two young students with care home resident laughing

Activities Coordinator at Balhousie Luncarty, and tutors from the University of the Highlands and Islands Health and Social Care department, liaised to create intergenerational sessions for students and residents. 

Activities Coordinator, Carla McCorquodale at Balhousie Luncarty, and tutors from the Perth campus of the University of the Highlands and Islands, Kim Paterson and Ann-Marie Wigzell, of the Health and Social Care department, got their heads together to create intergenerational sessions for their students and residents.

Organising for two separate groups of students to visit the Perthshire home, all students visited, initially, one afternoon for an orientation of the home itself and to meet and get to chat to the residents. They then returned a week later to participate in an activity the students, and organisers had discussed and selected together.

The first cohort of students came from the first year Foundation Apprenticeship in Healthcare and Social Services. Arriving on a beautiful day, they took the opportunity to get outdoors with the residents playing ball games together in the magnificent grounds of the care home.

The second cohort were derived from first and second year students, enrolled on the same course in Pitlochry. They engaged residents in a game of bingo. Both activities generated a great sense of fun, but probably the most fulfilling part of the experience, for both students and residents, was to chat and discover more about the world from the other’s perspective. Both students and residents, had a sense of purpose to support the other, as well as feeling useful and valued. Sharing their individual generational, and cultural, experiences was a boost to their self-esteem and mood: certainly this was witnessed in the Luncarty home after the visits.

We love these photos! They bear witness to the mutual enjoyment and enrichment, as well as the ‘thank you’ card and present given by the students at the end of their time with Balhousie.

Thank you to you all too!