Young visitors at Mansfield Care Homes

Residents are always excited to meet young visitors at Mansfield Care Homes, and we have regular relationships with schools and local nurseries in the communities around each home.

At Belleville Lodge, young visitors come from the Strawberry Hill Nursery, which is just around the corner. As Matron Margaret Russell explains, the visits bring a lot of fun and mutual benefits.

“We always have a planned activity for everyone to join in,” she says. “In the summer, for example, we had garden games with balloons, parachutes and Chinese ribbons. The visits last for around an hour, and after the activity, everyone sits down together for a wee snack and a drink.”

Matron says the visits are good for the children, too. “It teaches them respect and it’s nice for the children who may not have grandparents nearby. It’s also helpful for the schools inspectorate and the Care Inspectorate to see this intergenerational activity within the community.”

“The residents relate really well to the children”, she says. “Even those with dementia hold out their arms and are happy and contented when the children are there. They wave goodbye to the children when they leave and there are lots of cuddles. The children aren’t shy with the residents and are happy to sit down with them and play games. They’ve been coming every 3-4 weeks for over a year now and have got to know the residents well.”

Next year, Belleville are planning to invite the children to help them grow fruit and vegetables and prepare meals together.

Older children also visit Mansfield Care Homes, and in October, Belhaven House in Troon welcomed a young choir from Troon Primary School. As care home manager Fiona Hunter explains, the children were invited to help launch a Macmillan coffee morning.

“The residents decided they wanted to do more than just a coffee morning on the day, and a member of staff got in touch with the local school. The children came along with their teacher and sang favourites including a song from the Lion King and an Ed Sheeran song. There was a lot of laughter and the residents really enjoyed listening to others sing, and the whole experience.”

After the concert, there was a lunch and raffle. “Our staff member Heather went round local shops, hotels, pub and hairdresser in Troon and gathered prizes. Seven or eight families came along and £200 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support.”

Belhaven House staff have also been working with the local Girls Brigade, with the older girls visiting once a fortnight to get to know the residents. Soon, it’ll be the turn of the younger Girls’ Brigade members, who have been making place mats for the residents with their names on! So everyone’s excited about that.”

At Peebles Care Home, residents enjoyed a lively start to the new school term with visits from their local primary school and to a local nursery.

Activities coordinator Gemma says, ”we’ve enjoyed having the P4 children from Priorsford Primary School and their teacher, Mrs Anderson, with us on Friday mornings. Residents have thoroughly enjoyed helping children learn to read, watching them draw pictures from their favourite pages.”

Some of the residents also met younger children on an outing to Kingsmeadows Nursery. “A group of ladies loved their afternoon with the babies and infants”, says Gemma. ”The nursery was nice and quiet, since it was the middle of the school holidays. We were able to enjoy real quality time with the wee ones.”

Peebles is also involving older pupils and organising an exciting project with Tweed Reads Community Group. “Ten or eleven High School pupils will be coming in weekly to get our residents discussing their favourite books, and also to read aloud some of their favourites to us. We’re really looking forward to this, particularly since it offers a great opportunity for us to interact with older children and adolescents.”

Many thanks to Mansfield Care staff for the lovely photos.