What types of care does Hickathrift House Care Home offer?

Hickathrift House Care Home offers Residential care, Dementia care, Respite / Short stay.

Activities at Hickathrift House Care Home

Our teams are trained to enrich the lives of residents through stimulating the mind, body and soul, and taking the time to learn about each person to ensure everyone receives support that adds enrichment to their life.

We have two Activities Coordinators here at Hickathrift House. We have a wide range of activities within the home, including musical entertainment, arts & crafts, clubs for like-minded people, such as flower arranging and gardening, board games, baking (where the best bit is the eating afterwards!), and we celebrate special events throughout the year. We also have trips out on a regular basis using our own minibus, where we find out places of interest each person would like to visit.

It is important to us that each individual who we support can get as much from these activities as possible, so we try our best to arrange activities that reflect their interests and capabilities, and encourage them to participate in any way they can. We also encourage relatives to join in with activities and events as often as they can.

For the less mobile residents, we unique one-to-one session, such as simple chats over a cup of tea, reading or listening to music. Activities are some of the most important aspects of a care home, so it is essential that our team are dedicated to ensuring that residents are entertained, and that life at Hickathrift House is fun and active.

Watch our video on life enrichment in our homes.

Kat Colangelo

Activities Lead

Hello, my name is Kat and I am the Activities Lead here at Hickathrift House.

Since 2017 I have been working in the field of well-being and I am passionate and enthusiastic about enriching all our of residents' quality of life.

As the Activities Lead at Hickathrift House, my focus is learning about each of our resident's likes and dislikes and supporting them to remain receptive and active in addition to supporting them to engage with our local community friends.

I organise activities to stimulate the mind, body and soul in an enjoyable, comfortable way. My aim is to diversify and increase activities ensuring that there is something for everyone - from Wine and Cheese events, excursions on our home Mini Bus as well as individual bespoke person-centered activities.

Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.

Activities and Events Partnerships

As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies

Life at Hickathrift House Care Home

LGBTQ+ History Celebrations

Here at Hickathrift House residents and staff demonstrate they strongly support the right to be who you are with a range of events that raise awareness, understanding and support for the LGBTQ+ community. This month we have been providing information from the resident's chosen charity, Opening Doors. Opening Doors helps to connect LGBTQ+ people over 50 with activities, events, support and information. We themed our monthly dementia cafe with rainbow paintings and crafts and residents and staff wore colours to make up the rainbow. Additionally, we've been learning about prominent icons of the LGBTQ+ community with a memory-matching game and quizzes. Val, a resident at Hickathrift House was sharing her thoughts on Christine Jorgensen, the first trans woman, and said, "Oh she's so pretty. It's what she wants to be. As long as people are kind to each other that's all that matters".

Valentine's Cards

What a wonderful time we've had celebrating Valentine's Day and all things about love and kindness with our local Primary School. We have to start off by saying a gigantic thank you to pupils in the Beech Class from Marshland St James VC Primary School and Nursery for their absolutely stunning and adorable cards. There were enough that every single resident received one. The beautiful comments inside made us all smile, some of our favourites were, "You're the best" and "I hope you have a great day, as you're great". Such kindness from these lovely children brought the residents and staff so much happiness. We proudly pinned up their lovely sign for all to see this February in reception. We can’t wait to visit them next month with some of our Easter-themed celebrations.

Pancake Day

We've been busy celebrating Pancake Day, known as Shrove Tuesday, with a variety of delicious pancakes, themed games and a meaningful church service. Residents had a wonderful day starting off with the amazing Church Service from the local Methodist Church. We always have an incredible time, full of hymns, singing and prayers. A huge thank you to the fantastic volunteers who visit. At lunchtime, our bellies were filled with delicious pancakes by our Head Chef, Andy. The pancake games then began with a pancake memory game and a pancake flipping competition. Everyone was laughing and cheering each other on. There were several hilarious moments throughout but one that had the whole room laughing was the competition between Joan and her daughter Viv. Thankfully Violet ended the tense competition by "accidentally" knocking Viv's pancake out of the race. It was a flipping fun day, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Floral Masterclass

Across our homes we had a fantastic time joining, Kathryn Delve, Master Florist, for a Valentine’s-inspired live virtual flower arranging demonstration. Kathryn shared brilliant and creative ways to decorate our tables with beautiful flowers that are sure to make your heart swoon!

Those participating in this virtual event put their skills to the test and followed along with some amazing creations of their own. Residents truly enjoyed the experience.

Local artist donates to home

Gill Repper, local artist, and retired teacher has donated over a dozen spectacular paintings to Hickathrift House Care Home in Wisbech. Gill was warmly invited to come and talk about her artwork at Hickathrift House on the 9th of February for the opening of Hickathrift House’s first coffee morning. Gill then donated 18 pieces to those who attended, which will be displayed around the home and in residents’ rooms.

Gill Repper, who taught at St Audrey’s Convent and Wisbech Grammar School for 40 years, retired from teaching and has donated around 75 of her paintings to local care homes in Wisbech. Hickathrift House’s Head of Activities, Kat Colangelo, invited Gill to discuss her passion and artwork with residents and share tips as she saw her artwork at a local Farmers Market in December.

Love is in the air!

Hickathrift House care home, in Marshland St James, was filled with tiaras, wedding dresses and veils in celebration of St Valentine’s Day. Staff and residents celebrated the day of love by hosting a beautiful wedding dress show in collaboration with Bargain Bridal Boutique. 8 lovely staff members dressed up in stunning gowns and accessories and put on a show to remember.

General Manager, Paula Colman said: “We’ve all had a lovely day, reminiscing about each resident’s big day and all of our loved ones. We’ve had a whole range of beautiful items provided by Bargain Bridal Boutique which meant there was something for everyone to spark those special memories. We have enjoyed every moment of it!”