Activities at Oaklands Care Home
Our home is always full of life, and we can thank our wonderful Activities Coordinators for this. Dedication to creating a unique and interesting activities programme is what sets us apart from other homes. We always take into consideration that some people would prefer to pursue their own interests, which is why our team strive to incorporative activities that cater to a wide range of tastes and hobbies. Our trips out are always fun and exciting as well, and residents are guaranteed to return with stories to tell their loved ones!
Anna Bate & Jo Lawn
Anna is our Activity Lead. She started working at Barchester over 14 years ago at our sister home Hilton Park. Having built strong relationships with staff, residents and families, Anna brings lots of fun to our home. Anna loves to sing, dance and laugh and generally brings oodles of joy to ours days.
Working alongside Anna is Jo who started her career here at Oaklands as a carer on Elms community in 2014 developing a passion for dementia care and completing her social care N+VQ Levels 2 and 3. Jo Joined the activity team 3 years ago and has since become the homes dementia champion, championing for a better lifestyle for our resident through staff training and regular audits.
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 Oaklands Care Home
Minibus Clean!
Time for the mini-bus to get a clean. This is one of Ray's favourite things to do as he used to take great pride in cleaning his car.
Kate joined us this time and both myself and Kate got some stick from Ray for “not doing a proper job”!!
We certainly had a laugh whilst doing this and got a little wet along the way, but a good time was had by all.
Village Litter Pick
We had a fantastic Saturday morning, joining fellow Bottisham villagers to participate in the monthly village litter pick. We laughed lots as some of us got stuck in bushed whilst collecting an array of items, from gloves, cans to a football top!!
We later joined the group at the Bottisham social club for bacon sarnies and a cuppa. We love to connect with the village and support the community whilst getting some fresh air, exercise and making new friends.
Eid Celebrations
We recently celebrated Eid with our residents to help our resident Ifte honour his religion as a Muslim.
We started the day by decorating the community that Ifte calls home and followed this with a trip out to choose some sweet treats and a new top for Ifte. He was thrilled to look at various tops.
We then held a special Eid bingo which was chaotic and fun all mixed in. We learnt new things about Eid and enjoyed various sweet treats. Lots of prizes were won and someone even asked if we could do the same again soon!!
Ifte finished the day feeling very content and tired!!
Animal Therapy
We were thrilled to welcome into the home Michelle’s animal therapy project, who brought an array of animals in for our residents to enjoy. This was an activity in which we were also fortunate enough to take the animals around the rooms to visit residents cared for in their beds to ensure they are included within our home's life enrichment programme.
As you can see from the photos, the animals brought great joy to so many. There were also some residents who were reluctant and needed a kind, caring, reassuring word that all would be fine, and it helped some to overcome fears.
Milton Country Park!
We are making the most of the glorious spring sunshine here at Oaklands and are getting out exploring our local area. We took a 10-minute drive to Milton Country Park and had a wonderful day walking around the lakes and spotting the various forms of wildlife, from robins and squirrels to the swans and the cormorants all sitting on the trees overlooking the lake. We found these quite scary looking!
Kate and Sarah also took the opportunity to prove that just because you live in a care home life doesn’t stop, neither does age matter, as they enjoyed time on the basket swing and see-saw and all you could hear was laughter and squeals.
Fun at Oaklands!
Here are some photos from our adventures here in Oaklands where we've been focusing on what our residents need and enjoy.
Some needed a coffee and a chat in reception, others needed a walk and fresh air, while lots wanted to read or listen to a story. Here at Oaklands we pride ourselves on focusing on the individual and what they enjoy and engage with the best.
