Out and About

Residents at Westbury Court Care Home have been keeping busy this week having lots of fun thanks to our amazing Magic Moments Club team. Our brilliant team have been keeping residents spirits up by the all the great activities they have been organising. This week we’ve had all sorts, from pub games to balloon fun.

We’ve had a great Oomph session this week where we had fun with pompoms. We decided that we would have a dance off! Everyone had to show their best moves with the pompoms which was very funny. We all had such a lovely time all laughing and having fun with the pompoms, they put smiles on all of our faces!

Residents at Ivybank House Care Home were talking about their favourite meals during our reminiscence session recently and Ken told us all about his perfect pub dinner; steak, chips and lashing of fried onions.

Ken used to enjoy meals out regularly with his wife Barbara so the Magic Moments Club team decided to arrange a dinner for Ken and Barbara at their favourite pub, The Red Lion in Bath.

The couple enjoyed chatting about their dinners out together in the past as they tucked into their juicy steaks – with extra onions for Ken of course!

Ken said, “The food was excellent and the company was even better, and I enjoyed a glass of wine for the special occasion.”

The Magic Moments Club team at Henleigh Hall Care Home have made a Wishing Well wish come true for their residents Jane and Jean who wished to visit Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.

Jane and Jean were joined by fellow residents for the trip out on our Oomph minibus to the museum that tells the story of Sheffield, from its geological roots to the people, politics and music that shaped the modern city.

After exploring the museum, residents and team members enjoyed a walk around Weston Park and fed the birds – Jane was delighted when several of them landed on her shoulders as she held out some bread for their lunch!

The Magic Moments Club team at Wheaton Aston Court Care Home have made a wish come true for resident Eileen with a day out riding a steam train on The Severn Valley Railway.

Eileen and her late husband used to love travelling on the steam trains together and the trip was arranged for what would have been their 65^th Wedding Anniversary.

Eileen was joined by her three daughters as they boarded the train at Bridgnorth and travelled the 16 miles along the beautiful Severn Valley to Kidderminster. On arrival they all tucked into fish and chips for lunch just like Eileen and her husband used to do.

The team at Westbury Court Care Home have recently granted a double wish when two of their residents wished to take a trip out to the garden centre to see all the Christmas decorations now that it’s getting closer and closer to the Christmas.

Residents Mary and Arthur wanted to take a trip together as they both share a love for gardening. They took the Oomph! minibus down to Dobbies Garden Centre at Shepton Mallet which was a lovely drive through the countryside which Mary and Arthur said was a nice added bonus!

When we arrived we looked around all the plants and gardening gadgets which was really fun and then started to explore all the Christmas decorations and made a few purchases before making our way to the café for a delicious meal and a nice cup of tea.

Residents at The Granby Care Home recently took the Out and About Oomph! minibus to Tropical World in Leeds to see all the exotic tropical animals.

Tropical world is a chance to make a journey through the rainforest, mangroves, deserts and the nocturnal world without even having to leave Leeds! There’s a whole range of animals like meerkats, bats, butterflies, crocodiles and many more.

One of our residents, Gordon, was accompanied by their partner, Beryl, and it was lovely to enable them to have ‘date’ at tropical world.

“It’s the little things in life that really make it special!” ​

Residents at Mill House Care Home recently took a trip to the Cotswold Water Park for the day.

Cotswold Water Park is in Cirencester and it has the country’s largest inland paddling beach. One of our team members, Bonny, got everyone singing and playing games on the journey to pass the time, so morale was high when we arrived. There was a slight drizzle but that wasn't enough dampen our spirits.

Here at Mill House Care Home, residents recently enjoyed an autumn trip to local farm. First, they visited the Falconry centre, where we could see many different species of birds of prey. Next, they got the opportunity to take part in the lunchtime feeding of the birds and took a stroll around to see the farm animals and beautiful views of the fishing lakes.

After a picnic, we headed to the Garden centre and gift shop, where everyone had a great time looking around the magical Christmas display. Linda, Magic Moments Club Coordinator at the home said “We were looking around at all that fantastic decorations and Christmas trees with lights and took back home with us some great ideas for decorating our home. There was one spectacular attraction –Singing Reindeers, who kept us entertain with their singing”.

Afterwards everyone got something little from the gift shop we went back to the mini bus and return back home. The trip was great success and the residents had a brilliant day out.

At Mill House Care Home we believe in living life to the full. That’s why we’re passionate about creating vibrant, stimulating activities that will help our residents to love every day. We call them ‘Magic Moments’.

Every brighterkind home now has a Magic Moments Club which provides a vast range of activities and fun things to do that are open to all of our residents. The idea behind Magic Moments is that just because someone moves into a care home doesn't mean that the things they love doing should suddenly stop – quite the contrary, we believe our residents should have the opportunity to love every day, by doing the things that they have always loved as well as trying new things along the way.

Mill House Care Home is located in Witney, Oxfordshire and provides residential care, nursing care, palliative care and respite care.

Residents at Westbury Court Care Home have enjoyed taking part in a singalong at Westbury Methodist Hall recently.

The event, which our home proudly sponsored, was part of this year’s Westbury Festival, and we were entertained by members of the group ‘Goldies’ who performed popular hits from the fifties onwards. Everyone was given a song book and we could call out and request our favourite numbers to join in with.

It wasn’t long before our team members were dancing in the aisles to the sound of over fifty guests singing along to hits by Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield and Sir Tom Jones!

10^th October 2019 is Mental Health Awareness Day

Mental Health Awareness Day is a campaign run by the Mental Health Foundation to help raise awareness of the importance of mental health and the ways we can all support the cause.

What contributes to good mental health as we age