Activities at Lethen Park Care Home

Sheena has really had a wonderful month with Amanda. During this month, Sheena has really grown and adopted an amazing attitude to her physio exercises.

Amanda has been supporting Sheena with her physio appointments and has been helping her with the movement of her left shoulder.

After a fall, Sheen has in the past had restricted movement in her arm, resulting in a lot of discomfort for Sheena.

Sheena is a keen gardener and a very active lady, so Amanda has been supporting Sheena to increase her movement, so that when summer comes along, Sheena is fighting for all the gardening tasks that she loves to do.

Every week, Amanda and Sheena have been doing her movements and using 2kg weights. We have been making this fun by singing, listening to Sheena's favourite music.

Sheena, as a result of this individual time, has grown to look forward to her sports rehabilitation and this has directly impacted her in such a wonderful positive way.

Margaret really enjoyed painting. Recently Margaret helped with our recent Christmas card project, raising over £140 for our residents' fund. Margaret has been improving on this new skill and new interest and this developed into us holding a SIP and Paint event. We got a company in to host this event of painting ceramic Christmas-themed items and drinking prosecco.

Margaret had a wonderful time sipping on chilled prosecco, and painting.

Margaret said, “I really like painting lots.”

Amanda, our activity lead, said, “it is so amazing to see Margaret thriving and enjoying activities so much. Margaret is not only painting, she is expressing herself, working on eye and hand coordination and developing new skills.

Margaret aims to attend the painting club once a week when she is able to do so, to improve on her love for painting.

We are so very proud of the progress Margaret has made and I am making. 

Harry was delighted to take part in making Christmas cards to raise money for our residents fund.

He carefully chose the colours for the baubles himself and painted them very carefully using a brush and bright paints.

Harry gravitated toward vivid, cheerful colours, and the result was a wonderfully colourful watercolour painting.

Throughout the activity, Harry showed great creativity, attention to detail, and impressive dexterity. It was a joy to see how confidently and enthusiastically he expressed his ideas. We’re excited to share this lovely little project as an example of his artistic skills.

Harry has agreed to continue coming to the art club and enjoy his new passion for painting. Learning new skills is something we take a great deal of pride in here at Lethen Park. 

Mary is living with Parkinson’s disease and at times Mary feels like she can’t move the way she would like to and her body is seizing up.

Mary and Amanda established that Mary needed to move more in line with her Physio recommendations.

Mary felt like doing her Physio exercises where not fun and did not really motivate her. So Amanda Asked Mary “How could she help” Mary wanted to make her Physio fun and engaging so we came up with a plan of . Colour, texture and music.

Mary was in control of her training plan  and helped Amanda design a sports based routine to help her but more importantly to engage her and make her feel in control of her needs.

We focused on upper body motor skills like weights, over head, Pulling and every step of the way we sany to ABBA. Our movements were corelated to the music and Mary loved this element of the Physio.

Mary has now been to 6 Classes with Amanda and has progressed from easy resistance band yellow to Medium resistance band Blue. Mary has progressed from 0.50kg weights to 2 kg weights. Mary has progressed from over head arms to now throwing a beach ball.

Most important part is that Mary has enjoyed supporting her mobility goals and has taken ownership for her plan.

Amanda is so very proud to be supporting Mary with her Needs to feel safe, fit and mobile within her diagnosis of Parkinson’s.     

Jim really enjoyed our therapy dog visit. This brought him a great deal of joy. On this visit, Jim and Amanda went for a walk around the local community. Jim was so very proud to support Toby on the walk. 

During the walk, Amanda and Jim enjoyed reminiscing about his childhood pet called Cheeko the Cat. Jim was very engaged and enjoyed this time.   

Ian always lights up when he receives new newspapers and reads them with obvious enjoyment. We encourage him to read aloud and join in discussions about the articles, which he does with enthusiasm and curiosity.

These moments bring Ian joy, make him feel connected, and create a sense of participation and engagement. Sharing his thoughts and being part of the conversation stimulates his mind and  encourages social interaction, positively supporting his overall wellbeing.

We are delighted to share this example as a lovely illustration of how meaningful activities and social engagement can brighten Ian’s Day and bring genuine happiness. Prior to this activity, Ian was feeling low in mood and was looking for his beloved wife. However, with the knowledge of the activity team and the implementation of this activity, Ian was able to change his demeanour and become relaxed, settled and so very happy. 

We are so happy to continue providing Ian with newspapers to highlight and embrace his love for reading and feeling connected to the wider world and local news. 

Florence is a new resident in our home and Florence has at times struggled to come out of her room and socialise. On that particular day, we had therapy dogs in to visit and, with Florence having a huge love for animals, we were able to encourage Florence to come to the main lounge to enjoy the event. During the event, Florence was so happy and content and loved the company of the dog called Cindy. 

Florence was socialising with other residents and staff alike and really had a wonderful time.

This was a massive accomplishment for Florence as she was able to come out of her room and sit in the main lounge and enjoy this time with Cindy the Therapy Dog.

During this time, Florence was so happy, relaxed and all her trouble had been forgotten about because the main emotion was sheer joy and happiness for the beloved animals.    

Our resident, Patricia, has been very keen to receive a visit from the local fire brigade for her birthday. This is a service that Particia has always admired and attended charity fund-raising events for them. We would like Patricia to enjoy a dream moment at Lethen Park and feel very special.

The life enrichment team contacted the fire team at Torry fire service and invited them along for a meet and greet event with Pat. 

Patricia was delighted with this event. She was so happy that it was infectious to the whole home. Everyone was smiling. Pat enjoyed the company of three service officers from the fire station, was taken to the fire truck and also received a free hat. Pat was so very delighted to have this moment and thanked all the staff involved in making this dream moment come true.  

By staff providing a life-enrichment dream come true, we had a direct, positive impact on her health and wellbeing. 

Our residents Beryl and Jess had a wonderful time creating our Christmas tree in our main lounge.

We sang Christmas songs, we danced, and we really enjoyed each other's company.

Beryl and Jess supported each other and worked well together to create our beautiful tree.

We finished the tree off by putting our traditional angel at the top. Beryl said she hadn’t seen anything so beautiful on top of a tree before. Our home is starting to look very Christmassy.   

Residents enjoyed a game of Bingo. This was a wonderful day filled with joy and connectiveness. We were very happy to bring the home together for this very fun day. There was laughing, competition and lots of snacks and delicious tea and coffee.

During this game, we promoted friendships new and old.      

Today Berly took part in a colouring activity and was clearly happy to do so. Beryl used many different coloured pencils and coloured the picture with visible enjoyment and had a great deal of passion for all that was being done. While colouring, Beryl chatted happily about the picture and the colours she was using, as well as sharing other thoughts along the way.

Beryl was able to use motor skills and was improving in her dexterity along the way. Beryl was very happy creating a picture that made her feel connected, proud and uplifted her mood to feel a greater sense of achievement.  

It was wonderful to see her so engaged and relaxed, and we were very pleased with her success during the activity. We were delighted by this positive moment and wanted to share it, as it was a lovely experience for Beryl and for us. We have not continued to support Beryl with this activity and have put books and pencils on the rummage Trolly to support her to do this activity independently, and we have also factored this in the diary for Berly so that there is allocated craft time if Berly chooses to do this in a group setting.    

Bill and Alice's husband and wife enjoyed a cheese and mulled wine event at Lethen Park. Bill and Alice enjoyed time reminiscing about Christmas traditions and enjoyed sitting by the lights of the Christmas Tree.

We listened to old Christmas carols and enjoyed a selection of cheese. Bill said, “I have enjoyed this event as I love cheese,” Alice said, “Bill and I have enjoyed spending time together.”

This activity brought so much joy and connectiveness to Bill and Alice.   

The residents enjoyed a celebration of Scottish culture and fare to mark St Andrew’s Day. In honour of Jesus’ first disciple, who promoted kindness and is laid to rest in Edinburgh, head chef Sarah baked traditional Scottish foods including haggis, neeps and tatties, shortbread.

In the afternoon, some of the residents enjoyed a highland dancer who performed The Fling, Sword Dance, Dhean Truibhas and The Highland Laddie. The young dancer, Katie, encouraged all the residents to give it a go. 

Mary has been working very hard with Amanda to progress with her movement and recently, Mary has progressed up a resistance band from easy to medium resistance. Mary is absolutely delighted with her personal achievements and is feeling the benefits of this.

During the morning, Amanda demonstrated some gentle Pilates and Mary enjoyed doing this along with the music. ABBA was on, and we had a beautiful time gaining strength.   

Anne often declines activities as she really enjoys being independent and planning her own day. Amanda came in one morning and Anne was at the reception and greeted Amanda with a huge smile. At this very point, Amanda was able to identify that Anne was having a great day and was really engaged in allowing others to be in her space. Amanda treated this moment like it was the priority of the day, and welcomed Anne to have her nails painted, to which she agreed.  

We listened to music and had a coffee and a chat during this session. Anne was so happy and very settled. After this Anne decided to come to the knitting club. Anne was happy to join and Amanda used the information in her about me book to steer the conversation to what suited Anne. We spoke about her job knitting for a company and her love for knitting jumpers.

Anne was also able to help Amanda with her knitting skills and support Amanda.

Anne had an incredible time and her smile showed so bright, and we have agreed to move forward if Anne has great days and feels confident that she can join Amanda any day. Anne was delighted.

Amanda even printed off the pictures for Anne to have in her room. Anne has agreed to me writing this and Has agreed to me using this as a showcase moment.