Activities at St Thomas Care Home

Recently we had a lovely lady called Florence move in to St Thomas. Florence was very scared of being in the home and didn’t want to talk to anybody as she didn’t know them. We set up talking group for the ladies in the home and invited Florence to join us. Florence was very reluctant to join but with a gentle hand to hold she come along and join in with the group. We introduced Florence to the ladies and sat her with one of our lovely ladies called Greta. The ladies enjoyed talking about their children growing up, what they used to do for a living and what their hobbies were. It wasn’t long before Florence was chatting away with them all. Greta had taken Florence under her wing and made sure she was ok. They sat and talked for a long time it was then we saw both ladies laughing. We decided to take a photo to catch this moment of how they formed a friendship with in just a couple of hours. We have since printed the photo off and put it in the ladies bedrooms so they can look at it and remember how they become friends and how Greta made Florence come out of her shell. Since then Florence has come out of her shell a lot more and she enjoys talking to everyone in the home.

Our residents enjoyed celebrating Valentine’s Day. the staff went around the home and gave all the ladies a rose. We had four different colour roses the ladies chose what colour they wanted, pink, purple, red or yellow. All of our ladies really enjoyed being given a rose on this special day but for us this one photo stood out among the rest. One of our beautiful ladies Margaret had just had a visit from her husband which she really enjoyed but when her husband left to go home Margaret was very sad that she couldn’t go with him. We went to see Margaret as she looked down and we showed her the roses. Margaret was very shocked to see such beautiful roses and it didn’t take her long to pick what colour she wanted. Margaret picked red as she said red is a beautiful colour. When we gave Margaret the rose she was very happy Margaret looked at the rose and said this is her first time of being given a single rose on Valentine’s Day. Margaret sat and looked at the rose for some time she looked so deep in thought while looking at the rose. We gave her an artificial rose so it would last a life time and that every time she looked at it she would remember that one special day she was give one single rose that made her day.

Marion is one of our lovely female residents her at St Thomas. Marion has always been very arty and enjoys how art makes her feel. Marion is very popular with visits from her family they always come to see her. Which took Marion’s focus off art as she wanted to spend all her time with her family. We spoke to Marion and her family and expressed that Marion wasn’t getting enough social interaction with our other residents. We also asked Marion what she liked to do the most as an activity Marion expressed that she really likes art. We come up with a conclusion with Marion that we would help her find her love for art once again. Marion was very excited about this and also the family  thought it was a good idea that Marion socializes with other people and find common interest. We started an art group for Marion and other people to join and socialise Marion found that she had a lot more in common with the other residents than she thought. Marion will explain to the residents and staff about different shades the lighting and what affect that has on a picture and all the attention to detail. Marion now joins with arts every week her family brought her very nice colouring pages and pencils so Marion get to do art when she is in her room and also with others. Marion finds arts relaxing and peaceful the family said that they can see Marion’s passion for art come back as she has a constant smile when she is doing art.    

Jessie is our oldest resident in the home she will be turning 100 this year. Jessie has three children two boys and one girl. Jessie’s children don’t live local to the home Johnathan lives in the isle of Wight, Richard and Cheryl both live in France. Jessie doesn’t get to see her children all that often so we spoke to Jessie and said that we would do video calls with her children. Jessie is happy to do this as she gets to see her children from afar Jessie also gets to see her grandsons and her son and daughter take Jessie for virtual tour around their homes and show her their cats and dog. Jessie is always amazed that she can see her family from so far away by using a tablet. Jessie is also looking forward to seeing her granddaughter get married. Jessie will not be able to attend in person but the family have arranged for Jessie to see the whole wedding right from the comfort of her bedroom.

One of our lovely residents called Charlie is a big fan of horses, Charlie used to live on a farm and raised many horse’s and other animals. Charlies big passion is horse’s, he really enjoys watching horse racing, horse shows  and looking at old photos of his horses and daughter when they used to take them to shows. Charlie’s family live in Scotland and send him horse and hound magazines every month. Charlie really enjoys getting these magazines and on this one occasion he was really excited that he had to show one of his friends Margaret the magazine. Margaret showed a lot of interest with Charlie and the magazine. They sat and looked though every page with Charlie telling Margaret what breed the horse was and that Charlie himself used to race and show horse’s with his family.

John is new to St Thomas and has already started to make friends. John was worried and scared about being at St Thomas he knew nobody and it was all strange to him. The activities team got John to join in with the arts and craft session where he met a new friend called Jennifer. Jennifer and John sat and spoke or a long time Jennifer had John laughing, smiling and relaxing. John was telling Jennifer about is wife and Jennifer was telling him about coming from Wales they chatted right up until supper time. The home manager Maggie got involved with talking to the John and Jennifer they all enjoyed talking to each other. It is the small things in life like a hello how are you. John went from being scared and worried to being happy, laughing and relaxing with the new friend he has just made.