Activities at Herne Place Care Home

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Herne Place care home in Herne Bay were treated to a virtual tour of the wonderful world of SEA LIFE Trust’s Puffin Rescue Centre at the Beluga Whale Sanctuary in Iceland, hosted by General Manager, Audrey Padgett and her expert team.

Audrey’s presentation took residents behind the scenes at the Puffin Rescue Centre and showcased the work that the animal care team do every day to rescue the Atlantic puffins and keep them safe.  Her talk covered the life of puffins in the wild, the puffling rescue programme in Westman Islands where the Rescue Centre is based and how the team nurture these charismatic little birds and rehabilitate them back into the wild.   

Audrey says: “It was wonderful to be able to show the Barchester residents around our Puffin Rescue Centre here at SEA LIFE Trust and to share the important work our brilliant teams do.  We were so happy to be able to shine a light on our unique world here and our experiences of working with these beautiful birds.”

Lucy Tomlinson, Resident Experience Manager for Barchester Healthcare, commented: “We have been using technology to keep our residents and patients connected with their loved ones as well as offer virtual events, entertainment and activities throughout the pandemic.  We are excited to work with our amazing partners like SEA LIFE Trust to bring a wide range of fantastic experiences into our homes for all to enjoy, particularly as this talk provided such a lovely opportunity to see the puffins and pufflings up close and learn all kinds of fascinating facts about them.

“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Lucy added.

Acting General Manager, Sophie Betts, said: “Our residents love finding out about new things and they are all especially interested in animals so we were delighted to be able to watch this presentation.  We had so many questions, it was brilliant to be able to ask Audrey and her team all about the conservation work they do with the puffins.”

Virtual tours to the Puffin Rescue Centre are available weekly.  For more details and to check future availability visit  https://belugasanctuary.sealifetrust.org/en/tickets/virtual-visit-puffins-online/

SEA LIFE Trust is an amazing charity.  To find out about supporting their vital work through fundraising or donating, here is the link to their Just Giving Campaign https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Belugas

Residents at Wilsmere House enjoyed Gardening Week and potting plants.

Staff at Herne Place hosted an afternoon tea in the large garden for the Dementia Outreach clients and their family/carers from Age UK.

Sophie Betts, Acting Manager and Sam Bright, Home Services Advisor, chatted and served the guests with a selection of finger sandwiches and a delicious choice of cakes along with teas and coffees.

Residents are celebrating National Carers Week, which takes place between 7th and 13th June. Residents wanted to thank all the wonderful staff at the home, whose hard work and dedication make a real difference to the lives of those living in their care.

Carers Week is an annual event to raise awareness of caring, highlighting the challenges carers face, and recognising the contribution they make to our residents, families and communities throughout the UK.

The theme for Carers Week this year is ‘making caring visible and valued’ to shine a light on all those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to care for vulnerable people in our communities.

Staff were treated to afternoon tea and an individual personal gift. The chef had put together a wonderful spread of party food for everyone to enjoy. 

Residents at Herne Place were celebrating being able to go on trips out again as lockdown restrictions ease across the country. Residents are now able to go on a short trip with their designated visitor without having to isolate on their return.

Residents enjoyed a long-awaited trip with their named visitor, where they were able to go for a walk, have a pub lunch, enjoy the views and have a coffee. 

Staff and residents were treated to an exciting virtual tour of Five Sisters Zoo, hosted by Head of Education, Adam Welsh.

Five Sisters Zoo is a family run zoo with over 160 different animal species from around the world.  Originally a garden centre that helped to rehome unwanted pets, the animal collection grew and grew until the zoo was officially founded in 2005.  Now Five Sisters Zoo is the most visited wildlife attraction in West Lothian.

Gone are the days when a visit to the zoo was merely a fun day out.  Adam’s presentation showed all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at the zoo and explored the vital conservation, rescue and education work carried out at FSZ, and at most modern zoos.

The session explored the fascinating rescue stories behind four lions and five European bears, before highlighting the vital Eurasian beaver conservation work that is carried out at FSZ. Some other highlights included finding out about how and why FSZ helped to re-home two female snow leopards and discovering the captive breeding programmes FSZ are involved with.