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

Monthly Retail Therapy Trip

In our monthly residents meeting, residents suggested regular trips to the local shops. A few weeks later we organised our first monthly shopping trip to their favourite supermarket Morrisons. Meaningful trips like this help to encourage independence and are so much fun. After a whole morning of shopping, they enjoyed a well-deserved cup of tea at the café before heading home to show off their latest purchases.

A member of the public praised our staff as they could hear residents laughing and singing down the aisles with staff. Once they saw the residents, they noticed them dancing and gleaming smiles. They said they knew it was the Hickathrift House team we are just as jolly in person as we are on our Facebook page.

Puppy Party

At the beginning of 2024, we were thrilled to be contacted by a local lady, Pauline who follows life at Hickathrift House through our Facebook Page. Pauline noticed the residents adore animals, especially dogs, and offered to bring in her puppies before they go off to their forever home.

Everyone had an incredible morning meeting two of the sweetest and cutest dachshund puppies, and their owner Pauline. It was also lovely talking to Pauline and reminiscing about life in Marshland St James and how it’s changed over the years as well as past pet stories. Pet therapy is an amazing time for the residents as it sparks some incredible memories and brings so much joy that is enjoyed by everyone.

Elsie, a resident at Hickathrift said, "I could sit here all day with them, just stroking and watching them nap. They're beautiful!".

Celebrating National Cheese Lover's Day

Yes, we do love any excuse to have a feast! So, when our team discovered there was a day celebrating the love of cheese, we just had to create a beautiful cheese trolley for all to enjoy. Staff designed lovely cheeseboards and tasting plates from cheddar to Wensleydale with mango and ginger. Our talented Head Chef Andy made modified versions for those with special nutrition needs, this ensured everyone could enjoy this fun scrumptious activity. There were some delightful pairings with crackers, grapes and sherry.

Metal Detection Dogs

Across our services residents had a fantastic time during a special live virtual event, led by Emilia from Medical Detection Dogs.

Emilia took us on a journey to discover how the organisation began training dogs to support people with complex health conditions, saving their lives on a daily basis.

Using their amazing sense of smell, these dogs can identify odour changes emitted prior an episode and alert the person to take preventative action.

We were introduced to the wonderful dogs and the science behind the sniff. It was a delightful experience for everyone, especially our canine-loving residents.

Home embraces flower power

Residents at Hickathrift House in Marshland St James, Wisbech celebrated International Flower Day which took place on January 19th.

International Flower Day promotes the psychological boost that flowers can give to people. From growing and nurturing plants and flowers to gifting flowers to show love and appreciation, and sometimes just the simple act of admiring their beauty – flowers have the power to make someone’s day.

Residents took part in flower-based activities in the celebration including a flower arranging afternoon, reminiscing about their gardens, learning what different flowers symbolise, virtual visits to famous gardens via YouTube and floral aromatherapy which everyone enjoyed. Their collective knowledge about flowers gained from years of gardening experience was very impressive.

Residents put on their blue suede shoes

Hickathrift House Care Home in Marshland St James, Wisbech, was transformed into Graceland to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 89th birthday on 8th January.

It is estimated that Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide so to honour the undisputed King of rock & roll, the staff and residents enjoyed a fantastic day of music, fun and dancing. The activities, decorations and costumes provided by the staff sparked fond memories for residents at Hickathrift House.