Activities at Plas-Y-Dderwen Care Home

We love music at Plas y Dderwen and we love a good choir and that’s what we got recently, with a wonderful performance from a group of very talented ladies.

We received a very special visit from a Carmarthen based ladies choir - Tonic.

The group of women brought the WOW factor to us all, as they entertained us with their Welsh singing and their variety of musical instruments.

Jill, one of our residents, was over the moon to find there were some old friends amongst the group and she said, "That has made my day, I can't stop smiling!"

Geraint and Dai both agreed that the group should definitely come back and they said "They were amazing!"

The residents enjoyed listening to their singing and some loved singing along with them.

After the performance we got to know the members a little more with tea and biscuits. We had a wonderful afternoon with the Choir and we are so grateful that they came to visit and look forward to more performances from them in the future.

Johnstown School is a 10 minute walk from our home and when we were invited to their school fete, we accepted immediately. A small group of us took a walk to the school and it was bursting with fun and energy. The residents enjoyed walking around the school grounds, admiring all the stalls and we had a bash at ‘Name the Elephant’. The residents enjoyed the delicious hot dogs on offer and we even met a Welsh Dragon from the local Fire Department. We had a wonderful afternoon together and it was great to see the community coming together.

Over the last few months, Year 2 pupils of Model School in Carmarthen have been visiting us on a weekly basis. We have been using the sessions as a chance to build friendships within the community. Every Thursday we have held arts and crafts classes where the children and residents get to join together for colour therapy and card making. In recent weeks we even introduced games such as draughts and chess. The sessions have been a huge success and have benefitted both residents and children. It has been wonderful to see them interacting and asking each other questions, learning about each other’s lives. The children have also entertained us with singing and poetry recitals too!

In one of our monthly residents meetings, Gill said that the place she would most like to visit is the Botanic Gardens and upon hearing this our Senior General Manager Sharon and Activities Co-ordinator Lisa couldn't wait to set to work. 

We had a fabulous visit to these stunning gardens and we all came away having learnt an awful lot, as well as being inspired to see what we can do in the garden at Plas Y Dderwen.

Regular visits to local attractions, popping out for coffee, pub lunches, mini-bus trips, and other outings are key parts of our life enrichment program and feature often on our weekly activity calendar. 

At Plas Y Dderwen we support and encourage our residents to continue doing the things they love whilst also making new friends and exploring new adventures. 

The Tour de Barchester is a challenging 4-day cycle ride, covering 200 miles, starting from Plas y Dderwen and finishing in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, visiting 14 Barchester care homes on the way, all proceeds going to the Barchester Charitable Foundation.

We were the first stop for the cycling team on June 18 where residents and staff gathered outside to give a huge welcome to the cyclists as they arrived at our home. We were joined by the Mayor and Mayoress of Carmarthen, who spent time with the cyclists and residents.

The cyclists met with our eldest and youngest residents and they spent time chatting whilst enjoying a delicious healthy breakfast prepared by our talented Head Chef.

A huge thank you to Stacey at Forge Health and Fitness in Carmarthen, who kindly donated an exercise bike for the day. Staff and residents took on their own challenge of running up the miles with our own Bike-a-thon, building up our 'move minutes' for Get Barchester Moving Week.

This year for Carer’s Week, we wanted to show how much we care to our wonderful Care Assistants. We are so proud to have such a wonderful team of kind, caring and hardworking individuals who go above and beyond for our residents.

To celebrate, our care team received a delicious delivery of assorted Cadbury's treats during the week and to end the week, they were treated to an afternoon tea where our supporting staff teams prepared cakes, scones and brownies for their hardworking colleagues. The Manager gave each of our Care Assistants a keyring that read, ‘May you be proud of the work that you do, the person you are and the difference you make’.

Our residents are so grateful for all of the work that our team of Carer’s do, and we are all so proud of the dedicated team that we have at Plas y Dderwen! Their hard work and dedication makes our home so special!