St Patrick’s Celebrations & Cheltenham Races

We enjoyed a full week of St. Patricks Day Celebrations with everyone wearing their green and joining in on the fun. Music throughout the week was provided by Shay Callaghan, Rebecca Griffin, John Madigan and Tom Ryan. We are very grateful to them for coming and adding so much to each day. We had some winners for the Cheltenham Races which we watched on the big screen in the foyer followed by music, dancing and light refreshments.

HEALTH CARE CENTRE AWARDS FINALISTS 2014

 We were thrilled after only 1 year in operation to be finalists for the National Health Care Centre Awards this year held in Dublin. We did not win on this occassion but recieving such recognition so early in our service is a great achievement by all involved. The staff and volunteers who attended on the night can be seen below

HEALTH PROMOTION

 ST. CAIMIN’S & SHANNON COMPREHENSIVE TRANSITION YEAR PROJECTS

We are delighted to have both schools engaging with us this month on Wednesdays and Thursdays in Inter Generational Projects. There are 10 mini projects underway in total covering topics such as arts & crafts, computer skills, traditional card games, horticulture and dancing. The focus of having this involvement with our Day Centre is to combat ageism and to provide a platform to pass on tradition and provide life long learning skills to both generations. Showcasing the positive aspects of growing older and also the positive aspects of youth is a beneficial reciprocal process for older persons services and also for community groups

VITAMINS & SUPPLEMENTS

Hillary’s Pharmacy held a session to discuss this aspect of self care that is normally prominent at this time of the year for all of us.

 EXERCISE

FUNDRAISING

A huge thank you to Lucy Meechan (and all who sponsored her) who took part in ‘Run Amuck” earlier this month in Dublin to raise funds for our service.

On March 16th we held the first of our Annual St. Patrick’s Ceili Brunchs in our Day Centre. Thanks to all who came and supported us and to all who volunteered on the day. There was traditional music, dancing, raffles and a full Irish Breakfast enjoyed by all on the day

COMING UP IN APRIL

 CARRIGORAN SPRING FAIR

The Annual Family Day is being held on Sunday April 13th this year. This is always a great day out for all ages and always provides a great variety of activities

This month saw the beginning of our Student Placement Collaboration with the University of Limerick. This involves undergraduate General Nursing Degree Students coming and gaining experience in our Day Centre as part of their degree programme. This is a first for the University and we are delighted to be working with them in such a proactive manner in the training of nursing students and providing them with an opportunity to understand how Day Centres positively impact on peoples lives within their communities.

We celebrated St. Bridgets Day, Valentines Days, The festival of Our Lady of Lourdes and had several Health Promotion segments. We are delighted to announce that we will be opening our services on Mondays from March 31st and look forward to seeing new and familiar faces on that additional day. We welcome volunteers to come join us and also to spread the word in your communities that we now have this 4 day service. We are actively funding raising again this year so all help is appreciated. This can be in the form of supporting events, coming up with fundraising ideas or just spreading the word in your local communities and to family members and neighbors about what is coming up.

We have changed our format slightly for 2014 in that we will now focus on specific areas of interest each week of each month. We propose to focus on health promotion one week, exercise and activity another, baking and arts & crafts another and finally entertainment and music another week. Having reviewed the past 12 months we feel that having a week devoted to these areas of interest will give you more time to get involved and enjoy them for longer periods of time each month.

 HEALTH PROMOTION

COMMUNITY SAFETY

Sergeant Downey came to speak with each of our groups as to how we can be vigilant in our communities and to raise awareness regarding crime prevention.

 PLANNING FOR OUR FUTURE / INFORMED CHOICES

Gwen Bowen, solicitor, came and spoke with us regarding planning for our future. She focus in particular this month around some common concerns regarding Making Wills and Property Succession.

 ENTERTAINMENT

Brian Flynn entertained us once again with great song and guitar playing. We are so appreciative to Brian to make time to come and visit with us as he has done on so many occasions. 

Rebecca Griffin has been with us all this month meeting with each group from our catchment areas. During these sessions she has engaged in chat and song as per what people wanted to hear and join in with. Rebecca has a huge repertoire to choose from and we were delighted to have her with us for the month of February.

Mary & Michael Mullins celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this month and we celebrated several birthdays during February.

Rose King (Fetac Student) worked with us this month and made some beautiful floral arrangement to celebrate Valentines Day

UP COMING IN MARCH

Transition Year students from St. Caimin’s and The Comprehensive Schools in Shannon will be involved in projects here in the Day Centre and we look forward to the enthusiasm this will bring and also for our clients to show case their vast knowledge and skills that can be transferred to our younger generation.

ST. PATRICKS FUN CEILI BREAKFAST

Wear the green and join us for this fun fundraising event being held in our Day Centre on Sunday March 16th, 12 noon to 3pm. Tickets are €15, €7 for children with raffles and fun prizes on the day

 TABLE QUIZ IN SHANNON

On March 27th we will be holding a Table Quiz to fund raise for our Day Services in the OakWood Arms in Shannon at 8pm, Teams of 4, costing €40 per team. All are welcome!!!

1st BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS   

It is difficult to believe that is was 1 year ago this month that we opened our doors to our local areas of Shannon, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Cratloe, Sixmilebridge and Kilkishen. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful clients and their families, volunteers and staff that have made this first year so enjoyable for everyone. The Day Centre Service is going from strength to strength and is proving to be such a needed service in our local communities that we have had to commence a waiting lists system for Wednesdays and Thursdays. A huge effort has gone into fundraising to support keeping this service as vibriant as it is and this will be going ahead with as much vigor and commitment as seen last year. Thank you to all who help us with our fundraising events. We erected a display showing a sample of some of the key events that we celebrated each month last year while also displaying the art, crafts and achievements of the past 12 months for all to enjoy

GRADUATION / ACHIEVEMENTS  DAY

There was a marvellous sense of achievement when clients from each area who had participated in Mobile Phone Tuition, Introduction to IT and Ageing with Confidence Courses received recognition of their achievements this month. We also recognised clients who since started using this service had full attendence

 EXERCISE AND ACTIVITY

A variety of activities including indoor bowls were enjoyed this month. The focus of these are to keep us as activity as possible in a fun way at a level that suits each individual. Outdoor activities using our exercise equipment and walkways were also being enjoyed when weather would allow.

Reminescence

Theresa from the Clare County Library Archives came in to us again with some wonderful newspapers and articles of local interest from times past.

Larry Brennan (Geneologiest) held everyone’s interest with his sessions on ‘Tracing’ and Family Histories.

Community Services

Blue Bird Care came and spoke with us to raise awareness of what services are available to people in our local communities regarding care.

R Crimmins came and spoke with our group as to ‘Living Wills’ and what this entails for those who were interested.

Research and Health Promotion

Joanne Shanahan, MSc Research Student, physiotherapist and dance tutor based in the University of Limerick came and ran our first Set Dancing Session to our group on Tuesday from Shannon. Everyone had great fun and got lots of exercise.

Carrigoran Day Services

 1st Christmas in our day centre

The month of December was filled with celebration and remembrance. We held a ceremony on for each of our catchment areas in which stars were hung on our Christmas tree to remember those of our group that had passed away during the year. This was facilitated by choir groups from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Sixmilebridge and Shannon. A beautiful ‘snow print’ canvas painting was produced involving all our clients thumbprints which Mary Moynihan then completed producing the snow scene below with everyone’s name on it. We had several sessions of music and song with afternoon tea this month. Our magnificent Christmas tree was decorated by clients from their craft classes with help from Eileen Quin and Mary Woods. We also had flower arranging demonstrations with a festive theme.

HEALTH PROMOTION

 MEDITATION — “QUIET TIME FOR ME”

Anne O’Sullivan Fannin facilitated this group each Wednesday of this month and it is proving to be increasingly popular. Feedback from all attending is very positive and we will be continuing with this worth while activity in 2014.

 CITIZENS INFORMATION OUTREACH CLINICS

The Shannon service facilitated information sessions for clients twice this month and answered a number of queries relating to home and entitlement. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them sincerely for their time and expertise over the past year.

 PARKINSONS SET DANCING

Joanne Shanahan, MSc Research Student and dance tutor based in the University of Limerick came to speak to us regarding her classes which will be starting in January 2014. There is huge interest in this activity and Joanne is also a physiotherapist and will be assessing some of our clients while here each Tuesday.

 ACTIVITES DURING DECEMBER

We were delighted to have Brian Flynn and Padraig Cleary back to entertain us again with music and song while we enjoyed afternoon tea from our baking demonstrations. Frances had Christmas themed art classes in preparation for the festive season while Bridget and Lucy provided instruction on how to make floral table arrangements. Lucy has been busy organizing our beautiful arts & crafts made here by clients for sale at the craft fair in Shannon. Ann Frawley kindly loaned us her beautiful knitted crib figures which our crafts group made a crib for and placed in our entrance foyer for all to enjoy

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR OUTDOORS

 ACTIVITIES & HORTICULTURE

 We made the most of our mild weather this October and got outdoors in our heritage garden as much as possible. Some people engaged themselves practicing their putting skills on our green while others took part in some group activities such as horseshoe throwing and ring throwing. Our vegetables are absolutely delicious and we continue to use them in our salads and in our catering department. We planted 125 Hyacinths this month to have them ready for Christmas arrangements

HALLOWEEN CELEBRATIONS

HEALTH PROMOTION

AGEING WITH CONFIDENCE

This course finished for our Wednesday Group this month but we look forward to running it again for our clients on Tuesdays after Christmas

COMPUTER CLASSES

This class started up this month and clients are finding it very useful and informative. We have 13 computers that can be used for this purpose.

MEDITATION

Ann O’Sullivan will be starting this group for our clients on Wednesdays. She held taster sessions and the feedback was very positive to have this introduced. We are extremely grateful to Ann for facilitating this for us. She heard about our Centre at a presentation in Sixmilebridge last month and volunteered to become involved.

LIBRARY ARCHIVES

Teresa from Clare County Library archives came to visit with us again with relevant

clippings, newspapers and books for our clients in attendance. The information she brought with her was of great interest as always. This service has proven to be very

enjoyable since we linked up at the beginning of the year.

POSITIVE AGEING WEEK

Mary facilitated how to make the most of our wardrobes with accessorizing. Bryan Flynn entertained us with music and singing with our clients joining in. Frances held

appropriately themed art classes around the beauty of ageing with grapes maturing into wine. Our volunteers brought us back in time in costume. We facilitated our Tuesday Group to support their local Family Resource Centre Tea Dance. For our other groups we had afternoon tea in our Centre. We had some wonderful baking using organic ingredients. CLDC company ran an information session regarding their community initiative ‘Cuirt’ and Donal Hurley came to speak with us regarding Elder Abuse Awareness. Bridget made some beautiful arrangements using flowers, foliage and berries and demonstrated how our clients could reproduce these at home. We had a wonderfully diverse and enjoyable week

OUR GARDENING CLUB

This project is being enjoyed by all attending the Centre. Ralph Wickam helped us get off the ground with his expertise of how to plant from seed using appropriate technique and equipment to pricking off the young shoots and transplanting. Mary Donnelly is facilitating this club on an ongoing basis. There is huge interest in the progression of these flowers and vegetables and you can see below how successful this planting and care has been. There is a wide variety of herbs in our horticultural area and these are being used in our arts and crafts as well as cooking.

Bridget Liddy demonstrated how to made beautiful little Lavender bags using herbs from our garden at the centre and these were reproduced by our clients and taken home for themselves or gifts for family members

 OUTDOOR EXERCISE & ACTIVITY

Getting out for walks to enjoy the gardens and have some fun from the amenities on the grounds was a great source of enjoyment this month.

The men from Cratloe & Sixmilebridge  just about managed to fit around our Cedar of Lebanon Tree and one of our gazebo’s is fast becoming a spot for outdoor relaxation and chat

HEALTH PROMOTION

 CPR IN OUR COMMUNITY

Mary Woods facilitated these sessions which were extremely informative for our clients and volunteers as to what to do should they encounter such an emergency in their communities. Its focus was on hands only CPR and how to make our community a safer place by learning a life saving skill

 MOBILE PHONE TUITION

Maureen Mangan is currently facilitating a mobile phone tuition course lasting 6 weeks for our clients from Shannon. This covers all aspects of mobile phone use

 PAST & PRESENT ON OUR DOORSTEP

Eddie Connors from Imeco Farm came to speak to us about his facility in Clarecastle. They have many artefacts from farming and daily live from the past and innovation for our future. This discussion provoked lost of reminiscing of past traditions and thought for the future of an ecological way of life

 COMMUNITY CARE SUPPORT

Aodhnaid Lennon of Home Instead came to speak to us regarding their excellent home care services in our local community and the importance of maintaining independence at home. Their comprehensive publication of a Support Directory was distributed to all in attendance

 ARTS & DRAMA

Marie McNamara provided a wonderful session on how expression through arts and drama can facilitate creativity, imagination, insight and growth. Wearing different hats and reminiscing was just one aspect of the session which was very well received and enjoyed

GAMES / ACTIVITIES

Solitary and group activities were ongoing all month. Walks in the garden were as popular as ever 

 COUNTY SHOW SUCCESS

We were delighted with our successes at the Country Show in Ennis this year as it was our first time participating. We entered items from our Centre under lots of different categories such as arts, crafts, baking, flower arranging and horticulture. This highlights the range of activities that are on going in the Day Centre but also the high standard of talent of those attending. In all we received a 1st prize for needle point, 4 2nd prizes, 2 3rd prizes and a highly recommended prize for our pottery

SPORTS ACTIVITIES

Indoor Hockey, Curling, Bowls and Stretch Exercise were just some of the activities enjoyed during our health promotion mornning sessions this month. Thanks to all our Volunteers for helping and participating in all aspects of our service weekly.

FUN AND GAMES

Quizes and puzzles were a popular feature this month as were strawberriews & cream for the games from Wimbledon on our big screen and hand massage treatments

HEALTH PROMOTION

Hillary’s pharmacy provided information to clients regarding Blood Pressure medications with a questions & answers session afterwards and an informaiton sheet to use as reference

Shannon Citizens Information Centre held another outreach clinic for clients from the Shannon area this month. This session has proven to be a very valuable service to clients to access informaiton about services and entitlements

Falls Management sessions were held this month with our nurse manager regarding safety in the home, empowerment through prevention and discussion around some of the factors that contribute to falls. All clients received an information booklet to use as reference at home

COMMUNITY SAFETY

Garda P Clancy facilitated a Seniors Community Safety informaiton piece for Newmarket-on-Fergus clients. We will be following this up in the coming months with sessions from Garda Joe Downey, Crime Prevention Officer

ARTS & CRAFTS

Bridget, Frances and Eileen were on hand to support and facilitate a variety of arts and crafts from painting, to flower arranging, to cup cake decorating and flower crafts    

ENTERTAINMENT

Arleene and Ann O’Sullivan with the Mullins Sisters provided us with fantasic traditional music and dance

BIRTHDAYS & BAKING

Beautiful treats of all varieties (thanks to May Woods and Mary Russell) once again for our evening teas and birthdays. Best wishes to all 10 clients who celebrated their birthdays this month