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Red Hot Chilli Pipers rock up Randolph Hill Care Homes

Residents, staff and guests at seven Scottish nursing homes have been treated to highly-charged live performances by Celtic rock band Red Hot Chilli Pipers as part of the celebrations to mark Care Home Open Week.

The outdoor events took place at two sites in Edinburgh, East Lothian and West Lothian, and at a further home in Dunblane, which are all owned and operated by Randolph Hill Nursing Homes Group. The performances are part of a whirlwind two-day tour by the band, covering Randolph Hill’s seven nursing home locations across Scotland to mark Care Home Open Week 2022.

Dubbed ‘the most famous bagpipe band on the planet,’ the Red Hot Chilli Pipers drew international attention after winning the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous in 2007. The Scottish-based outfit now travels the globe playing concert tours as far afield as America, Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia.

Care Home Open Week, which takes place from 27 June to 3 July, aims to connect care homes across the country with their local community. The event provides care homes with the opportunity to showcase their facilities, activities and services. It also puts a focus on career opportunities and encourages communities to support and build connections with their local service throughout the year.

Peter McCormick, Managing Director of Randolph Hill Nursing Homes Group said: “We were delighted to welcome Red Hot Chilli Pipers to play at all of our seven nursing homes. As you might expect, these were highly-spirited performances which our residents, staff, and invited guests thoroughly enjoyed.

“We are really pleased to have the band’s support during Care Home Open Week. It’s an ideal way to mark the occasion, which celebrates the important role of care homes in the communities where they operate.” 

This story was picked up STV News and you can watch a video of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing here.

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Hawkhill House celebrates Happy Carers Week

Hawkhill House in Aberdeen recently celebrated Happy Carers Week, giving their carers a wonderful day of celebration and appreciation for all the hard work that they do. Graffiti wall were set up to show messages of thanks from residents and staff. Hawkhill would like to give a special thanks to their staff who helped in the event. The home cooked foods were amazing and home-baked sweets were delicious! Keep up the good work, Team Hawkhill!

 

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Suncourt House Jubilee Party

Last Friday (2 June 2022), the staff at Suncourt House in Troon held Jubilee celebrations for residents in the home gardens.

Families, friends, staff and their families joined in the fun. All were treated to fabulous food and stunning cakes throughout the afternoon.

A right Royal surprise took place when the ‘queen’ arrived to greet everyone and honour a very special lady, Rhona Gibson – Suncourt Home Manager. Rhona has been awarded the British Empire Medal and will appear on this years honours list, for all the dedicated work carried out for charity.

The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all, made all the better with the sun shining and a merry sing along with a guest singer.

Check out the party below!

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Residents at Cramond Residence celebrates Jubilee

Care home royally treats residents with Jubilee celebrations

Residents at Edinburgh home welcome bumper weekend of celebrations

An Edinburgh care home is celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in style with a jam-packed events calendar – including a visit from a local DJ and themed cocktails.

To mark the occasion, residents at will be treated to a themed party with family, friends and members of the community invited to a grand garden celebration.

The event will see a DJ and singer take to the stage throughout the afternoon, with an abundance of food and drink stalls, themed cocktails, home-baked delicacies and weather permitting, a garden picnic.

In the lead up to the main event, residents have been making Union Jack hand held flags and will enjoy a Jubilee themed quiz coordinated by the home’s dedicated Lifestyle Coordinators. Residents will also be invited to help decorate the home with banners and bunting ahead of the event.

Client Liaison Manager and registered nurse at the 74-bedroom home, Christian Daraio, said: “The majority of our residents can remember exactly where they were when the Queen was coronated 70 years ago in 1953.

“It’ll be a special memory for not just out residents but staff and the wider community which is why we wanted to mark it properly – what better way to raise a toast to the Queen than with a party?

“We strive to make sure that our calendar of activities provides something for everyone, giving our residents endless possibilities to enjoy all the things they want to do on their own terms.”

The celebrations will coincide the launch of Cramond Residence’s Garden room – an area that will allow residents to spend time in the fresh air and surrounding nature whilst also socialising with others.

Christian added: “The garden room will be a great addition to the home’s existing high-end facilities and can be enjoyed by our residents for the first time as part of the celebrations this weekend. Fingers crossed the sun will be shining!”

A tombola and raffle will also take place on the day to raise funds for CHAS and Downs Syndrome Scotland.

Alison Newton, Operations Manager at Cramond Residence, said: “The Jubilee party will consist of a number of family-friendly activities, including face painting, a ‘pin the jewel on the crown’ and even a DJ. On arrival, kids will also receive a Jubilee goody bag.

“We have staff volunteering to come in and help on the day – even though they should be on their days-off – which we’re really grateful for!

“It’s shaping up to be a really great event and we’re delighted to be able to welcome family members and the local community back into the home after socialising was limited for the last two years”.

Established in 2018 at a cost of £8m and spread across three floors, Cramond Residence provides a range of activities specially designed to give residents a richer and more satisfying life, with specialist facilities and trained staff on hand to provide support & relief.

Asides from its tailored activity programme, the home also provides bespoke physiotherapy sessions with boutique experts, as well as specialist dementia care which is delivered in an environment thatcombines luxury hotel living with the reassuring feeling of being in your own home.

Cramond Residence offers high quality care for up to 74 residents offering a small-group living concept in nine houses, with all residents enjoying an exceptional range of amenities and activities, delicious food and bespoke care from a highly-trained team.

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Hawkhill House celebrates Nurses Week 2022

Hawkhill House in Aberdeen celebrated Nurses Week 2022 (6 May – 12 May) in style with staff and residents taking part in many activities! Nurses have gone through a lot of challenges and difficulties in the past couple of years and the staff and residents at Hawkhill House wanted to make them feel special and appreciated on their special week.

As part of their celebrations, they held a festive lunch for all the nurses, residents hand-made Thank You cards, and together they played a game of bingo and online puzzles with the chance to win prizes.  At the end of the event, everyone received a special gift,  this was Hawkhill’s simple way to say thank you and show their gratitude to all their nurses for their continuous hard work and dedication.

Have a look at the pictures below to see everyone having fun and celebrating!

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Aberdeen Schools designs and delivers Christmas Cards to Local Care Homes

Last year Lochside Academy pupils designed and created a personalised Xmas card for each resident in 5 of our Care Homes – this was over 200 cards! We ran this as a competition too and used the winning design as our team e-card sent to providers, partners and colleagues.  Scottish Care also provided a £15 Amazon voucher as a prize to the winner.

This was covered in local media:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/aberdeen-school-spreading-cheer-to-care-home-residents-with-christmas-card-delivery/amp/

This year, for Christmas 2021, we have 7 Care Homes and 2 schools (one secondary and one primary) involved:

  • Laurels Lodge
  • Maryfield West
  • Cowdray Club
  • Torry Care Home
  • Tor na Dee
  • Hawkhill House
  • Eastleigh Nursing Home
  • Lochside Academy (teacher contact:   Corinne Millar)
  • Stoneywood Primary (teacher contact:  Megan Jewers)

325 Christmas cards were designed and created by the pupils and the contact teachers delivered them to the Care Homes 20-22 Dec.  Our winners this year:  £15 Amazon voucher to the winner of the senior school, Mija, S4 Lochside Academy and a £10 book voucher to our Stoneywood Primary winner, Amber, P6/7.

Megan Jewers, Lochside, was delighted to take part again this year saying “I had a lot more teachers keen to get involved this year than I did last year.”  

We look forward to seeing how this initiative grows in the coming years.

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Abbey Court surprises resident with limited band merch

Billy, a resident from Abbey Court, loves the rock band – Status Quo – and was surprised by staff with the gift of their limited edition band merchandise. Brian Murray, the Manager at Abbey Court Care Home, has contacts with someone who knows the band’s manager. Together, they arranged a surprise for Billy to receive a t-shirt, a cd and a signed book.  He was delighted and staff say that he doesn’t want to take his t-shirt off! You can see Billy’s surprise in the video below.

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HRM Homecare and Prince’s Trust joint project

HRM Homecare, one of Scotland’s largest care at home specialists, has joined forces with youth charity the Prince’s Trust in Scotland to set up a new project aimed at encouraging more young people to consider a long-term career in care.

Five young adults aged between 16 and 30 were selected by the Prince’s Trust to spend four weeks training with the Kilmarnock-headquartered company at a range of its locations.

They were given free training on the skillset and qualities needed to be a carer, as well as other roles within a care company – from human resources to quality control.

The trainees – Nickelle Murray, Erin Lang, Lauren McCombe, Kayleigh Mackinlayand Nicola Scott – were recently joined by leaders from HRM Homecare to celebrate their graduation at the Prince’s Trust’s Wolfson Centre in Glasgow, and have also been offered the opportunity to take up a full-time position at the company.

HRM Homecare now hopes to run the project four times a year ­– helping more young people realise the career options that exist in the care at home sector, as well as providing a boost to HRM Homecare itself, which has more than 100 job vacancies it aims to fill after winning new contracts to provide care at home in both Falkirk and Lanarkshire.

“Over the four weeks, Nickelle, Erin, Lauren, Kayleigh and Nicola have learned very quickly what it takes to be a first-class carer, and we are absolutely delighted to offer them the opportunity to join our HRM Homecare family.

“HRM is determined to make a positive contribution in finding the next generation of highly-talented young people and we are delighted to have found an ally in the Prince’s Trust, which does excellent work with young Scots. The care at home sector is not only a huge provider of employment, it is a massive economic driver in Scotland today as our society continues to age. It also offers a wide range of valued and rewarding professions with various routes of progression open to those who are looking for a rewarding, long-term career.

“Through our joint project, we aim to show exactly how care workers can make a difference to those who need and greatly value support in their everyday lives. Not only that, they will be offered the opportunity to join a team at HRM Homecare that is dedicated to providing quality care services to those within our communities who are in need of extra care at home.”

Kate Still, country director for The Prince’s Trust Scotland, said: “We are delighted to have teamed up with HRM Homecare to provide this massive opportunity for Nickelle, Erin, Lauren, Kayleigh and Nicola.

“We have run such projects before with other care organisation and our Glasgow centre supports thousands of young people aged 13 to 30 across the Clyde Valley region and South West Scotland to live, learn and earn. But this project allows our east and west teams to work together to give even more young Scots an opportunity to forge a long-term career in the care at home sector.

“Together with HRM Homecare we can create a whole new generation of care sector workers as well as going a long way to solving the shortage of talent in the profession.”

Caption: From left, Julie Burns, HRM Homecare Training Manager, Nicola Scott, Erin Lang, Lynn Laughland, HRM Homecare Managing Director, Nickelle Murray, Lauren McCombe, Kate Still, Country Director for The Prince’s Trust Scotland, and Kayleigh Mackinlay

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Whitecraigs double act show off a sweet tooth this Halloween

104-year-old Percy, alongside best friend and care nurse, Laura Hagan, have continued their annual tradition of dressing up as famous twosomes for Halloween.

The pair became very close during Percy’s time at Whitecraigs Care Home in Thornliebank and put up some fierce competition as they took on the home’s costume competition together for the fourth year running.

They have continued to wow fellow residents at the Renaissance Care home, as they illustrated the meaning of ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ last year as Toy Story’s trademark Woody and Buzz-Lightyear. The year before, they dressed as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, while they debuted their duo as Mary Poppins and Bert the Chimney-Sweep in 2018.

Every year Percy and Laura put their heads together to come up with a new idea for Halloween costumes which they can do together, managing to keep the final decision a secret from fellow residents and staff members until the big reveal at the annual Halloween party.

This year, they showed a preference to treats over tricks as they donned a matching costume from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Centenarian Percy was the enigmatic Willy Wonka himself, complete with his walking stick as a candy cane, while Laura dressed as an iconic Oompa Loompa.

Laura, Clinical Lead Nurse at Whitecraigs Care Home, said: “Each year, Percy and I keep our famous double act under wraps and aim for costumes to be bigger and better than the last. However, due to the size of our chocolate factory props, it was difficult to keep it a secret this year, but it was still a pleasure seeing the other residents smile and laugh, it’s worth all the effort.”

Percy’s daughter, Doreen, said: “I love that Whitecraigs Care Home have all these events and they all get to participate. Special thanks to Laura who has, for the last four years, dressed up with my dad Percy as a team. It’s great for us as a family to see our Dad enjoying himself and proving that at 104 you can still have fun and we see him enjoying himself.”

Percy, who went viral in 2020 for his TikTok dances, found his friendship with Laura to be the golden ticket to enjoying his retirement at Whitecraigs Care Home.

Pictured: Percy and Laura dressed up as Willy Wonka and an Oompa Loompa

Pictured: Percy with his daughter Doreen