Baking Experience

The residents always enjoy our baking days and we’re a dab hand at scones. We have recently enjoyed making cheese, fruit and cherry varieties and they are barely out the oven before going like the proverbial ‘hot cakes’.

We all enjoy the opportunity to come together as a group, enjoying each other’s company and supporting each other to participate in the activity while reminiscing about baking in days gone by.

Music Therapy

At the end of August we were treated with an afternoon of musical entertainment by Isbel Pendlebury and her clarsach. Isbel played lots of popular classics and we had lots of fun singing along with her. Some residents had spent the morning beforehand making soft fruit meringue nests to be served with afternoon tea during the performance.

Chainsaw Creations

A bench for Memory Lane was recently commissioned from Ian Chalmers of Chainsaw Creations, based on the Black Isle. Ian very generously decided to donate the bench and lovely shelf that sits above it when he heard where it was for.

A group of residents took an excursion out to Ians’ worksite to present him with a thank you card and a small gift as a token of our appreciation.