Activities at Mortain Place Care Home

Our residents were treated to a visit from the wonderful Pets as Therapy team this week who brought with them chickens and rabbits for the residents to intereact with.

It was lovely to have something a little different in the home to brighten up everyones day. The chickens enjoyed their day out and made the most of the morning sun shining through the windows so sunbathed and looked incredibly well relaxed. The Rabbits were so good and the residents had them on the laps so they got lots of attention.

Staff at Mortain Place Care Home in Eastbourne have taken part in the “100 squats a day in November” challenge to raise money for Maggie’s Centres.

Maggie's centres are a network of drop-in centres across the United Kingdom, which aim to help anyone who has been affected by cancer. They are not intended as a replacement for conventional cancer therapy, but as a caring environment that can provide support, information and practical advice.

Residents, their relatives and staff were all very supportive and were there to cheer on the participants as they began the fundraising challenge.

Tracey Buchan, Administrator at Mortain Place Care Home, said: “Taking part in this challenge has been a huge amount of fun and everyone at the home has been behind us all the way. It’s for such an important cause. I’m very glad to be able to do my bit to raise further awareness and money for the charity.”
 

Mortain Place raised a grand total of £360 by completing the challenge, which will be donated to Maggie’s Centres.

Mortain Place care home is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering personalised care across its care homes and hospitals. Mortain Place provides residential care and dementia care for 80 residents from respite care to long term stays.

At Mortain Place we opted for a bright and colourful celebration of Halloween. Our residents created some beautiful pumpkin arrangements as part of a themed Craft and Games Afternoon....with some spooky cakes and Halloween themed snacks.

We also held a Halloween inspired virtual cookery demostration courtesy of chef, Alex Connell, from Vegetarian for Life. Alex whipped up some tasty, healthy Halloween treats in a live, interactive cookery demo, with some hearty and delicious seasonal pumpkin-based recipes for us all to enjoy. The talented kitchen team at Mortain Place prepared these meals themselves so the residents could sample the tasty treats.

We had a lovely evening celebrating Bonfire night with sparklers, mulled wine and were even treated to some fabulous fireworks!

We shared happy memories of bonfires through the years and made some new ones. It was a cold evening so residents wrapped up warm and braved the elements to make the most of the evening.

Carli-Anne Yates, Life enrichment co-ordinator at Mortain Place, who organised the celebrations said "We knew it was going to be cold so we had plenty of hot snacks and Mulled wine to keep the residents warm while they enjoyed playing with sparklers in the garden and watching the fireworks"

We had a fantastic afternoon making poppies for our own special tribute for Remembrance Day. What a wonderful way to show our respects and share memories with each other.

We had a visit from our local church who held a special Remembrance service for our residents who were then treated to a live event hosted by English National Ballet where Associate Dance Artist, Richard Bermange, led a creative dance workshop followed by a special extract of Akram Khan’s work Dust, premiered in 2014 as part of their Lest We Forget programme, commemorating the First World War. It was a lovely opportunity to move, watch and listen, this event had something for all to enjoy.

Karen Howell, General Manager at Mortain Place said "Every year we make sure we have plenty of events and activities throughout the home for the residents to get involved in. Remembrance Day is a very special occasion for many reasons and always stimulates memories and creates lots of talking points so we make every effort to get our residents involved in the day" 

We are delighted to announce our Employee of the Month for October is Melissa Bourgaize. Melissa has received many nominations for her hard work and adaptability, working on reception, helping with administration and getting stuck into resident activities. We are yet to find something Melissa doesn't do well.

Melissa said "I am really happy to have received lots of nominations and been awarded Employee of the Month. I love working at Mortain Place, all the residents and staff have made me feel very welcome and I am really grateful to everyone that nominated me"

Congratulations Melissa from everyone at Mortain Place.