Activities at West Abbey Care Home

Residents recently appreciated receiving letters and cards from the local primary school, Preston CofE Primary School, who treated the residents to intergenerational fun with cards sent to the home. Residents at the home enjoyed being able to look through the cards at all the brilliant designs, as well as being able to think about the things that made them happy.

Margaret, a resident at the home was able to enjoy thinking about what makes her happy. Margaret said “It’s so lovely that we can still write and send letters and pictures to our local community. Hearing all about their days makes my day too. Today also made me remember all the times when I was younger and used to go skiing with my family! It’s amazing what simple things like this can bring back.”

Staff were delighted to be given badges by Barchester Healthcare to show recognition of Covid vaccinations they recently received. The badges are for those who have had the vaccine to wear with pride and show their residents and colleagues that they have had the vaccine to protect them.

General Manager, Caroline Carter said: “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. We will all be wearing these badges with pride!”

Helen, Deputy Manager at West Abbey Care Centre said: “I am so proud of all our team for ensuring everyone has been given the first dose of the vaccine.  It will help to keep our residents safe, and is the first step in getting things back to normal and having a buzz of visitors in the home once again. We’re looking forward to getting our second doses as soon as is possible.”

Residents enjoyed celebrating National Hug Day on Thursday 21st January. This year however things had to be done a little differently, however still very special

Activities Coordinators at West Abbey Care Centre created small teddy bears holding fluffy pompoms to give to each and every resident in lieu of a hug. They were then delivered throughout the day and were very happily received by all within the home.

Peggy, a resident at the home was very happy to receive her gift. Peggy said “It was such a thoughtful idea, I am definitely going to keep it with me to squeeze if ever I feel like I need to. Thank you for all the hard work that went into making them!”

Caroline Carter, General Manager at West Abbey Care Centre said: “In these unprecedented times, providing a range of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities for our residents is more important than ever. Our residents really enjoyed being able to receive these handcrafted gifts, and I get the feeling they will be treasuring them for a long time. Our varied life enrichment programme for residents includes ways to stay in contact with relatives digitally, such as Skype, and we have new ways to keep residents active, whilst ensuring that the group activities are smaller, adhering to social distancing advice”

Residents have been celebrating World Religion Day today by learning all about different faiths and their holy days.

This year, World Religion Day took place on Sunday 17 January.  The idea behind the day is to promote inter-faith understanding and harmony, followers of every faith are encouraged to acknowledge the similarities between the different religions and to embrace the commonalities religions share.

Residents and staff got into the spirit of the day by discussing their own faith and why it was important to them.  The residents learned all about different religions, Including Islam, Plymouth Brethren and Christianity on the whole. Information was offered from a number of sources including residents and staff of the home, the loved ones of the residents as well as the wider community, with David from St James Church offering a huge amount of support to the project.

General Manager, Caroline Carter, said: “We have all had such an interesting time finding out all about different religions and the similarities between them all.  It has been fascinating to discover new things about different faiths and see how events and festivals are celebrated around the world.  We all loved seeing the beautiful, ornate buildings and the colourful outfits different faiths wear when we were watching sermons and services online.  It has been a wonderful day.”

Residents had a wonderful time celebrating the birthday of one of Britain’s best-loved fantasy authors, JRR Tolkien, on 3 January.  He was born in 1892 and is most famous for writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The staff and residents spent the day learning about the life of Tolkien and reading excerpts from his books, they found out he was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Language and Literature at Oxford University from 1945 to 1959 and a close friend of CS Lewis.  Like Lewis, Tolkien created amazingly elaborate fantasy worlds, landscapes, languages and stories that have enthralled generations of adults and children alike.

However West Abbey had a slight twist to their readings. Excerpts were read to groups by activities coordinator Stephen Allen dressed up in full chainmail armour, which made the event feel like it came to life!

General Manager, Caroline Carter, said: “We have had a fascinating day finding out all about Tolkien.  We read excerpts from his books and watched a film about his life and influences. This afternoon we watched The Hobbit and I have already had a request to watch the first Lord of the Rings film one day soon.”

Resident Jackie said: “I have absolutely no idea how Tolkien could come up with such incredible stories, he must have had an amazing mind. I have really enjoyed finding out about his life and having the stories read by someone who looks like they’d jumped right out the book made it even more special.”

Residents got into the Christmas spirit by joining a virtual afternoon of festivities along with the staff and residents at over seventy Barchester care homes across the south of England, Jersey and the Isle of Wight

Staff and residents pulled out all the stops by dressing up in their glittery Christmas best to link up with all the other care homes in the south of the country for a whole host of different fun activities culminating in the Barchester Big Quiz of the Year.  When they weren’t quizzing, residents enjoyed a feast of festive foods prepared by the home’s head chef Louis Buys and all of his team.

General Manager, Caroline Carter said: “We’ve had a year like no other so we wanted to ensure the Christmas celebrations for our residents and staff were an extra special treat.  ‘Meeting up’ with the other homes virtually has given them all such a boost.  We’ve all had so much fun letting our hair down, everyone really enjoyed the afternoon and it brought out all of our competitive spirit.”

Pat, resident at West Abbey Care Centre said: “It has been a lovely afternoon. It was wonderful to see everyone in all the other homes joining in. I really enjoyed being able to test my brain like this. I think it was a really wonderful idea.”