Hi,

This is the first time I have used this post but I hope that it is of interest to all. IO have seen laughter therapy at work several times and would highly recommend it to any care home. The therapist does not use jokes or any other funny method to make people laugh but just starts to laugh. The impact is infectious and I have seen even the most straight faced people laugh. There is a method ion the way this is delivered and there are professional laughter therapists about. The idea is world wide and started in India. Many big companies use the therapy for their staff.

I would happily talk this process through with any interested party.

Derek Fisher

Essex

If you are looking for any kind of decorations for a “Themed Event” this company has been recommended to us as having the best selection at the best prices online.

If you click on the banner above or below it will take you to the site.

If you know of any other sites that can benefit others in the “care sector” please let us know and we will publish it on the forum.

We are organising our Burns supper and are going all out as it has been such a dreary winter.  We have highland dancers coming in, a piper and 2 men from the local Masonic Lodge to come in and address the haggis and toast the lassies.  One of our own clients have also volunteered to say the Selkirk grace.  Looking forward to it already.

We now have a great facility to put care homes in touch with entertainers on our Directory of Entertainers.

If you know of any good entertainers please let them know about this site. Or if you have a list of entertainers that you would recommend to others please email it to us and we will contact the entertainers to let them know about this site.

This site is the only directory in the UK where you can go on and hear the entertainers sing and view pictures BEFORE you book them.  We also receive many recommendations from other care homes, meaning that you have better chance of booking a good entertainer from this site.

Please email us info@carestar.co.uk or phone 01475 675 706 with any recommendations of GOOD entertainers that you have used in the past.

Click here to view the directory.

The idea of “At the Races” came about from care homes asking if we did “Race Nights”. When we looked into it we found that when organisations who held a race night normally hired a hall and a company (at great expense) to run the event, but still made a good profit for their funds.

We then came up with the idea that as most places have their own large screen TV’s we could make a complete pack and the organisations could do it themselves. This would not only save money, but more importantly as they are holding it in their own home it would involve the residents and raise funds at the same time!

Recently we have had some great ideas from homes who plan to make an event of this by getting the residents dressed up as if they are going to the races, putting on some nice nibbles etc and having a fun time.

Included in this box set is also a play for fun game where you have fun money and fun betting slips so that you can use it over and over again as a game/activity with your residents.

For more information and prices click here

If you have any other fund raising ideas please share them with everyone!!

Any outing to Perth concert hall in the main Theatre also comes highly recommended and staff are excellent, the disabled seating and access is the best in Scotland and the seats are the best in the house.  Better still the carer gets to go free with those who require a wheelchair escort. With no booking fee and friendly staff it is well worth a visit http://www.horsecross.co.uk

Scott Bamford, Occupational Therapist, Marchglen Care Home, Alloa.

With christmas on its way we got into the spirit by doing a secret Santa all staff and residents put their names in a hat and we all picked a name out, we had to buy a present for that person, wrap in up and put it under the tree. We all had a present on Christmas Eve and it was lovely to see who had what. It might be best if you put a maxium cost of what you buy for your Secret Santa our’s was £5.00

To celebrate the children breaking up from school we had a Sports Day and the residents enjoyed watching us being made a fool of. We did an egg and Spoon race, 3 legged race, Wheelchair rally and lots more. I split the staff and residents into coloured teams and the residents and their relatives cheered on their team. We had a BBQ afterwards and a raffle to raise money for the residents fund. We had such fun and the residents really enjoyed themselves.

My name is Melanie Eastwood and i’m an Activities Co-ordinator at Dorset House in Droitwich.

After Christmas everything seems to feel flat so this year we celebrated Chinese New Year. We had a lovely Chinese Meal complete with fortune Cookies donated by the local Take away shop and they even gave us a few decorations. We made our own paper chains to go round the dining room and even made something called ‘lucky money’ which is a red envelope with a choclate coin which we have at christmas time ( i bought bags in the sale as they were selling them cheap after Christmas). We had Chinese music in the background and made our own chinese dragon that all staff got underneath to parade around. It was so much fun and a few of our staff are from China and get home sick that time of year so they appreicated it.