Activities at Lochduhar 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.
Activities are the cornerstone of a wholesome home experience and our Activities Coordinators are always putting their creative minds to the test by organising new and exciting social events for residents to partake in. Of course, we take into account the likes and dislikes of those we support, so if someone doesn’t feel like trying something new, there will always be something on offer to reflect their personal interests. For the people who may just prefer some peace and quiet instead, we also offer one-to-one time that can be enjoyed with a nice cup of coffee or just a simple chat – whatever they desire.
Sally Gilder
Sally has been in the care sector since 1998. Sally joined the Lochduhar team in 2018 as a care assistant.
Sally is very passionate about the care she provides and the welfare of the residents. Working as a care assistant Sally was able to get to know the residents wants and needs to provide excellent person centred care to each individual. Then in 2020 Sally found the opportunity to become Head of Activities. Sally feels that she provides a different side to herself to promote an active and inclusive lifestyle through her role as Head of Activities.
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 Lochduhar Care Home
Baking in Memory Lane!
At Lochduhar in our Memory Lane community we recently did some baking. Our residents chose to make an apple pie. They worked together to roll the pastry and spoon the apple into the pie. They brushed the pie with egg and sprinkled some sugar on the top and popped it in the oven.
When the apple pie was cooked, we waited for it to cool, and we enjoyed a slice with cream and a cup of tea.
Let's get sporty!
Every Wednesday morning we have an exercise group come and visit Lochduhar for some gentle
chair-based exercises.
The group is called Let’s Get Sporty. They bring in their equipment for us to use.
The residents are keen to join in. They throw bean bags to get a score. They throw or kick a rugby ball
or a football, and they aim to knock the cones down.
They use a tennis racket to balance a ball, and much more, we all have fun.
After this we enjoy some refreshments and a chat about what we have done.
Christmas Lunch!
We took some of our residents from Lochduhar to The Usual Place in Dumfries for their Christmas Lunch.
The Usual Place is a popular cafe with some of our residents. Everything is freshly prepared, cooked
and baked in their kitchen.
We all chose a two course meal, prawn cocktail for starters and a traditional Christmas lunch. We had crackers too and wore our hats as we jokes, with lots of laughing!
We had prosecco and Nosecco and raised a glass to each other and wished everyone a very Merry Christmas. We reminisced on what we cooked for our own Christmas dinners too!
Nursery Visit
We recently had a visit from Laurieknow Nursery, our residents really look forward to seeing the children.
We played the bucket on ball game, to see who could get the balls in the bucket. This was a great hit with
the children and the residents, competing and having fun.
We did some aqua painting together. The residents enjoyed doing this with the children and are looking forward to seeing them again soon.
We think next time they visit we will be doing Christmas arts and crafts.
Christmas Cake
We recently held a baking club, with Head Chef Evelyn, and the Activities team, Sally and Maggie.
Residents chose to have the baking club in the dining room.
Chef Evelyn asked the residents what they would like to drink, as she had made some gingerbread mulled wine and some soft juice. Some of the residents who had the gingerbread mulled wine said it was delicious!
Chef Evelyn then asked what the ingredients are that go into a Christmas cake and residents took turns in saying their answers.
They then set to work mixing and stirring the ingredients for the Christmas Cake. One resident asked how long it would take to cook and Evelyn said about four and a half hours!
We then all had a coffee, cake and a chat, reminiscing of when we were younger and how our own mothers use to make Christmas Cakes.
Live entertainment
Here at Lochduhar, we enjoyed an afternoon of live entertainment from Gary, an amazing vocalist.
Gary is known to all of our residents, as he generally performs at some of our parties for us. He sings a selection of songs, which suit all our residents and we all like to sing along and sometimes we get up to dance.
One of the residenst said the music is catchy and has a lovely beat.
Gary walks around to see the residents while he is singing, some residents join in with him as he passes them the microphone, to offer them to sing with him and lots of our residents love to join in!
We can't wait for the next time Gary performs at our home, we're already warming up our vocals!
