Activities at Wheatlands Care Home

To celebrate the Olympics Wheatlands held there very own sports day with such events as the call bell dash, wheelchair shotput and the traditional egg and spoon race. Staff and residents teamed up for induvial and team pursuits. Graham was delighted to be on the podium for the egg and spoon race meanwhile Elsie won gold for our field events. It was a fabulous afternoon that brought family, friends, residents and staff together. We cant wait for next years events to see who can hold there titles. Residents and staff have started there training ahead of our next sporting events.

We where delighted to welcome Harriet Thomas and soap actress Sian Reeves to the Wheatlands in August for a sing-a-long. Sian joined Harriet as part of the Dementia Adventure tour, Harriet walked from Land’s End to John O’Groats tour and stopped here as part of her 900 mile walk in 90 days  to do a sing-a-long to raise money for dementia as her mum died of dementia last October. The money raised for dementia adventure will help support people to get outdoors and experience the benefits o f nature and reduce isolation. 

Sian best know for her roles in Emmerdale and drama cutting it joined Harriet to support the project we where delighted to be given the first copy of her charity album ‘Remember This’  ahead of it being released world-wide.

Residents had a wonderful evening enjoying a good old fashioned sing-a-long with some much loved songs from Yesteryears our lovely Joan broke into a duet with Sian. The joy and happiness they brought was priceless residents where joined by friends and family. All the residents decided they were celebrities for the evening being filmed by the BBC! After the sing-a-long residents enjoyed a glass of prosecco or two and loved talking with Harriet about her tour and congratulating her on such an achievement. Meanwhile a few of our ladies really enjoyed talking to Sian Reeves about her time on Emmerdale.

After a few weeks of bad weather Mick could not wait to get outside and enjoy some sunshine and top his vitamin D  levels up. He was enjoying being outside so much he decided to dine Alfresco and soak up so much summer sun as he could. He enjoyed lunch with a cold glass of Rose he said it was as nice as go on holiday sat on the patio with such a beautiful view on the rolling Shropshire Hills.

On the third Thursday of the month we hold a Dementia Café here at Wheatland’s this month’s activities included building bird boxes Ashley our head of maintenance was there to lend a helping hand but the gents taught him a thing or two! The café runs on a monthly basis welcoming members of the public and residents it’s a great place to get together enjoy meeting new friends and try a different activity each month of course always accompanied by a cuppa and delicious homemade cake.

Wondering Wednesday’s started after enjoying a stroll into our home town Much Wenlock as part of Olympic themed events to do the Wenlock Olympian trial. Dr William Penny Brookes founded  the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850  which in turn inspired the modern Olympic games.

After our walk residents enjoyed a lovely cappuccino on the square in Much Wenlock enjoying its history and  reminiscing about yesteryears. Joyce and Jackie then enjoyed lighting a candle in Holy Trinity Church it hold a lot of very special memories for them both Joyce was christened, confirmed and married she also enjoyed showing us the family pew in the middle third from the back.  Jackie enjoyed sharing stories of her husband being the vicar and the many years she volunteered doing the monthly charity soup lunch.

Everyone agreed our lovely little town is such a beautiful place we need to spend more time enjoying and exploring it. Since that first Wednesday we have enjoyed walks to the bull ring to see Highland cows and enjoyed meeting lots of lovely dogs on our adventures, looking in local shops but our trip always ends with a cuppa and slice of cake!

Person centred care and activities are at the heart of life here at Wheatlands and enriching the lives of our residents is at the forefront of everything we do. Elsie has been with us for just over a month, she enjoys our quieter activities but much prefers one to one based activities. After her daughters completed her getting to know me book we realised how important flower arranging is to Elsie. As part of our preparations for our family BBQ Elsie and I enjoyed a walk around the grounds picking wildflowers to make our centre pieces. We sat down over a coffee and enjoyed getting to know one and another whilst making some beautiful centre pieces. We were joined by various members of the team throughout the morning. Elsie enjoyed teaching each and every staff member about flower arranging. Elsie spent over 25 years as a member of Wigston and Knighton flower club where she enjoyed several committee roles including chairwoman. Elsie has also enjoyed arranging flowers at Chatsworth house and many other venues.