Activities at Austen House Care Home

The home was in high spirits as we celebrated the day by organising a scrabble tournament.
The day finished finding out about Scrabble' s history and delicious afternoon treats, which brought smiles and laughter into the home.
Everyone enjoyed a game of Scrabble and some of our residents came up with new and improved ways to increase their letter and word scores. They have the most amazing vocabularies!

Simona Cioinac, General Manager at the home, said: “It has been a brilliant day and we have all enjoyed playing lots of Scrabble together, it is amazing what you learn when you get together round a Scrabble board.  Our residents’ have wiped the floor with me which is no surprise – I really need to brush up my Scrabble skills!”

We dedicated our day to promote the benefits of good health and wellbeing in recognition of World Health Day.
Our residents got involved in sensory and relaxing activities and fun-filled games, specially designed to improve and stimulate their physical health, as well as, mental wellbeing.
Also, we enjoyed a delicious fresh fruits tasting session and explored a number of exotic fruits, which some of the residents never tasted.
Trying new foods will do more than widen your horizons - it can help you eat healthier, introduce you to different cultures, and add more nutrients to your diet.
We all had a lovely time chatting about all the different textures and flavours and guessing where about in the world we thought they’d come from.

Holi is a fun-packed festival that marks the end of winter and the start of spring, it focuses on love and new life.  Holi celebrates the Hindu god Krishna and the legend of Holika and Prahlad.  One of the messier festivals, Holi is also known as the festival of colours and is celebrated by the throwing of colourful powder paint and coloured water along with singing and dancing.

Residents, families and the team at Austen House had an afternoon filled with fun activities like putting coloured power on each other and learning more about the festival of Holi as well as the meaning behind it, through a story. Later we all enjoyed variety of delicious sweets, snacks, a refreshing mango juice and milk- shakes.

We hope to inspire others to embrace and appreciate cultural diversity and we look forward to similar events in the future.

Mary, a resident at Austen House said: “It was so fantastic to see all of the beautiful colours of the Holi festivities, what a brilliant way to celebrate the arrival of spring – it made me so happy to see everyone having so much fun, and getting so messy!”

We were very happy to celebrate World Poetry Day, as we all share a passion for reading. 

Throughout the day, we had interesting discussions about our poems and poets and we hosted a Poetry Club where our residents read beautiful seasonal poems and passages from their own favourite poems. 

World Poetry Day is a fantastic excuse for us all to spend the day with our noses in our much-loved poetry books.

It was a great day for everyone, especially for the keen poets at the home.

Residents and staff at Austen House celebrated all things Irish for St Patrick’s Day. The home was decorated with shamrocks and everyone dressed in green to mark the day.

Held on March 17th, Saint Patrick's Day actually observes the death of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, but the day has come to be a huge celebration of Irish heritage and culture.

We marked the day by making shamrock decorations, going on a virtual tour of Ireland, learning Irish dances and enjoying a live music show that took place at the home. Local singer, Jim, performed a selection of Irish songs including Molly Malone, The Irish Rover, Danny Boy, The Belle of Belfast City and many more. Residents joined in with the singing, clapping and dancing and sampled some Guinness too.

Our residents had a brilliant day, everyone has enjoyed the festivities and we all agree St Patrick’s Day is the best of all the saints days!

Residents and staff at Austen House marked International Women’s Day on March 8th by spending the day celebrating the achievements of wonderful trail-blazing women throughout history.

International Women’ s Day takes place on March 8 every year to celebrate women’s rights and inspire people to fight for gender equality.  A United Nations-sanctioned global holiday, IWD celebrates women’s contributions to society, raises awareness about the fight for gender parity and inspires support for organisations that support women globally.

Residents took part in discussions about the role of the many different women who have shaped history from Cleopatra and Boudica to Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie right through to Queen Elizabeth II and Mrs Thatcher.  They talked about the important women in their own lives and celebrated the achievements of their fellow residents.

Also, the staff arranged a tea party, flowers and gifts for our beautiful ladies and we all had a wonderful time.

Simona Cioinac, General Manager at Austen House said: “We’ve all had a really interesting day thinking about the very many brilliant women who have had such an impact on our lives, whether that was an historic figure or people in our own family.  It was good to share our experiences, take stock and reflect on how much society has changed over the years.”