HC-One Care Homes Collaborate With The Scottish Seabird Centre
HC-One care homes have continued their collaboration and work with the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC), a conservation and education charity based in North Berwick to participate in a wide range of activities and mark key national days including World Ocean Day on Tuesday 8th June and World Seabird Day on Saturday 3rd July, as well as MarineFest, a marine festival, held from 31st May to 13th June.
MarineFest was held by the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) for the first time this year to raise awareness of the diversity and protection of Scotland’s marine environment, wildlife and the pressures facing them.
The Scottish Seabird Centre and HC-One are continuing to work together to bring the outdoor environment into care homes with a set of digital resources to inspire and educate Residents about the marine environment. The aim is that everyone should have access to the marine environment, irrespective of location or circumstance.
HC-One care home Residents have loved participating in sessions and activities provided by the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) as they are big fans of animals and birds. The Residents enjoy participating in anything involving any type of living creature and learning about them, whether big and small, these activities are always popular with Residents.
During the pandemic, HC-One care homes have had to adapt the wellbeing activities provided to Residents and HC-One’s Wellbeing Team were thrilled when they were approach by the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) with an opportunity to collaborate with them in December 2020.
The Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) designed a multimedia pack for Residents in care homes with the aim of bringing the outdoors into the indoors by providing a set of marine digital resources including wildlife videos, seaside stories, podcasts, links to live webcam footage and much more! They also ran a popular competition with the chance for Residents to win an adoption pack. Catmoor House Care Home in Perth won the competition and chose to adopt a puffin who they named George.
Carol Riley, Home Manager of Catmoor House Care Home commented at the time of winning the adoption pack:
“We have been a huffing and a puffing over George our Puffin. We love nothing more than our lovely fluffy munchkin. He brings comfort to our Residents and has sparked interest in what else can we do.”
Following the success of the collaboration, HC-One care homes were offered the opportunity to take part in MarineFest, a marine festival that the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) launched to help protect Scotland’s marine environment. The festival also tied in with World Ocean Day which is marked annually on 8th June.
To mark World Ocean Day, Charlotte Foster, Marine Engagement Officer for the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) hosted a fun quiz and information talk in an online session for HC-One care homes. Through the power of Zoom, Residents were able to discover fascinating facts, view beautiful photos and video footage of some of the UK’s wonderful marine life, hear stories from young people who are making a different for the planet and participate in an online interactive quiz.
A number of HC-One care homes participated in the quiz including Redesdale Court Care Home in North Shields, Victoria Manor Care Home in Edinburgh and Church View Care Home in Caerphilly.
Wellbeing Coordinator, Marie Mills at Church View Care Home in Caerphilly, South Wales, commented:
“We were lucky enough to take part in the Zoom presentation for World Ocean Day. The quiz made my Residents quite competitive as if it was Church View against the world.
“We weren’t sure what to expect, but wow…it totally surpassed any expectations we had! The presentation itself was so clear and concise. The way that session was run was interesting and very engaging!
“The pictures we saw were lovely and the interesting facts that we learnt kept everybody captivated from the start to the finish! One of the Residents who took part in the session, Bill Thomas was so interested that he asked if there was a way going forward for him and his fellow friends to watch animals live. The Scottish Seabird Centre has provided us with links so Bill can enjoy watching wildlife live in the comfort of his own room! We also purchased a brand-new smart TV which further has enhanced People’s wellbeing with weekly Documentary Clubs.
“Our Carer, Lynette Meyrick who was helping with facilitating the session on the day encouraged Residents to participate in a friendly competition on who would get the most answers right in the quiz! It was fun competing against other HC-One care homes who also took part in it. We are very confident we won!
“Also, it didn’t just finish there. The questions spurred conversations, even after we logged off, there were still echoes of ‘well did you know that?’
We cannot wait to participate again!”
