Activities at Harton Grange Care Home

At Harton Grange we have an amazing relationship with a group based in Northumberland called Mind Active, they are lottery funded and provide activities for the elderly in Care homes and in their own homes and they have recently set up a Men’s club over zoom with other care homes.

It has been really good seeing the gentlemen chatting about their lives and enjoying a pint and a packet of crisps, one of our residents enjoyed playing the organ for them and others over zoom, he practised for a few days to get his skills back up. What a lovely afternoon!

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Harton Grange care home in South Shields were treated to an armchair work out courtesy of the Green Goddess, Diana Moran, and Shackleton’s furniture company, followed by a mindfulness session led by Shackleton’s Emma Raybould.

Diana rose to fame as a glamorous fitness guru on BBC’s Breakfast Time in the 1980’s and has made an outstanding contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of people in the UK. She now brings that experience to Shackletons as their Health and Wellness Adviser.

Yesterday at Harton Grange we had a special birthday! George is 90 years old and we had a celebration for him. We had a birthday cake and lots of balloons and to make it more special he had a visit from his Daughter and son in law, George was accompanied by his wife Maureen in the visitors suite.

As part of our continued partnership with V&A Dundee, team members and residents at Harton Grange in south shields enjoyed a "Creating V&A Dundee" virtual talk.   Everyone at the home had the opportunity to discover the fascinating story behind the origins of V&A Dundee – Scotland’s design museum and the latest addition to the country’s list of instantly recognisable buildings.   They heard how the history of the city and site inspired the architect to draw from a range of unusual sources to create a thoroughly modern museum that is as intriguing as it is complex. The presentation showed incredible images of the entire design and construction process – from initial concept to opening celebration – as well as sharing a few of the building’s lesser-known secrets! It was a testament to the skills and creativity of all of those who brought V&A Dundee to life.

Here at Harton Grange we love giving back to the community. Our Head Chef, Joy and her team asked staff for donations to help our local food bank Key 2 Life Food Bank.

We also donated a variety of cakes and sweet goods to the volunteers who help at the food bank who help people who are struggling. Thank you to all those who kindly donated!

The ‘Jolly Sweets Trolley’ opens every day, giving Harton Grange residents the opportunity to enjoy some of their favourite sweet treats. Residents are given a choice of old fashioned sweets, sugar-free sweets, chocolates and crisps. The colourful sweets trolley was built from an old medication trolley that had been out of use for a while.

The residents love seeing it in the dining room where they can choose their choice treats, the homes hospitality team open the shop adhering to social distancing measures and we use an old fashioned till and always give the resident a receipt. while the residents are choosing their treats the activities co-ordinator catch up with the resident to ensure that everyone’s firm favourites are available, and also what kind of different activities they would like to see, as well as to let them know what has been planned for the week ahead.

The trolley is very popular at Harton Grange and it's lovely to see the residents smiles as they see it rolling along.