Activities at Strachan House Care Home

Strachan House Care Home in Edinburgh have teamed up with Cross Michaels Primary School for a newly launched pen pal scheme and story writing project, connecting residents within the home to their creative writing pupils.

Residents of Strachan House, run by Barchester Healthcare, have been sharing their stories of the past with primary 6 and primary 7 students, and making new friends in the inter-generational scheme.

Letter writing began with an idea to build links between the care home and the local schools. The project encourages students from Cross Michael Primary School to get creative with their stories, which includes themes about holidays and places to visit, as well as cautionary tales. Residents at the home will then be able to complete the story with their own ending.

Sebastian Zuchlke, carer and his partner Marta Aurzecka – Zuchlke, physiotherapist assistant at Strachan House jumped on their bikes at the chance to be a part of the new government scheme ‘Cycle to work’ initiative.

Sebastian and Marta are just two of Barchester’s staff members who have joined the scheme and to feel the benefits, combining their exercise with their commute to work and improve their overall health.

Barchester has signed up to help employees benefit from this scheme. The aims of this scheme aims to reduce environmental pollution, promote healthier lifestyles, and make cycling to work cost-effective by offering tax savings on bikes and cycling equipment.

Sebastian says “that this was a great opportunity it’s a fantastic bike great for commuting but also great for leisure”.

To say thanks to the amazing Housekeeping team at Strachan House, Residents  and colleagues were delighted to show their appreciation for all the hard work they do every week, especially throughout the last few months. 

The life enrichment team organised an afternoon tea so they could relax with a cup of  tea and some cake before they were presented with their cards and boxes of  chocolates.  Strachan House has a great housekeeping team who between the staff on shift that day managed to racked up an impressive 128 years of service.

The housekeeping team were the nominated team from Strachan in Barchester’s annual care awards and whilst may not have won the regional team of the year award, they are Strachan’s top team..

Residents of Strachan House recently enjoyed chartering the growth journey of eggs to butterflies before their release.  For one Resident, Thom he reminisced about his childhood when he used to keep caterpillars in a jar until they turned to crystallise then to the most glamorous butterflies.

The activities team produced a daily chart for the butterflies growth along with quizzes, themed arts and crafts before their release when they held a butterfly tea party with napkins folded into butterflies, delicious mouth-watering butterfly cakes. It was a glorious sunny day as their beautiful creations gave an almighty show on their release.

After seeing beautiful pictures of the wonderful balloon fiesta celebrated each year in Bristol, Residents of Strachan House showed their creative sides as they created their own version of the hot air balloons by creating their own mini festival.  Residents also filled the sky above the home with colour as they released a number of bio gradable balloons into the air.

For some residents at Strachan House care home in Edinburgh, the long awaited reunion with family and friends became a reality recently, as garden visits have now been allowed to commence at the home.

It was welcome news to so many residents, family, and friends, who were kept apart for so long following strict government guidance. Residents and their loved ones got together in the home garden for and the garden was full of joy and chatter.

 
Eileen Crawford, General Manager at the home, said: “This has been a much welcomed development in what have been very strange times. The visits are safe and organised, and it was wonderful to see how happy it made the residents. We will of course endeavour to keep up the high standards of care, and continue with our ever evolving life enrichment programme, to keep residents engaged. But this was a lovely day.”