Care home residents meet adorable alpacas
Staff and residents at Barchester’s Mount Vale care home in Northallerton were treated to a virtual tour of J and Alpacas, a family-run alpaca farm in Dry Doddington, Newark.
Residents joined Farm Manager, Jess, live from Newark to get an inside look into the daily care for the 134 alpacas that live on the farm and meet some of the fantastic characters that make up the herd. Residents learned how the alpaca farm was first set up in 2005 with just four alpacas but how addictive keeping alpacas is, and how the herd has grown and gone from strength to strength over the last 20 years.
Jess says: “It was wonderful to be able to show the Barchester residents around the farm here in Newark and to share the work we do. We were so happy to be able to introduce the residents to our wonderful alpacas and talk about how we care for them all.”
Bex Vernon, Resident Experience Coordinator for Barchester Healthcare, commented: “We are excited to work with our amazing partners like JandJ Alpacas to bring a wide range of fantastic experiences into our homes for all to enjoy, particularly as this talk provided such a lovely opportunity to see the alpacas up close and learn all kinds of fascinating facts about them.
“Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active and socially connected, providing a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities,” Bex added.
General Manager, Trudi Gillespie said: “All our residents love animals so we were delighted to be able to go on the virtual tour and find out about the farm, the alpacas are all such characters. We had so many questions, it was brilliant to be able to ask Jess all about the work they do with the herd.”
Mount Vale care home is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering personalised care across its care homes and hospitals. Mount vale provides residential care, nursing care and dementia care for 62 residents from respite care to long term stays.