Beautiful butterflies banish winter blues
Residents at a Wellington care home have been anticipating the joys of warmer weather by creating colourful butterfly-themed artwork to banish any winter blues.
Harriet Burraston, activities co-ordinator at Camelot House and Lodge, said: “All this wet weather we’ve been having has meant we’ve had to postpone some of our outdoor activities, so we’ve been doing butterfly art with our residents as a way of bringing some of the outdoors inside.
“We regularly support our ladies and gents with lots of artistic activities, and the actual process of creating something is much more important than the final product.
“Our aim is to emphasize enjoyment and engagement through a variety of art activities and the butterflies session is a great example of this.
“It’s such a simple activity, using sponges and watercolours, but the results are so colourful and joyful, and butterflies remind us of summer.
“This kind of activity also offers a non-verbal outlet for expression, so is really valuable for residents whose dementia makes speech difficult.
“And for all our residents it was a great session for engaging and sustaining their attention, at the same time as maintaining fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.”
Arts and crafts are part of a busy and varied programme of activities organised by Harriet and her team for the benefit of residents of Camelot House and Lodge.
The home is run by award-winning dementia care provider Camelot Care who also runs other specialist homes in Bridgwater and Yeovil in Somerset, and Holsworthy and Plymouth in Devon.
