Happy Easter from all of us at The Valleys Care Home! We hope you have an egg-cellent day no matter what you have planned ?

Our residents loved their wonderful Easter treats created by our activities team.

Snakes, spiders and snails were the stars of the show this week as Zoolabs brought their collection of slitherers, crawlers and creepers to show our residents.

It must be said that the snakes produced mixed emotions and the snails were definitely the favourites on the day – no one is volunteering to own a tarantula any time soon!

Today we are supporting the first ever day of activity to raise awareness of mental health nurses and what they do.

A lot of people don’t know what the job involves and don’t hear enough positive stories about the specialty. We hope to be a small part of changing that today.

This is your chance to ask us about what we do and hopefully we can help inspire people to consider a career in mental health nursing.

So whether you are a member of the public or a Nurse we would love to hear from you.

Here at The Valleys Care Home we’re spreading a little love with our own Valentine’s Day celebration for all the residents. 

Today’s about making people feel special and showing we care. We all know that we look after and value our loved ones 365 days of the year, but today’s about taking a moment to let them know we care.

Eat your heart out Dominos and Pizza Express. 

This week our residents decided they would create their own pizza toppings, and what tasty treats they came up with.

We had the usual debate as to whether Pineapple belongs on any Pizza – but apart from that everyone agreed that all the toppings were scrummy!

This week The Valleys saw some classic bard game fun. 
Giant Snakes and Ladders was a big hit with our residents who enjoyed rolling the dice and seeing what Lady Luck had in store for them.

Originally an ancient Indian board game, it was associated with Hindu philosophy and the idea that your destiny was determined for you.

Judging by some of the exclamations that were made when people slipped down the snakes, we are not sure they remained philosophical about the way their luck turned out!

Having told you about our Dignity-Tea for residents as part of Dignity Day, we couldn’t let the occasion pass without posting a couple of photos for you.

Not only was tea delicious with lots to eat and drink but it also gave our residents time to reflect on what Dignity means to them. We encouraged them to tell us and the we put their various ideas on our Dignity Tree.

It was great to see both residents and family members enjoying themselves and it was really interesting to understand the sometimes subtle differences in what dignity can mean to different people. We hope we can take their thoughts and always remember them when delivering our care.

Having a range of activities for our residents to enjoy is a crucial part of what we do at the home. Activities not only stimulate the mind but can also maintain physical movement and agility. 

This week we held an Arts and Crafts session and not only did everyone have fun painting and colouring and making, but it helped people maintain dexterity in their hands and fingers – vitally important as you get older.

What might seem as a simple activity on the surface can have a number of different benefits for residents – and to top it all they are thoroughly enjoyable.

We’ll be celebrating Chinese New Year with a fire-cracker of a menu here at Valleys Care Home with sweet and sour pork on the menu alongside chicken curry, fried rice, prawn crackers, and spring rolls. It all sounds mouth-watering! 

It’s the Year of the Pig and if you were born under the sign of the pig, (in 1971, 1983, 1995, 1947, 1935 or 1959) you’re thought to be happy, easy-going, honest, trusting, educated, sincere and brave. Sounds like it’s going to be a good year!