Residents from Handley House care home in York got a special springtime surprise when some wonderfully woolly visitors popped by.
Ryedale Animal Group brought five one-week-old lambs into the care home to meet the residents, giving them the opportunity to hold, pet and bottle feed them.
Ryedale Animal Group offer animal therapy sessions to residents in care homes. These sessions are known to promote self-esteem, physical activity and happiness.
91-year-old resident, Dorothy Myers, said the lambs brought back old memories of visiting a local farm when she was a child. Dorothy said,
‘It was really nice to see the lambs and be able to feed them. It reminded me of when I was young when we used to visit a farm near Reeth on holiday, and the farmer would take us to see if any lambs had been born.’
Another resident, 88-year-old Kenneth Blackhurst, couldn’t believe his eyes when he opened his bedroom door to find the lambs waiting to greet him. He said, ‘This has made my day!’
Charlie Parker, the Home Manager at Handley House, said,
‘It was such a pleasure to see the lambs from Ryedale Animal Group, and the residents’ faces were a picture! They absolutely loved interacting with the animals – they couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the day.’
The staff and residents at Handley House are inviting their local community to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6th May from 13:00.
With stalls, games, refreshments, a bouncy castle and more, this is a fun-filled family event not to be missed. The coronation will be shown live in Handley House’s plush cinema room.
For more information, please call 01904 221 040, email handley.house@idealcarehomes.co.uk or visit www.idealcarehomes.co.uk.
Handley House, operated by Ideal Carehomes, is a residential and dementia care home, rated ‘GOOD’ by the Care Quality Commission. All bedrooms in the care homes are en-suite, enabling staff to deliver person-centred care in a dignified manner, promoting independence as far as possible. Ideal Carehomes was named the winner of the Large Residential Care category in the Laing Buisson Awards 2022, and a Top 20 Care Home for the fourth time by carehome.co.uk.